Archive – Page 6 – Dystonia and Me

Archive, August 2021

Adapt, Rethink, Go

Posted on August 22, 2021 by dystoniaandme

We recently had to return the power wheelchair we had on hire. It had been with us for the best part of a year and had quickly become a very integral part of daily life. It reduced my pain, dislocation frequency and enabled me to get out and about everyday. It was freeing. We’d hoped by the time it had to be returned that I’d have been seen by the local wheelchair service for an assessment as currently I dislocate my fingers while trying to push my manuel chair. However it’s a long waiting list and an appointment date is still a while a way.

In the meantime I’m reassessing how much activity I can do and what I do each day. My head deffinently believes I’m more capable than what my body thinks I am able to do. A lot of this week has been spent resting and trying to find a happy medium. However I’m also currently on week three of my period and I know that when I have extended bleeds I generally feel rubbish and my joints and muscles seem to be worse in general.

I’ve started introducing sleep hygiene into my night routine to help improve the quality of my sleep and to see if it improves how rested I feel. I’m trying to have no screens for an hour or two before bed. Instead I’m reading and crocheting. This has also given my mental health a little boost as well which is positive.

I’ve had a gyny appointment come through for the end of September, so not long to go now. Hopefully this one won’t get cancelled.

Archive, August 2021

Freedom; Are The Disabled Included?

Posted on August 11, 2021 by dystoniaandme

We recently were fortunate enough to spend a chunk of time down south visiting my mum. It was a lovely break away from routine, and the kids were over the moon to get to have a ‘extra long sleepover’ with their Granny. If it weren’t for the newly added hand sanitizers that appeared on every corner one could almost forget about the pandemic for a moment.

On our way home we chose to pull in at a service station to let the kids stretch their legs after hitting the que of another incident. The kids dad took them off to the toilets whilst I popped into the shop. I only needed a couple of items, and instantly looked for a basket as one hand is strapped up at the moment due to scaphoid fracture. There were none.

It may sound dramatic to say that I started to feel anxious at this point but it’s true. I can’t hold things in my fractured hand and my other is occupied with my trusty walking stick. In the end I resorted to cradling the items in the crook of my elbow. I dropped them repeatedly. The staff noticed from behind the counter and did nothing other than stare. Other customers, who were incredibly kind, helped me gather up my shopping as I shuffled about, hunted for a basket and confirmed that due to Covid they’d been taken away.

Eventually, feeling really rather embarrassed at my inability to hold a couple of items, I approached the staff at the tills. When I queried the lack of baskets, I was met with a shrug and a murmured grumble about Covid. I asked about how they expected their disabled customers to cope, after all they had watched me struggle and drop my items several times. In reply he simply offered to scan my shopping and bag it for me, let me pay, then he would watch it so I was free to carry on shopping. It was crystal clear that they had not faced with this situation so far.

Numerous charities and research groups have been saying this through out the pandemic; the disabled community are being left behind. Article after article has stated how disabled people have reported feeling overlooked, forgotten, isolated, ignored. Just today there was a piece on how two York Councillors were not allowed to vote on accessible parking in their area as by being disabled they had a prejudice – madness!

Freedom day has come and gone, yet now things have reopened I’ve found that actually I’m running into more restrictions that affect my disability than prepandemic – for example in the same service station they wouldn’t open up the disabled toilets as they didn’t have a designated staff member free to monitor them. They had a member of staff a few feet away though in the ladies directing women into cubicles.

While it may sound like I’m riled up about not very much it’s not something im going to let slide. I don’t by any means think that the staff in the shop should have magically have transfigured a chocolate bar into a basket but they could have offered a bag for me to go around with or to have walked alongside me and helped. Either way I would have been and out in less than half the time if if id just had a little bit of aid. Which is something I’ll put in my letter when I write to them later this week.

Archive, July 2021

Botox Side Effects – facial drooping

Posted on July 19, 2021 by dystoniaandme

Botox for me is life changing. Without it I would be hospitalised on an NG tube, unable to talk, swallow, eat, or drink. I’ve ended up in that exact situation previously. It’s unpleasant to say the least. I’m fortunate enough to receive Botox from my neurologist every twelve weeks and then a top up at the six week mark in the cycle from my maxofacial team to keep my jaw going.

