Tag: situation

Posted in Archive, October

Last nights Dystonia antics

Posted on by dystoniaandme

I have never been a flexible person. The only part of my body that is flexible is my arms and wrists. However last night the little dystonia alien decided to show me just what it could make my body do. For a few hours before my dinner, my leg had been playing up a bit, my foot was bent and was dragging behind me. However during dinner it seemed to calm down and I relaxed. When I tried to get up from the table and hop to the living room, with my mum helping me, the dystonia alien decided to wake up. Before I could brace myself, my leg went into a spasm, sliding itself backwards. My stepbrother fetched a chair for me to sit on, so that I didn’t fall down. Yet my leg kept going backwards. Within minutes I had no choice, I had to either try to slide myself off the chair and onto the floor or have the spasm cause me to fall onto the floor. By the time I was on the floor, I was literally doing the splits. Despite being in agony, I had to laugh, I am not flexible, yet here I was on the floor in spasm doing the splits.

Eventually the spasm eased off and with the help of my Grandmother and my Mum, I got up off the dining room floor, and tried to hobble through to the living room. However the dystonia alien had not finished playing games. My right leg and foot shot behind my left leg. To those around me, it must have looked like I was curtsying. Yet again I ended up on the dining room, the spasm had pulled my leg as far as it could go. Again I ended up laughing. I am not sure whether I laughed because of the situation or if I laughed in exasperation, perhaps it was a bit of both. It took a fair length of time for the spasm to ease off.

I still cannot get over how far my dystonia pulled my leg and foot last night! The spasms in my leg and foot have always been pretty extreme and odd to look at, but last night was ridiculous. I now wish I had gotten someone to take a picture/video the spasm so I could show the specialist, I shall remember to ask someone to do so next time. Despite last nights spasms being so extreme, I feel rather positive today! I surprised myself at how well I coped with the pain of the spasms last night, especially with them being so extreme. I feel that with each spasm the dystonia alien throws at me, I gain more confidence, as I know that I can deal with my spasms fairly well.

Posted in September

Laughter is the best medicine!

Posted on by dystoniaandme

Having Dystonia means that no day will be the same as any other. Some days may be a good day and others are not so good. This is a fact I have readily accepted. However what I was not prepared for was the spasms that would give everyone around me a shock yet provide amusement simultaneously.

The other day I went to put a knife away and all of a sudden the little dystonia alien decided to act up. Before anyone could help me, the spasm had caused the knife to be flung out of hand, clattering on the ground at the other side of the room. This incident could be one to fear, knife throwing after all is rather dangerous, however all of us could not help ourselves, we all burst into laughter. It was such a random and sudden incident that was shocking yet amusing. Then the next day when my body decided to spasm I sent a plastic cup full of juice flying across the room, making a mess of myself and the floor, but again none of us could help ourselves we had to laugh.

The way I see it is that you have to very clear cut options with dystonia, you can either be angry and become reclusive and isolate yourself so as to avoid potentially embarrassing situations or you can accept that this is what your body is doing, accept the fact you will have good and bad days, yet be able to laugh at the situation, find the positive side to life. After all it is widely known that laughter is the best medicine.