A very lovely woman (whom I respect, but with whom I never could agree in terms of her religious beliefs) posted the following on Facebook today:
God is the same yesterday, today, & tomorrow. Hebrews 13:8
God exiled the nation of Israel for practicing pagan with holy things of God. Jeremiah 29:4-14
Today many professing Christians do the same.
What makes believers think God has changed His mind about mixing of the profane with the holy. Ezekiel 22:6
Open your eyes & come out of the lies the devil has deceived you with. Know the truth. Revelation 18:4
From my recollection of the Old and New Testament, these are not precise quotes... must be something a 'preacher' put together for a sermon or homily. Nonetheless...
My first thought was: And I suppose you guys don't mix dairy or meat either! She is not Jewish. She is a Christian and yet the quote from Jeremiah is Jewish. Why do people from ANY religion continue to believe that God is a literalist or fundamentalist? What language does He/She/It speak???
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Thursday, August 3, 2017
Use of Tens Unit for Neuropathic Pain, Neuritis or Neuropathy
I have been familiar with the operation of a T.E.N.s Unit for about 15 years now. I first experienced it for back pain at a physical rehabilitation facility. It helped a little so I obtained one for home use. In those days, Europe was far ahead of the United States in medical matters. Indeed, it still is but they have reached a point in the United States at least where one can procure a T.E.N.s Unit without a prescription from a doctor even from Amazon and the price is reasonable. At the time when I first needed one, the price in the U.S. was prohibitive and a medical prescription was mandated. My first unit was from the U.K., needless to say.
Essentially a Tens Unit delivers small electric shocks through electrodes to the body. Usually placement is made to follow a nerve route or to stimulate specific muscles or areas where pain occurs. The electrodes are used in pairs. One can use 2 or 4 or I suppose any number depending on the individual unit or whether or not one has multiple units. They can be placed together or if you are using four, you can create an 'X' with them, crossing the two different pairs.
Some units are very primitive, offering only a single type of impulse. Others can offer a number of different types of electric impulses. Some are more piercing and shock-like than others. Others can resemble a gentle massage motion.
I am not a medical practitioner but the reason for writing this is to let people who suffer from neuropathy, neuritis or neuralgia know that the T.E.N.s unit CAN help with this obnoxious, endless pain/annoyance.
When I first thought of it as a form of treatment, no one wished to help me experiment. I was told by home aide, doctor and physical therapist that the T.E.N.s unit NEVER was used for this type of problem... I asked whether or not it actually could do any harm if we tried it. I simply was told, once again, that it was not prescribed for this sort of problem.
So I became rather insistent. My problem is that I am not able to reach my foot with my hand since having the hip replacement. I have been told it could be dangerous. I actually could do it, with a lot of pain and struggle but it is not worth ending back in hospital for another surgical procedure just because I stubbornly were to decide I had to reach my foot. I therefore had to ask some one for help with my experiment.
Yesterday at physical therapy I asked my therapist simply to experiment with me in the use of the Tens Unit for that awful 'dead' feeling in my foot. The sensation is increasing rather than decreasing which makes me worry that it signifies permanent nerve damage. I had hoped that as I exercised and time passed, I would lose that particular group of pain sensations, but it is not working out that way. It is particularly noxious at night, when it feels as though the sole of my foot suddenly has been transformed to cardboard and yet I feel a horrible prickling and stabbing and burning along the outer knife edge in particular. Having talked to a number of people about this, I have discovered that my own mother and a couple of my aunts, none of whom had joint replacements, have this problem in their feet and that my maternal grandmother suffered from it as well. So it could be partly hereditary. All the more reason to try to fix it!
Doctors tend to wish to prescribe either an anti-depressant or an epilepsy (anti-seizure) medication for this... in truth, there is no medication for it and they are experimenting on patients with anything and everything, following the philosophy of 'let's throw everything at it and see if anything sticks'. I have very bad reactions to most medications so those dubious solutions are not open to me, thank God! Another type of medication prescribed is one that is sometimes mislabeled as a pain medication but in fact tricks the brain into not recognising the impulse from the nerve. In other words, medications like Ultram and Lyrica 'mess with your brain'. I cannot tolerate those either.
So I am left with a couple of potential mitigators. I use that word because nothing actually fixes the problem, but there are things that mitigate the annoyance.
One of these is the lidocaine patch. If I can persuade any one to place one on the sole of my foot, it really does reduce the negative sensations. The other is the Tens Unit.
Yes, it really DOES help. It makes my foot feel alive and normal again, removing the itching and burning and 'cardboard' sensation. I wish to share this with any one who has this problem and is willing to try an unorthodox treatment.
It makes perfect sense to me as well. Nerves carry their own type of electrical impulses and currents. Our universe is fuelled by electricity to some extent. Why not use gentle electrical impulses to awaken deadened or damaged nerves?
