Symptoms Update

 Hi,

Just a brief post today. In the last week or two I had an on-line appointment with a neuro-physio (following from the discussion I had about this with the National last year). We went through the majority of my stretches, and I'm pleased to say that these are all pretty much in line with what I need to do, and I'm maintaining a good range of movement in my joints.

There are two variations I need to make - for my calf stretches I need to keep my body more upright, and I need to try and introduce more calf stretches during the day. Essentially, when I was doing two sets of stretches a day that was better, but out of them all the calf ones are most relevant. These are most relevant because I default to walking around the house on my toes rather than getting my heels down.

I was encouraged to keep up with my cycling and other activities so that I maintain my cardiovascular health. We discussed baclofen, and the decision is that I dont need this yet. This decision gets reviewed as I find things becoming more difficult.

In other symptoms, I feel I'm suffering a bit from fatigue more at the moment. I think this isnt entirely an HSP thing though. On the HSP front I'm needing to go to the toilet more in the night which disrupts my sleep more. On the non-HSP front, amongst other things, I'm busy with the combination of working, being a parent, chairing the HSP support group, trying to keep healthy, and attempting to squeeze some fun activities in as well. Time to relax seems hard to find.

Update: 22nd June - I also wanted to note that generally speaking my left shoe has been wearing out quicker than my right shoe, which could suggest that my left leg muscles are tighter than my right leg muscles. Whilst the evidence suggests that is true for walking, it is not true in all cases. For example, when I am in the shower, I find it easier to clean the bottom of my left foot than the bottom of my right foot, suggesting the opposite - right leg muscles are tighter than left leg muscles. 

My conclusion is that the more spastic muscles in my left leg are just different from the more spastic muscles in my right leg. I'll keep an eye out for change over time and spot any other left-right differences - e.g. seeing if it is more easy/difficult getting on/off the other side of my bike, or favouring a certain leg first going up/down stairs.

I have now also re-started a short set of evening stretches, just a few for 5 mins. Seems that I prefer the routine rather than the ad-hoc when it comes to stretching.