If it ain’t broke don’t fix it

While this phrase has certainly evolved into a down home cliché about sufficiency I personally have found that it does not translate well into advocacy in the care facility era.

Joint contractures are a good example of this challenge. Contractures are a preventable source of excessive disability but this is Multiple Sclerosis and muscles act weird, dysfunction begats dysfunction. Believe me not everyone, including myself, is on the same page for a boatload of reasons.  

Sometimes advocating is about trying to prevent things from worsening.

Sooooo it ‘ain’t been broke’ in so long I got curious and dropping by early to pick Patti up I found her in physical therapy room, strangely laughing while doing her assisted knee contracture exercise instead of cursing and swearing her traditional therapy language. Therapist shared her ‘numbers’ reflecting Patti’s improvement as I shared my anecdotal evidence that I could not even remember the last time she did not extend her legs when I transferred her.

In talking we discovered my own health issues had apparently played a beneficial though unintentional role. Just before my lung cancer surgery the time of day for Patti to wear her braces was changed to early evening. Laying in bed Patti was unable to tinker with braces making then ineffective as pictured to the left. So evening LPN’s began applying braces around 7 PM and removing each night at 11 PM when overnight shift arrived. Unencumbered overnight sleep was as important as the 'low-load, long duration stretch'.

Prior to my lung cancer surgery I would often return Patti later than earlier and was working on my average of 3-4 outings per week. The problem was that by doing so I was short changing the duration of ‘low-load, long-duration stretch’. When our daughter stepped in during my recovery from surgery to pick Patti up and bring her home for visits she improved two critical things. She reduced the outing equation to 3 and since she does not physically transfer Patti herself learned from staff that they usually transfer Patti to bed after dinner approximately 6:30 PM. A timetable which not only is MS fatigue friendly and Patti prefers but enabled a regular nightly schedule of 4 hrs of low-load, long duration stretch.  

Sometimes advocating is also about learning better ways to accomplish the same thing.

previous related entry: contractures Multiple Sclerosis

Patrick Leer

BLOGS:

Caregivingly Yours, MS Caregiver @ http://caregivinglyyours.blogspot.com/

My Lung Cancer Odyssey @ http://lung-cancer-survivor.blogspot.com/

care facility multiple sclerosis caregiving