I am extremely fortunate to experience very little in the way of side effects. Generally speaking I get ‘botox flu’ for a few days after and a flare in my complex regional pain Syndrome symptoms in my arm. This time though my mouth has been weakened slightly by the Botox. It’s not physically painful in anyway at all, it simply means the corners of my mouth are dropping.

At first I didn’t notice it to much, then I was hyper aware. I found myself wanting to be in pictures as little as possible as I knew I’d fixate on the turned down corners of my mouth despite the focused effort to smile. I was finding myself deleting photos of myself and the kids, myself on days out etc, over something as ridiculous as an altered smile.

It’s not as obvious in both photos above, but the fact I’ve kept these picture is a big step forward. I started to think about the example I was setting my children. It was not a healthy one. I do not want them to grow up thinking that we should scrutinize photos for imperfections. Photos have always been for us a treasure trove of memories, to help remind us of the many memories we have made together. Both my kids love getting our photo albums out to look at and this something I hope long continues.

My altered smile, is not permanent, however it is a reminder that I am one of the lucky ones who receives treatment and responds to it. That is something to celebrate not to fixate on. Whether it stays droopy or returns to normal I’ll keep snapping photos of our days out making memories. After all it wasn’t long ago I thought Dystonia meant the life I have now would be impossible. Forever thankful for Botox injections and medication.

Archive, July 2021

Acceptable Collaterable Damage for Freedom Day

Posted on July 7, 2021 by dystoniaandme

With Freedom Day ear marked for July 19th and the majority of restrictions being casually tossed away one would have thought we were turning a corner where the public as a whole could breath a sigh of a relief. But with herd immunity being discussed again, talks of case numbers reaching 100,000 daily, it has to be asked are we offering up our disabled, our elderly and our unvaccinated under 18s as collateral?! Its worth remembering that six in ten people who have died of covid in the UK were disabled. The disabled community have been hard hit throughout this pandemic and failed by our government.

As a household two of us were classed as clinically extremely vulnerable and had to shield, perhaps it’s unsurprising that I’m not celebrating freedom day. I am double jabbed and have a degree of protection, but my four year old son who also had to shield, whose school seems to constantly have new cases, he has no protection from a vaccine yet the government suggest classes will no longer have to isolate?! Madness!

The term Freedom Day keeps being tossed around but what freedom is there truly when there is also talks of introducing shielding again for the clinically vulnerable this winter. I’ve spent 14 months shielding already. I understand why people are clammering for to get their normality back, yet surly little and gradual is better than throwing fuel on the fire?

We know so little about Covid-19 and indeed long covid. Can our primary school children/younger generation develop long covid? How will this impact in the long term?

Personally for me I’ll still be wearing a mask in crowded areas/public indoor areas, and keeps a distance from other people. I know people will think I’m over reacting however this is what I believe is best for my family and myself and until covid cases etc are much lower or a vaccine is introduced for children I feel it’s necessary.

Archive, July 2021

Injection Day and referral thoughts

Posted on July 6, 2021 by dystoniaandme

Picture of Rebecca wearing a facemask and holding a takeaway coffee cup sitting in a hospital waiting room waiting for an appointment. Wearing a brown cardigan, black white spotty top, blue disposal facemask, — Waiting to see my neurologist

Today was botox day up in London with my lovely neurologist. He’s happy that the medication we started on a few months back is keeping me far more stable, which is amazing, so we are keeping that in my treatment plan. I’m currently on a medium dose so we have room to play with should we need to come winter when I typically go down hill due to the cold.

I’ve finally gotten the date for my video fleursoscopy which is the middle of next week. I’m a little nervous but it will be good to shed some light on what’s been going on internally and if there is anything specific that we can do/change to tackle it. This is to tackle the chronic aspiration.

Then it’s on to blood tests. Whilst I don’t mind these particularly, my veins are world class players at hide and seek. No matter how much I drink before hand they like to hide or better yet collapse. I often leave blood tests looking somewhat like a pin cushion. These are being done just to double check there’s nothing being missed and causing any issues whilst we wait for Gyny to see me. They were meant to see me almost a year ago. However they keep rearranging and cancelling my appointments, which my lovely GP is chasing. In the meantime I’m left with regular pain flares that leave me doubled up in pain.

I’m hoping now that more people are vaccinated that appointments/refferals may start going back to normal. Specially orthotics is one appointment I’m looking forward to, my knees and wrists need new splints. It’s not an urgent appointment in anyway but it would make day to day life a bit easier and reduce pain a little more.