When I went into hospital for the first hip replacement, the nurse used a very large gauge needle in my left hand for the I.V. It damaged the two outer fingers of my left hand. As a left-handed person, I begged her to place it in my right hand instead but she declared that right hip surgery mandated an I.V. in the left hand and left hip surgery only would mandate the I.V. in the right hand. A year later, those fingers still are damaged but the sensation has been returning slowly to both. I can use a pen now and sign my name. My handwriting is somewhat compromised but is improving,
I do not pretend to know why the nerve damage in the fingers always was declared to be 'temporary' while it is assumed that the damage in my foot probably is permanent. I do know that I will resist the diagnosis and if I continue to use the Tens Unit and it continues to help and finally brings back some semblance of normalcy to my foot, I will shout it from the rooftops.
Meanwhile, fellow sufferers, do consider giving it a try!
Another source of relief has been copper leggings... I still suffer pain but my mobility is far greater and I do feel LESS pain when I wear the copper compression leggings. Sadly, the ones that contain copper really do appear to be more effective than compression without copper... sadly because the cost is far higher for these!
Essentially a Tens Unit delivers small electric shocks through electrodes to the body. Usually placement is made to follow a nerve route or to stimulate specific muscles or areas where pain occurs. The electrodes are used in pairs. One can use 2 or 4 or I suppose any number depending on the individual unit or whether or not one has multiple units. They can be placed together or if you are using four, you can create an 'X' with them, crossing the two different pairs.
Some units are very primitive, offering only a single type of impulse. Others can offer a number of different types of electric impulses. Some are more piercing and shock-like than others. Others can resemble a gentle massage motion.
I am not a medical practitioner but the reason for writing this is to let people who suffer from neuropathy, neuritis or neuralgia know that the T.E.N.s unit CAN help with this obnoxious, endless pain/annoyance.
When I first thought of it as a form of treatment, no one wished to help me experiment. I was told by home aide, doctor and physical therapist that the T.E.N.s unit NEVER was used for this type of problem... I asked whether or not it actually could do any harm if we tried it. I simply was told, once again, that it was not prescribed for this sort of problem.
So I became rather insistent. My problem is that I am not able to reach my foot with my hand since having the hip replacement. I have been told it could be dangerous. I actually could do it, with a lot of pain and struggle but it is not worth ending back in hospital for another surgical procedure just because I stubbornly were to decide I had to reach my foot. I therefore had to ask some one for help with my experiment.
Yesterday at physical therapy I asked my therapist simply to experiment with me in the use of the Tens Unit for that awful 'dead' feeling in my foot. The sensation is increasing rather than decreasing which makes me worry that it signifies permanent nerve damage. I had hoped that as I exercised and time passed, I would lose that particular group of pain sensations, but it is not working out that way. It is particularly noxious at night, when it feels as though the sole of my foot suddenly has been transformed to cardboard and yet I feel a horrible prickling and stabbing and burning along the outer knife edge in particular. Having talked to a number of people about this, I have discovered that my own mother and a couple of my aunts, none of whom had joint replacements, have this problem in their feet and that my maternal grandmother suffered from it as well. So it could be partly hereditary. All the more reason to try to fix it!
Doctors tend to wish to prescribe either an anti-depressant or an epilepsy (anti-seizure) medication for this... in truth, there is no medication for it and they are experimenting on patients with anything and everything, following the philosophy of 'let's throw everything at it and see if anything sticks'. I have very bad reactions to most medications so those dubious solutions are not open to me, thank God! Another type of medication prescribed is one that is sometimes mislabeled as a pain medication but in fact tricks the brain into not recognising the impulse from the nerve. In other words, medications like Ultram and Lyrica 'mess with your brain'. I cannot tolerate those either.
So I am left with a couple of potential mitigators. I use that word because nothing actually fixes the problem, but there are things that mitigate the annoyance.
One of these is the lidocaine patch. If I can persuade any one to place one on the sole of my foot, it really does reduce the negative sensations. The other is the Tens Unit.
Yes, it really DOES help. It makes my foot feel alive and normal again, removing the itching and burning and 'cardboard' sensation. I wish to share this with any one who has this problem and is willing to try an unorthodox treatment.
It makes perfect sense to me as well. Nerves carry their own type of electrical impulses and currents. Our universe is fuelled by electricity to some extent. Why not use gentle electrical impulses to awaken deadened or damaged nerves?
When I went into hospital for the first hip replacement, the nurse used a very large gauge needle in my left hand for the I.V. It damaged the two outer fingers of my left hand. As a left-handed person, I begged her to place it in my right hand instead but she declared that right hip surgery mandated an I.V. in the left hand and left hip surgery only would mandate the I.V. in the right hand. A year later, those fingers still are damaged but the sensation has been returning slowly to both. I can use a pen now and sign my name. My handwriting is somewhat compromised but is improving,
I do not pretend to know why the nerve damage in the fingers always was declared to be 'temporary' while it is assumed that the damage in my foot probably is permanent. I do know that I will resist the diagnosis and if I continue to use the Tens Unit and it continues to help and finally brings back some semblance of normalcy to my foot, I will shout it from the rooftops.
Meanwhile, fellow sufferers, do consider giving it a try!
Another source of relief has been copper leggings... I still suffer pain but my mobility is far greater and I do feel LESS pain when I wear the copper compression leggings. Sadly, the ones that contain copper really do appear to be more effective than compression without copper... sadly because the cost is far higher for these!
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