PT Homework

Today I will do a bit of a different blog post. My PT homework!

I got headaches twice today. Brief. OK, on to the homework. I was to set a timer for every 30 minutes, recording the levels of certain symptoms at that moment. I was also to record what I was doing in the 30 previous minutes, including physical activity and any medication taken.

I used voice recognition on my phone for many of these entries, so I will have to go through and translate them into English. But this is what I had. (Can't believe the phone got close on acetyl l-choline, but thought "drove to PT" was "Jeff TPT.")

This PT fatigue diary was a lot of work, so I hope it ends up helping. I have to do this for four more days! Ugh.

Sleep: bed at 9:00 last night but only slept 5 hours. Woke up hot, not tired, cold, not tired, getting tired but noises woke me up, etc. Got out of bed at 7:00.

7:30 AM 
F 9, c 2, s 1, llw 6, rlw 5, law 2, raw 5
Got out of bed at 7 o'clock walked a few feet to bathroom to use the bathroom take a shower. stood during shower hands above head to wash hair and face. stood to dry.  Stood to get dressed.


Time 8:00 AM. 
F 9, C 3, S 1, LLW 2, vision 3, law 5, raw 9. 
Activity description/medications at one acetyl whatever tech space took three gabapentin and one acetyl l-carnitine Activity description stood to choose clothing from closet, stood to get dressed, sat to do minimal makeup, sat on floor to blowdry hair, stood to fix hair.

Time 8:30 AM
F 5, C 2, V 3, S 3, Raw 5. 
Activity descriptions/medications took a lactase pill, gathered my stuff, walked 120 feet to car carrying laptop bag, purse, papers, and lunch bag, drove to PT, walked 300 feet, drove to a school.

9:00 AM 
F 2, S 1, V 0, P 0, c 1, leg w 2, law 0, raw 3
Took another acetyl l-carnitine, alpha-lipoic acid, and B12. Sat in car making my notes for fatigue diary, walked and carried laptop bag 500 feet in to the school and around looking for the room. Opened a few heavy doors. Sat (in adult chair) listening to colleague, gave her some feedback on a program I know very well.


9:30 AM 
F 1, c 2, v 0, w 0
Sat speaking with colleague. Stood a few minutes greeting 3 y/o child and mother. Sat in medium chair watching colleague work, giving feedback, conversing with mother.

10:00 AM 
F 1, S 1, P 0
Stood a few minutes. Walked about 30 feet. Sat with mom and boy asked him to say some more words chatted a little with mom. Walked 20 feet. Sat in adult chair, conversed with colleague.

10:30
raw 5, LLW 3, RLW 1. V 1. S 3, P 3, F 9.
Picked up my laptop bag stood and chatted with colleague for three minutes. Walked 300+ feet to car. Drove to another site about 20 minutes away. Sat in car two minutes reading emails. Walked 300 feet into site carrying laptop bag purse lunch bag and papers.


11:00 am 
f 8 s 3 w 2 legs 3 raw, c 2 v 1 p 3
Unpacked my stuff and set up my laptop. Sat at desk chatting with a colleague. 

11:30 am 
f 8 s 3 LLW 7 RLW 6 c 2 v 0 p 5
Sat at desk chatting with a colleague, legs up on bar of desk, probably tensing against underside of desk

12:00 pm f 6, v 0, LLW 8, RLW 7, c 1, p 4
Walked 55 ft to bathroom, walked 20 more feet to kitchen, stood and washed spoon, walked 15 feet to lounge and microwaved food. Sat on barstool. Got up twice to check on food. Ate lunch sitting down chatting with colleagues. 

12:30 pm 
F 3, s 2, w 0, c 1, p 2, v 0
Sat at table chatting with colleagues while preparing for student session. 

1:00 
F 9, s 7, LLW 6, RLW 5, v 3, p 5, c 2
Session with 3 y/o boy, sitting and moving around on the floor, briefly sitting in chair

1:30
F 9, s 7, LLW 8, RLW 8, v 3, c 0, p 5
Finishing session with boy. Cleaned up toys, got up, listened to colleague problems while sitting at desk, walked 55 feet to kitchen to refill water bottle, walked 60 feet to classroom. 

