My broken rib prefers upward force on my elbow and hates having the weight of my arm hanging down.
Slouching and then butt-squirming to the edge of the chair worked spiffy. The mystery was after launch into the walker.
It seems I was jerking my hands off the arms of the chair to get them up to the arms of the walker quickly.
It is my belief that our brains use pulse-width modulation as its primary mode of modulating muscle-force. For example, if my native pulse-width is 100ms, then 30% force is On-off-off-on-off-off.... and inertia smooths the movement.
When I yanked my arms upward the muscles, for a short time, triggered high traps and bicep forces and my rib objected to the F=ma.
I believe that if I move my left hand quickly (no problems with that, yet) and make a conscious effort to move my right hand sedately then my brain will make all of the proper adjustments.
Our goal is to have me stand up once an hour and do SOMETHING. It might only be to sit back down into a kitchen chair and to core-stretches, but it needs to be something physical. The less I lose the less I have to claw back later.
Intestinal motility
Everybody's body is different but we seem to have found a happy medium with two cups of coffee in the morning, half a bran muffin at breakfast and lunch, half a banana with every meal, six ounces of home-made applesauce, copious amounts of plain drinking water and a green salad as part of every dinner.
Unexpected bonus
Like many men, I am top-heavy. I cannot perform sit-ups without sliding my feet beneath a substantial piece of furniture or without a spotter.
The cast on my lower-left leg makes that unnecessary.
I feel for you Joe. Been there myself . One time I broke my right collar bone, scapular and three ribs and it sure wasn't any fun. I found that the best thing to regain use after the bones healed was hoeing rows of potatoes . It can be as much work as you can handle but it is not heavy and it really gets things working again. I found that hoeing every other day I could get more done than before and strength and flexibility really improved. Wishing you the best. ---ken
ReplyDeleteI feel your pain. I'm dealing with a torn rotator cuff and a bruised rib. It's worst when I sneeze.
ReplyDeleteAt the risk of being a busybody, I feel a need to point out the "diet" you mentioned is except for rice whats's know as the b.r.a.t. diet(banana,rice,applesauce, toast)that is used to slow down motility. I know bran muffins don't actually qualify as toast( the bran counteracts the bread part I suppose) but I would advise against adding rice pudding unless your medical people suggest it lol
ReplyDeleteMy experience is that bananas and applesauce fix both issues. They add bulk, lubrication and softness to compacted feces and bulk to loose stools.
DeleteThey are rich in fiber and pectin.
The joke is that bananas are white when they go in and brown when they come out while coffee is brown going in clear coming. Not sure how that works, but it does.