concerned about muscles upper legs

Hi Tjay,

Sore muscles may be a good thing. meaning they worked. if when you press on the muscle it is sore, it is probably from the lactic acid in the muscle. thats good. it should clear up. If they ache or have less sensory then it is a sign of worsening.

What was your current treatment plan? Going back to work not confident that
your improving may be tough. I did that for a year and struggled, thinking I was getting better, but when I was shot by lunch time, I was sure I couldn’t
do it anymore. when you have a physical job, there is a tetering point where
one day you can and now you can’t, Except you mind may think it can.

As many here will tell you, be aggressive with your doctor and treatment plan.
Make him or her aware that if they spend too much time goofing around seeing how you do, that your job is in jeopardy. Your health care and employment play a big role in what they do. believe it or not.

Good Luck TJay, If you need to talk PM me and I can phone you.

tim

Hi TJay! I agree with Tim on the sore muscles! Especially after working them out! I know it’s tough trying to decide whether you can work or not work. Not sure what your family situation may be, but I would sit down and talk with everybody and let them all know what you are feeling right now.
I never got to plan for my future and had no choice but to go out on SSD. But if you have that choice and know what to expect then you can sit down with the family and prepare for your future in hopes to make it easier on you and everybody else in the long run.
You might even have to make career changes where you work doing office or an online job somewhere. But at least right now you have that chance to do so! SSD sounds like a good thing and it is for some people. But for some it’s not that great! With the income I make on SSD if anything happened to my husband I would end up having problems financially alone by myself! The income is just not enough to live off of!
But we both are trying to prepare our futures just in case something happens to him! One sick person in the family is enough but we often don’t see our mates getting sick and that does happen and can happen! So you have a choice right now to get things prepared for your future! Good luck TJay!
Linda H

ask the therapist if there are some things you can do at home to keep building.
This is useful for two reasons: 1- you can do stretches and resistance exercises with a theraband to great results and at your own pace..instead of doing 20 reps of one thing at a time, you can do 5×5 over several times during the day and still benefit without the soreness; and 2- these exercises are ones you can continue at home once your therapy sessions are done.
Key to this is YOUR motivations tho. It is really easy to put off doing them at home for any and all reasons. BUT, if you keep at them they help you keep whatever strength you have recovered.
In the future tho, should you get any new doctor orders for PT, be sure to ask that a ‘home plan’ be included on the orders. That way you will get the tools and guidance you need to [B]do it right.[/B]

Good luck and don’t despair.

tjay,

Sore muscles might be happening because those muscles are doing the work for others and are getting tired.

In healthier days…… Workout guru’s always have said that to build muscle you need to work past exhaustion, that actually tears the muscle and will allow room for growth in the next workout. BUT with CIDP, you go to muscle exhaustion and recovery takes longer.

Hang in there.

Remember, SS disability does not consider if you can do your current job, they consider if you can do ANY job. You need to prepare your documents in such a way that you present yourself as unable to do ANY work. And remember that the percentage of your income that you get in disability is about half, and that it takes Medicare insurance two years to kick in.

There are plusses to SS disability, but there are minuses as well.

Dick S

You can go to [url]www.ssa.gov[/url] and they have “form” that you fill out and it gives you an estimate of sorts of what you would get . Or you can go to your local SSA office and they will help you figure it out . Like Dick said …. it has it pluses and minuses. After your on it for a while you can get what they call “Ticket to Work”. It allows you to make some money and still collect disability .
Hope this helps 🙂
Kimberly

tjay,
Dick is right about SS looking at any work. When completing your claim form, do not list what you can do that makes you tired, tell them all of the things you need help with, or are no longer able to do. Take your worst day and use that as your basis for your claim. Its not the good days that hinder us, its the bad ones. Build your case with your doctor through your medical records. Tell him/her the declines and loss of ability to do things you could do last month, but can’t do this month, etc.
I keep a diary(for over 13 years now) so when I go to my doc, I have everything in writing to review with him, so everything we discuss is “objective”, not “subjective”. I update it weekly. This allows me to review activities and any negative fallout and i have everything in chronological order. This has been a great tool for me. It also allows me to keep track of all of the treatments used over the years, how long I was on each, the results, dates etc. which eliminates the need to try to remember everything.
When you go to the store, have you considered using the electric carts most provide? This is a great energy saver. This also gives you an opportunity on the SS forms to say that you use an electric scooter because you are unable to walk only short distances without chronic fatigue. Another thing that helped me was that my job required a lot of travel, driving for several hours sometime, when I could no longer drive more than 30-45 minutes, I had to have another employee drive me to many of our business meetings. My employer provided a letter verfying my inability to drive but only short distances, thus no longer able to do my job. This was supported in my medical records, and with no public transportation, getting to any job was not possible. This is the type of information that will help you in the process. SSDI income isn’t great, but it helps. Good luck,
Fred