EMG, Ultra Sound, PT, OT

Today is Monday, July 17, 2023 and what a day it was…I knew it was going to be a busy day but I didn’t expect to be this exhausted by the time all my appointments were over! Let’s back track and start from the beginning…I woke up at 5:30 am, another early morning wake up, had my breakfast, got ready for the day and left the house by 6:40. The first appointment was the EMG at Ibn Sina Hospital at 7:00 am. Of course we arrived on time but there were already 4 people ahead of us so we had wait, and wait, and wait…After an hour and 1/2 of waiting it was finally my turn. Thankfully the doctor said we only needed to check my deltoid muscle with the machine and that it wasn’t necessary to check my quads this time around. He injected the needle in my upper arm and started measuring the muscle’s condition. He immediately noted to the technician that there was vast improvement from the last time he had done this test for me on May 11, a day after I was diagnosed. He asked me to resist against the slight force from his arm and to pull his arm as he pulled back so as to measure the muscle’s state. Again, he was happy to report the improvement in the muscle’s condition and he mentioned that the inflammation in the muscles is almost at zero. ألف الحمد لله.

We finished from Ibn Sina at 8:45 and headed straight to Amiri Hospital for my breast ultra sound appointment at 9:00. I mentioned previously that this is part of the screening tests I need to get done at the initial stages of my diagnoses to rule out any malignancy. We waited around 40 minutes before it was my turn where I was called into the ultra sound room and prepped for the doctor to come see me. I was glad the whole process took less than 15 minutes and I was even happier when the doctor told me that everything looked good and I had nothing to worry about. ألف الحمد لله.

We left Amiri Hospital at 9:55 and headed straight to PMR. I called them on my way over to let them know I’d be running a bit late today for my PT session. I arrived at 10:25 and I could feel the fatigue setting in as I was walking into the building. The first thing I told my therapist was that I haven’t been getting much sleep the past couple of nights and that I’ve had two busy mornings with appointments prior to my session so please let’s take it easy today. She understood and didn’t want to overexhaust me so we worked on 4 lower body exercises only. She still wanted to challenge me though so the exercises I did today I had to do them standing up as opposed to how I usually do them, sitting down. That was definitely a challenge. We ended the session with a 10-minute treadmill walk. My battery was draining by the second.

I was lucky that my OT was running a bit late to our 11:00 am session so I got a 15-minute break to rest and regain some energy. I had a quick snack, a banana and some dates to refuel and it gave me a nice boost. Still, I told my therapist that I was tired today and to please tone down the exercises…I actually told her that I was hoping she could use the vibrating machine to massage my muscles so I could relax a bit but she said we needed to spend time working on my upper arm strength, especially since we have a 2-day holiday coming up this week. We did various upper body exercises to strengthen my biceps, triceps and back muscles. We ended a bit early and I was so relieved to be heading home…All I could think of was getting into bed and crashing. Which is exactly what I did! It’s amazing what a little rest can do for your body, and mind. I pushed through today, just like I’ll push through tomorrow and hopefully all of this ‘work’ is only to help me in the end.

 اللهمّ إنّي توكلت عليك، وسلمت أمري إليك، لا ملجأ ولا منجا منك إلا إليك.