Reply To: my rituxin experience

Lori – I asked my physical therapist what advice he would add to my own interpretation of the “Proprioperception” training exercises. He said the basic principle is to progressively, and safely, challenge your brain/nerves/muscles combination to do the best it can to maintain your balance despite the loss of some signals. The exercises to strengthen core muscles, as GH posted, will be a good part of this. I started by holding on to a handrail or some support, while stepping both straight up/down, and sideways up/down. Switching to more spongy lower and/or upper surfaces – say having a stiff foam pad as the step, or a soft yoga mat on the floor, is more challenging than using hard surfaces. Then on to the walking exercises, which can be made more challenging by laying rubber mats on the floor.

Outdoors, it is good to seek out uneven terrain to walk through, provided you can stay safe. I now find using two walking poles is more comfortable, and gives better posture, than using a cane or using either of my walking frames; it gives me some good upper-body exercise, too. One odd achievement, if you still have any snow – I was amazed that I could walk on snowshoes more safely than in boots, as the toe-grip and the protruding tail of the snow shoe made it almost impossible to fall backwards, while the poles stopped me falling forward !

Ann