2:00
F 5 spasticity three. Pain two. Vision two. Cognition one. Left leg weakness for. Right leg weakness for. Left arm weakness zero. Right arm weakness three. 
Sat in a chair interpreting sign language and helping assess reading levels

2:30 PM administered a test to two students from 215 to 230 sitting in a chair. Weakness legs level II. Team lob all are. Estes any level IV. Cognition level II. Vision level one. 2 o'clock to 210 finished discussing reading evaluation with teacher sitting in a chair. Walk about 80 feet to classroom. Went to table went to chair sat down.

3:00 PM administered a math test. Sitting. Signing and speaking. Breaks all students read their answers. Short breaks. Sitting in a chair. Fatigue level 0. Weakness legs level zero. Pain level II. Vision level 0. Cognition level one.

3:30 PM read a book and worked on language with the students. Signing the whole time. And speaking. Sitting in a chair. Played a game on the floor at the beginning of the time with three students. Managing behavior. Wait for 10 minutes. Signing and talking. Sitting on the fatigue level IV. Spasticity level II. Pain level II. Vision level II. Cognition level 0. Weakness in legs level II. In harm's left arm nine right arm level III. 3:45 took gabapentin

4:00 PM cleaned up desk packed my things sat down to help Cindy. Sat for 15 minutes working on the computer and answering questions. Fatigue level V. Spasticity level V. Pain level V. Vision level III. Cognition level III. Left leg weakness level II. Right leg weakness same. Arms left arm weakness zero. Right weakness one.

4:30 PM sat and talked with Cindy for half an hour trying to help Cindy figure out something on the computer. Fatigue level VIII. Spasticity level V. Pain level V. No wrong pain level II. Vision level III. Cognition level III. Stead talking with Andrea and Cindy for 15 minutes. Walked out to car not yet locked out to car wrong.

5:00 PM still talking to Andrea and Cindy for 10 minutes. First walk from Iran to Andrea's room about 80 feet. When finished talking one out to car at and parking about 80 feet. Drove home. 15 level IX. Spasticity level V. Week mess right arm level V. I was holding my purse and laptop bag on my right shoulder. Carrying my lunch bag and stickers bag in my left hand. Wearing my coat. Vision level IV. Pain level IV. Left leg weakness level VI. Right leg weakness level VI. Right arm weakness level V. Probably because I'm holding my phone. Cognition lab all three.

5:30 PM 
F 9, s 7, p 8 (spasticity and headache), vision 4, LLW 3, RLW 2, raw 4, c 4
stop for gas call and started the pump sat back down in my car got out again to turn off the pump drove the rest of the way home. Walked in from car abt 40 feet, walked into living room abt 20 feet. Set down bags, walked to bathroom abt 12 feet including up 2 stairs and down 2 stairs. Sat on couch and refilled pill case. 

6:00 pm
F 8, s 8, p 7, v 2, c 3, LLW 8, RLW 6, raw 4
Got up and got water 20 feet, sat on couch and ate dinner, chatted a little in ASL, watched tv.

6:30 pm
F 6, s 8, p 7, v 2, c 4, LLW 5, RLW 4, raw 4
Sat and watched tv, chatted in ASL. Sat on couch whole time. Chatted in English.

7:00 pm
F 5, s 7, p 7, v 2, c 2, LLW 4, RLW 4, raw 2
Walked 18 feet to shelf and back, sat on couch 5 min, walked to car abt 50 feet, rode 10 min. Sat in car 10 min, walked into church 30 feet. 


7:30
F 3, s 5, v 0, c 0, LLW 0, RLW 0, raw 3
Got a chair and dragged it 10 feet (hard), sat and chatted in ASL and English. Taught sign language 15 min--mostly listening to students talk about their day. 

8:00
F 5 S 4, v 1, c 0, LLW 0, RLW 0, raw 5
Sitting teaching sign language. Leaned arm on table sometimes. 

8:30
F 6, s 7, p 6, v 4, c 2, LLW 7, RLW 7, raw 3, law 4
Sitting chatting 10 m ASL and English, standing chatting 5 m. Walked to car 30 feet. Rode home 10 m. Walked to house 120 feet. 



9:00
F 9, s 8, v 3, c 1, LLW 7, RLW 6, raw 2, law 1
Walked to kitchen idly following friend (20 feet) and back, sat down. Got up and went to kitchen again for snack. Went back to couch, sat and watched TV while looking at old blog posts.

9:30
F 8, s 6, v 1, c 4, LLW 7, RLW 7, raw 1, law 1
Took gabapentin, 1 aleve. Carried laptop upstairs. Went into bedroom, went back out and hung up jacket, went back in and changed clothes while standing. Signed a few times. Went into bathroom, stood while washing face. Got floss and toothbrush. Went into bedroom, sat on bed to floss and brush. Back to bathroom to finish teeth, used bathroom, stood to put on moisturizer, walked back to bedroom. Sat on bed while blogging.