In the meantime I’m ticking along. I’m looking forward to the schools breaking up and making the most of the summer holidays before my eldest starts primary school full time.

This made me laugh a lot. Credit to Theraspecs

Archive, March 2021

Back from Break; Update

Posted on March 17, 2021 by dystoniaandme

It’s been a few weeks since my last post, as some of you will know from my Facebook page I took time away whilst my son had a major surgery. Now things are settling again the posting schedule will be returning to normal.

So what’s been happening? My neurologist and I have been trialing different medications over the last three months to try and improve my quality of life, bring my pain levels down and reduce the number of Jaw Operations I have. We tried a number of different ones before landing on trihexyphenidyl. This medicine has been life changing. It’s drastically reduced the constant jaw spasms, and whilst they are still there the severity is reduced and manageable. We’re still playing around with the dosage to see how much further we can control my spasms. It’s been amazing.

I’m still waiting for a Barrium Swallow test to confirm my chronic Aspiration and give the dietician an idea of what thickness fluids need to be to help stop this. In the meantime the speech and language therapist is checking in regularly to ensure I’m doing ok.

Currently I’m waiting to see my Gastro Dr as my GI symptoms have returned. It’s extremely painful to eat or drink anything heavier than a cup of tea. I’m pretty much living off sugary tea in the meantime to get by.

On a more positive note I’ve just signed a three ebook deal for my young adult fantasy series which is very exciting. I feel very fortunate that this is something I can do from home while the children are asleep, as given the severity of all my conditions on my body a typical job is out of the question.

Finally I want to say thank you for the support I’ve received over the last few weeks. It’s been extremely touching. Now that this post is up and you are all caught up I’ll be back to posting my usual blogs from tomorrow.

Archive, COVID-19, february 2021

The Positive To Lockdown With Chronic Illness

Posted on February 20, 2021 by dystoniaandme

Whilst the multiple national lockdowns have come with there fair share of complications, for example cancelled treatments, the stay at home message has been a blessing in disguise for me. My body has been going through a decline/more frequent dislocations lately, which is less than an ideal. Now prepandemic I would have ignored my bodies pain signals, and ploughed through the day. A bad cycle, and habit that I had formed. Only collapsing in the evening, spoonless, in pain and annoyed at myself. Lockdown has relieved the social pressure to attended multiple groups a week, and be on the go all the time. For my particular lot of chronic illnesses it’s meant I have rested when I have needed to. I’ve had the opportunity to relearn my bodies distress signals.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not literally doing the above meme, though it has its appeals. But it has removed the guilt I felt on slow mornings when we watched a Disney film and had a slow start to the day, rather than rushing about. I still finish the day with no spoons. That is just life with chronic illnesses. However I rarely exhaust myself to the point that I have impacted the next day, which prelockdown was a frequent occurance.

Post-lockdown this is something I need to remember; that it is perfectly fine to acknowledge if my body is saying no not today. We can watch films, craft and bake in the house instead and have a lovely day. Just being kind to my body more often will allow more days out and in the long run that’s what works.

Archive, COVID-19, february 2021

Covid-19 Vaccine with Chronic Conditions

Posted on February 13, 2021 by dystoniaandme

Covid-19 Vaccines have been rolling out for several weeks now. I am fortunate enough to have had my first vaccine, Pfizer, administered last Saturday. The uptake the vaccines for Covid-19 has been fantastic to see. However I am aware from the questions that have popped up on my facebook page, and private messages that there some concerns out there on how safe these injections are for people with chronic health conditions. A worry I completely understand. I have a history of anaphylaxis myself to certain foods, and a have had psychotic reaction to two different medications previously, it has left me very wary of trying any medication that I’ve not previously had. But I’d much rather trust in the figures that say its going to be ok, than risk catching Covid-19. I’ve put together information gathered from a few of the charities/societies that this represent the conditions this blog covers, in the hope that it will provide those of you who want some information with what you need, and reliable resources to turn to (all the sections are hyperlinked so you can link through to them).

Covid-19 Vaccines| Dystonia UK

Dystonia UK put the safety of the vaccinations to their three medical advisors, all three agreed that it was safe for Dystonia patients to receive (including those receiving botox injections). It was suggested that if you have not already heard from your dr/gp in regards to your vaccination appointment and your breathing is affected by your Dystonia then it may be worth chasing this up.

