heathber

It doesn't really get easier but you do get better at managing it and recognising when something needs to go back to top of the list.  Live and learn does apply to this stuff. I think I'm better at remembering what helped last time and adding it back into the routine, at least for the length of the current "crisis".

Hang in there

Yes when the "best" muscles for a job aren't fully functional all their friends try to help, and then they exhaust themselves, and you end up aching "all over" from a "simple little walk".

That does seem to be how it works. It's why I see the Neuro physio for a work over once a month. And boy do I recognise that tense neck. It also gets into the muscles around your lower rib cage that are also working harder to stabilise you when walking, that's were most of my hip pain originates.

Yin yoga is a great help with the neck, back and hip pain. unlike Hatha yoga that everyone knows it is a release style rather than active, long slow poses, so using blocks, bolsters, straps and whatever else helps to get into a position where gravity works with you and the muscles and joints "relax"as you breath through the sensations it brings up, it can be pretty intense sometimes but I find it a great help.

It depends Mark, if the shoulder fully dislocates it hurts like hell, but at this stage at just aches a bit if ignored, and because the joint is loose you have less range of motion and strength. Also things can get caught in the gap and compressed (e.g. nerves and muscle tissue) which damages them (bruises) and then that hurts too.  If you do nothing the weight of the arm will pull the gap wider and overstetch the muscles that should be holding it together and helping you to move your arm.

Tracy maybe setup on Etsy and see if there is a market for your stuff?

muscle contracture is very common after stroke because that is the "safety" position of muscles with bad nerve connection.  I see my neuro physio regularly mostly so that he can release the muscles that have gone into protection mode. It's important to keep stretching so that muscles do not actually shorten. Even with the work of the neuro physio I ended up having muscle lengthening surgery to left quad and calf.

Hi Kev, I was a Scuba addict. Wreck/Tech diver qualified to 55m and working on my trimix certification for 60m+, when I had the stroke. So I wasn't going to give up easily. I stroked after a bend, diving WWII wrecks in Scapa Flow (Scotland). Stroke was triggered by physical exertion not the bend. But it meant post stroke investigation was about why the bend as well as why the stroke. turned out I have a high tendency to pleuro shunt, which allows return of unfiltered venous blood to the heart and hence N2 bubbles into the brain. adding that to existing stroke brain damage is a recipe for disaster even though physically I can manage the diving.  There's a great group called Disabled Divers Association who helped me get my skills back in the pool.  Hence my suggestion to Will that he look at adaptions for skiing.

yep I had that talk with the heart Doc about my scuba diving after the stroke.  I did go back to diving a little bit, but once we understood more about my physiological issues, I decided it was too much of a risk and let it go. but not before I'd done enough to prove to myself that I could if I wanted to.

stairs can suck but they are worth persevering with.

Brilliant!

I used a harness like that on a treadmill at one point. doesn't matter how we get there so long as we do.

Will sometimes we need to find a different way to do things. These sit down ski options look amazing fun https://www.brasski.org/sit-down-skiing.html#.XduADdVxV9M

worth finding out about anyway.

Kev I'm so glad you got back in the saddle.  Keep working on the left leg, it may yet decide to be helpful.  The less bracing you can use the quicker it will be at trying to be useful. But you need to balance function with safety.  Bracing will hold the leg still and out of the way but it also prevents the muscles from working, remember the more you use a brace the more dependent on it you become.