10:00 pm
F 8, s 5, v 1, c 4, LLW 7, RLW 6, raw 5, law 5
Sat on bed finishing up blog post until 9:40. Chatted briefly in ASL. Asleep before 10:00...

Sensory:
-Pins and needles: 1
-Tingles: 0
-Dysesthetic pain: 4
-Paresthesias: 0
-Numbness: 1
-Vision: 4 was worst but off and on. Now I see that it correlates with fatigue.
-Nerve pain: 4
-Hearing: 0

Motor:
-Walking: 5
-Sore muscles: 8
-Fine motor: 3
-Weak muscles: 7
-Spasticity: 8, had very funny spasticity that began yesterday--twitches in my right butt! Awesome. Annoying, actually. At least it is not painful, which most of my spasticity is, especially the tight tendon in my left groin. :(

Cognitive:
-Processing: 3
-Memory: 1
-Attention: 0
-Confusion: 0

General:
-Fatigue: 8
-Balance: 3
-Sleep: 8 (5 hours--went to bed at 9:00 and woke up at 2:00, couldn't go back to sleep. Hot, not tired, cold, not tired, perfect temperature and getting tired but sound woke me up just as I dozed, then AGAIN sound woke me up just as I dozed, then time to get up)
-Bladder: 0, yay...
-Proprioception: 1
-Swallowing: 0
-A: 0
-B: 4

Emotions: Fine. Pretty calm, despite all the pain and fatigue.

Coming Down With Something?

I had a weird day, because I was so tired and weak, but my pain was low. Sometimes my sensory system was a bit on edge. Maybe I am fighting off a virus or something--everyone at work seems to be, plus the people I was visiting over the holidays. I felt a bit flu-ish. Not exactly achy, just hypersensitive.

I had trouble driving today. I was trying to figure out why. Fatigue? I am guessing that is it. Probably cognition is a bit of it.

Sensory:

-Pins and needles: 1

-Tingles: 1

-Dysesthetic pain: 1

-Paresthesias: 0

-Numbness: 1

-Vision: 3, it gets worse and better. I wonder why.

-Nerve pain: 1

-Hearing: 0

Motor:

-Walking: 1

-Sore muscles: 1

-Fine motor: 3, poor handwriting--enough that others noticed

-Weak muscles: 6, my legs were weak today. And my right side in general.

-Spasticity: 4, and had some twitching in my left foot

Cognitive:

-Processing: 2

-Memory: 1

-Attention: 1

-Confusion: 1

General:

-Fatigue: 8

-Balance: 1

-Sleep: 2

-Bladder: 1 

-Proprioception: 1

-Swallowing: 1?

-A: 0

-B: 0

Emotions: I'm okay.

Still Here

There was no point in blogging the last few days, because it would have been impossible to sort out the [diagnosis here please] symptoms and the effects of the wasp allergic reaction and Benadryl side effects. I've had a miserable few days. However, the itching is finally decreasing to a manageable level (meaning that I don't have the urge to have my hand amputated).

But I will say this about the weekend: yesterday I didn't take my gabapentin, because I wanted to take Benadryl and go to church. You see, the combination of gabapentin and Benadryl was a quick-acting, long-lasting sedative. We're talking a three-hour nap with each dose. I wanted to make it through at least one hour of church and was hoping for some itch relief, so I went for the Benadryl only.

Around 1:00, I had the twitches in my legs soooo badly. The twitches are what I'm now calling "shakiness." That wasn't an accurate enough word to describe what I feel. My roommate said that I obviously need the gabapentin, so I took it. Within half an hour my legs felt better.

Today I did not take Benadryl, just gabapentin and my usual reflux medicine, Protonix. I'm noticing my regular pins and needles again. I did notice them a few times over the weekend, but they paled in comparison to the yes-I'll-give-up-a-critical-body-part itching. At this moment, the pins and needles are going down the outside of my calf, over my ankle, and onto my heel and foot. This is on the right side. They are now extending over the top of my foot, as well, to about as far inward as my second toe. But despite the pins and needles, I can still feel when something touches my skin. I haven't lost sensation.

That's about it. Otherwise, I feel okay. I worked 8:30-2:00. I've been fairly high energy today. No complaints.