Reduced stamina

[MJALSWarrior]

Well, got my first taste of reduced stamina yesterday. Went to Lowes and got 3 bags of charcoal that weighed 36 lbs each. Just loading them in the truck and I felt like I was exhausted. Came home, didn't even unload them and went to lay down around 4ish. Next thing I know it is 1 am. This really bothered me because I am used to being able to do that sort of thing all day, day in day out. What are some of the things some of you have done to help keep your stamina up?

 

[Nikki J]

I don’t think there is a great answer. It is important to keep your nutrition up and get good sleep. If your breathing is affected respiratory support.

Even with all of the above you have to plan and pace yourself. I am limb onset with no swallowing or breathing issues. I sleep well and enough. It takes a lot of energy though to do what used to be easy. I have to choose when to do things and what to do. Realizing you can’t do everything and you can’t always do things the same way you are used to is important and ultimately freeing. I have been handling things better since I started doing that.

Some people use a wheelchair to conserve energy

Saving energy for the things that matter is probably one of the best things you can do for quality of life. I know this isn’t what you were looking for. Sorry

 

[Nikki J]

I forgot to add we had a series of threads on making life easier which might trigger some ideas for you. I will link to the most recent even though there was not that much discussion. It has a link to the previous thread ehich in turn links to the original
https://www.alsforums.com/forum/other/40721-making-things-easier-part-3-a.html

 

[swalker]

As mentioned already, be sure to make sure you don't have respiratory issues contributing to your lack of stamina. Aside from that, I don't have any ideas for keeping stamina up. In my case, my stamina is what it is.

I focus on trying to get the most out of the stamina I have. That means using assistive devices whenever I can and accepting help from other folks.

For example, when I could still walk reasonably well, I would use the electric shopping carts typically available at larger stores (Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, Costco, etc.). I would also accept the stores' offers of help when loading my purchased items into the car.

Doing so allowed me to use the limited stamina I had on things that were more important.

Now, I use my wheelchair for outings. It is amazing how helpful folks are. Accepting their offers of help is still hard for me, but I am getting better at it.

Managing how I use my stamina allows me to selectively do some of the things I enjoy so much, such as camping, skiing, and spending time with friends and family.

Steve