Today was slightly better than yesterday, but still really rough. I spent all day in the 8+ range. I don't recall having this long a stretch at this high a pain level. A friend of mine recently suggested that maybe I should chart my pain levels a few times a day to see if I discern a pattern. A good idea, and one that appeals to my inner spreadsheet wonk. (If I ever quit my day job, I may start a lecture series called, "Unleash Your Inner Spreadsheet Wonk." Should be wildly popular, right?) I didn't want to go to PT, but I knew we were starting mirror therapy, and my curiosity got the best of me.
I read about mirror therapy before I started PT, and they've teased me with claims of starting it a few times, but today we actually began in earnest. It started with a baseline test, which I completed on the PT's cell phone using an app designed for that purpose. Technology is awesome sometimes. The app flashed various pictures of feet and I had five seconds to press the button for "left" or "right". This is not as easy as you would think. The pictures showed feet at various angles and positions, sometimes as a reverse image. While it took me longer than I expected, I scored 100% on the right foot photos and 88% on the left foot photos. Enough to get me a scholarship into any good foot photo guessing college program, I think.
Then we started the therapy. I sat on a PT table with my legs dangling and they rolled over a full-length mirror. I straddled the mirror with it facing my left side and leaned forward so I couldn't see my right leg/foot at all, but I could see my left leg/foot in the mirror. For the next ten minutes, I did various exercises with my left foot while watching it in the mirror.
Try it sometime. Sure, I could feel my right foot. After all, the pain was still at "screaming like a banshee" level. But my left foot was doing a reasonably good impression of a right foot and it was a very strange experience. I will continue to do it for ten minute increments at each PT session and they will re-test my recognition skills periodically on the assumption that my recognition scores will go down. Guess I'd better apply for that scholarship now.
Mirror therapy was developed for RSD, but my PT told me it is beginning to be used for stroke victims as well. As I understand it, your brain has "mirror" neurons that can be used to re-map nerve paths. (As always, my apologies to any medical professionals reading this.) So in my case, the nerves on my left side can be trained (at least theoretically) to take over for the malfunctioning nerves on my right side. They haven't told me what plan C will be if the the nerves on the left side malfunction, and I'm not sure I want to know. In any event, this is highly interesting as an intellectual exercise and I hope it works.
My PT opined that my pain increase over the last day or so is a result of the change in barometric pressure. While the temperature has been constant over the last few days, some sort of front came in that has caused fog each morning and a huge increase in humidity. Coincidentally, I read an interesting article a few days ago about weather changes and strokes. http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_289563/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=VvPwn0cZ
The human body is very strange. I am hopeful this therapy will work. Otherwise, I am going to start looking into a move to a place with no temperature or barometric changes. Any ideas?
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