Covid-19 Vaccines| Ehlers-Danlos Society

For those with Ehlers-Danlos who are wanting to talk to their Dr I recommend going to the Ehlers-Danlos Society website where there is a link for advice for clinicians on the matter. The site currently states that they are note aware of any studies that have specifically examined EDS or HSD with covid-19 injections. However those who have chronic conditions that could be made worse if they were to develop covid (including potentially Long Covid) the benefits of protection from the vaccine outweighs the risks associated with the infection on vaccination side effects.

Covid-19| PoTSUK

For those of you with PoTs/Autonomic Dysfunction/MCAS who are specifically interested in the vaccines ingrediants list then click here. This will take you to the PoTS UK page dedicated to information on Covid-19 vaccine info, where you can find a full ingrediants list for both the Pfizer and Oxford injection.

The recommendation that PoTS UK are giving so far is that for PoTs patients, if your condition is uncomplicated then it is not a contraindication for the vaccine. If you have MCAS and experience very severe allergies, you need to discuss whether you are suitable for the vaccine with your allergy specialist.

Further information can be found on the link given above.

Personal Experience

I had my Pfizer vaccine jab 7 days ago. I was invited to book after being deemed extremely clinically vulnerable throughout the pandemic. The set up was simple, our local rugby stadium has been converted into a vaccination centre. Volunteers split us up as people arrived, those who were there via the mass vaccination scheme to one room, those for the GPs vaccination, like myself, into another. After confirming who I was, and being given some literature to read through on the jab for afterwards, it was done. Personally found it less painful than the flu jab, and far less painful than botox injections! It was then off for a 15 min sit in a chair to ensure that there were no unwanted side effects before being allowed to leave.

Side effects wise they have not been to bad, my arm has been a bit achy and I felt very low energy for maybe 36 hours. Quite similar, but not as bad, as to how I react to the flu jab. The provided information leaflet, did warn that the second jab could provide slightly more side effects, however I’ll take a couple days side effects any day in exchange for proctection.

Overall nothing to be concerned about. Relatively quick, very easy, fairly painless.

Archive, february 2021

Cancard UK; Fantastic leap for Chronic Conditions in 2021

Posted on February 6, 2021 by dystoniaandme

What is Cancard UK?

The Cancard UK is a fantastic leap forwards for pain patients and people with qualifying* chronic conditions in the UK. Essentially it is a card issued by Cancard LTD to its membership that provides evidence to the Police that the holder has a qualifying medical condition for which medical cannabis may be prescribed. This card indicates to the the police that the holder is therefore in possession of cannabis for medical reasons and that that they should confident in using discretion when they encounter a Cancard holder providing they are in possession of small quantities.

*You can find a list of qualifying conditions of their site, upon application you be asked to either provide a summary of care or have your GP sign to prove that you meet application criteria.

Why is the Cancard necessary?

Currently there is a short list of qualifying conditions for that entitle you to a private prescription of cannabis in the UK. However these are extremely expensive; An initial appointment* costs around £150, a follow up appointment which is required every couple of month £65, each prescription at least £30 per month. *Pricing examples taken from The Medical Cannabis Clinics.

For most people these prices are just not affordable, especially not long term. However it is known, and more evidence is coming out in support of this, that for certain conditions cannabis can provide significant relief, reduce pain, and help manage symptoms.

Does this make it legal?

No the law has not changed, however all police forces in the UK have been briefed on the the card. It has been co-designed and is backed by senior members of the police force, and guidance has been issued by them stressing that officers should feel confident in using their discretion in cases of possession when the holder is also in possession of a Cancard. It does, however, prove that you are legally entitled to a cannabis prescription which is a huge step forwards.

Cancard UK

If you are interested and want to know more I would highly recommend spending some time on their website and also on their social media. Not only can you apply for the card through the site which is an easy process, but it is also full of great resources such guides to self medication, how to handle being stopped by the police, the different components in cannabis and how each one affects different conditions such as epilepsy, spasms, pain etc. The Cancard UK is a great tool to utilise as well, one of the most recent videos was a tutorial demonstrating how to make it into a oil, which for those who prefer not to smoke is a very handy guide.

Next Steps

Currently the card does not cover growing your own plant at home, and pharmacies are still not selling to card holders. However, they are working on expanding so that growing is covered and therefore reduces the risks taken by the user.