Nutrition, PMR And a Splint

Today is Thursday, July 13, 2023 and I knew it was going to be a busy day. Unfortunately I didn’t get enough sleep last night so I woke up a little on the fatigued side…But it’s Thursday so YAY! My first appointment for the day was my follow-up with my nutritionist at Amiri Hospital at 8:30 am. I can’t believe it’s been 3 weeks since I last saw her…time flies. As I had mentioned in a previous post, my bloodwork this week showed that my protein level is still low so that’s the first thing we talked about. My nutritionist said she’d like me to double my current protein powder intake and hopefully we’ll see its effect by my next visit. I got on the body composition analyzer and thankfully my skeletal muscle mass all over my body has increased slightly. As long as there wasn’t any decrease, we were all happy to just to know there is some improvement in my muscle mass. Only my torso muscles are a bit lower than they were during my last visit. Even though the muscle mass in my arms is marginally higher, it is still lower than the normal ‘low range’, but my legs are now in the ‘low range’ so there’s definitely progress there!

We were done by 9:20 so I headed straight to PMR from there. The focus today would be on stretching my muscles and there would be a joint PT and OT session for that. But first, it was time for my physical therapy session and we started by doing 18 minutes on the treadmill. We did 1 thigh exercise then my OT arrived and the torture started! They both worked together to stretch my inner thigh muscles as much as they could while holding down my hip bone, for proper alignment. IT WAS SO PAINFUL! I was literally screaming out loud and begging them to please stop. But they didn’t. And for good reason. My muscles really needed those deep stretches. They also worked on stretching the tiny muscles in my toes. MORE PAIN! It was pure torment…I almost teared. I was so relieved when they both turned to each other, gave a look of acknowledgment then told me it was over. Finally!

After the stretching was over my OT session began and we continued working on my fine-motor skills. We started with heat pads on my hands to warm-up and loosen the muscles then we began the various muscle-strengthening exercises for my fingers. We spent the last 15 minutes of the session working on a splint for the pinky on my right hand. I’ve mentioned previously that there’s a slight issue with this finger…It basically curls up if there’s any weight-bearing on it. The muscle in that finger is the weakest in my hand. The splint should help in straightening the muscle for an extended period of time until it’s used to being stretched out. I was told to wear it when I sleep at night and we’ll keep monitoring its progress in the following week or so. Before I knew it it was 12:00 and yup, you guessed it, time for the weekend! I’m ready for a break…Are you? I hope you all enjoy your weekends to the max!

اللهم إنا نسألك الخير كله عاجله وآجله ونعوذ بك من الشر كله عاجله وأجله.