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bigmark1954

Very helpful member
Joined
Jan 31, 2014
Messages
1,035
Reason
PALS
Diagnosis
01/2014
Country
US
State
UT
City
taylorsville
The dreaded clinic was a real POA (pain in the ass). No big changes, the RT has put me on BiPap, which I will receive next week. My legs and left arm shows more spasticity, so they started me on baclofen. Voice has gotten worse, she wants me to up my Neudexta to 2 times a day, I have been taking only one daily because I had a hard time getting used to it.
The big kicker is that the physical therapist says I should definatley start using a walker, because my balance has gotten worse with the increased spasticity.
I am resistant to using a walker, and had to refuse to do that. I guess I need to fall a few more times!
 

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Mark, are you trying to skip the Walker and go straight to a wheelchair?
Glad there were no big changes
 
Please be careful, Mark. Don't want you to skip the walker... only to fall and do some serious damage... which then doesn't heal and makes a tough situation even more so. My PALS would give anything to be back at the walker stage...

Jim
 
Come on Mark, be honest with us please.

WHY have you refused the walker? Really, not some blurb like you may have given them.

You've read it all here, you know all the reason not to fall both for yourself and those who love you. How would it be for those who love you if you fell and bled out in front of them with a serious head injury?

I'm asking coz I love you and you know it brother in pain.
 
I have walkers upstairs and down that I don't use. I have a rollator to use when I'm out, and it has a primitive seat to rest. I also use a wheelchair which I use as a walker when I've gone to the VA alone.
 
there is some hot looking walkers out there mark.
 
Mark, dude, don't refuse the walker.

I stubbornly kept using my cane and managed to fall off a curb (when some stupid soccer mom wanted to "save a couple minutes" and parked in the sole HC spot).

Within the next few months my walking worsened, I lost 12% off my FVC, and I no longer have the thumb strength to pull a $@&#*ing credit card out of the gas pump.

Also be aware that the Baclofen will make you a bit weaker and therefore a bit more susceptible to falling.

If you fall hard because you've refused to use a walker you may regret it...
 
Dear big Mark, feel like a "nagging wife" but.....please, please don't refuse that walker. If you injure your arms, hands, and couldn't be on the forum, it would be like a day without sunshine! If you won't do it for yourself, or for those precious grandkids, do it for all of your friends here! Why are some men so STUBBORN! Hugs to you- even if you are being an idiot! (Did I really just say that? Never talk to people like that!). Donna
 
Oh Mark you had to know we were all going to nag you about this? You know bad things happen with falls. I suspect all of us have fallen and gotten away with it. But we never know if the next one will be the bad one. A fall killed our Ms Pie perhaps before you were a member here? And there are a lot of stories like Greg's. Please be safe...
 
Mark and all,
Unless the spasticity limits you in and of itself, there is no reason to go on baclofen, which is associated w/ side effects such as weakness and dizziness depending on you/other rx/the dose. Rx'ing it seems to be a reflex at clinics bc it's one of the few things they think they can do. Tizanidine is also an option, as is not treating it.
 
Piling on here Mark. I didn't want the F ing walker either. But with it I can move faster and safer. And it's great for moving around anything you would have carried. I still hate looking at it but it's made life a little better for me. It's actually a rollator.

Be smart now so we all stop nagging!
 
Big Mark: you'll look great with a walker. I don't need one since I just go from handhold to handhold. Schmidy
 
Man have you been TOLD.

I always think of a rollator when someone says walker. They work so well. When I broke my toe earlier this year I was SO grateful for that walker, I would never have managed that first week particularly without it and I never realised how well they work until I needed the support.

I would often sit on it and scoot around the house backwards when not carrying anything. When carrying something mostly it was being carried by putting it on the seat.

Come on Mark, fess up and tell us your concerns about using it so we can all beat you into submission :twisted:
 
Hate to jump on the bandwagon but Grumpy's decline after he fell was absolutely terrifying in its swiftness. Please don't be hard headed and make the same mistakes he did!
Personally I think you will still look badass, walker or not!

~Kaye
 
Damm...I dint know I would get my ass kicked so hard, for just being honest. I am still not going to use a walker, I just plain can't do that. When it is no longer safe for a cane, I might rethink it.:twisted::twisted:
 

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