[ad_1]
Rodney McKinley learned he had peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in 2011, when his frequent walks turned into a burning pain. “When I went to bed to sleep, I had the feeling that someone had a blowtorch under my toes,” he says.
McKinley had bypass surgery in his groin – with 32 braces – and two more bypasses on both calves. His pain subsided in a year. But then he came back.
“I ate more painkillers than food,” said McKinley, 64, of Johnson City, Tennessee. He has tried many treatments, including hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which uses pressure to fill your blood with oxygen to help heal wounds.
When nothing helped, “my doctor finally said that all he could do was amputate.
Unexpected support
McKinley received an amputated leg and spent four weeks in hospital and rehabilitation. “I went home and tried to stay positive and get on with my life,” he said.
It took him a month to recover enough to have a prosthesis placed on his leg. But by then, his leg had shrunk and he wasn’t straightening enough to wear his prosthesis.
During this difficult time, McKinley found support “from heaven.” His ex-wife traveled from England for a surprise visit and stayed. She took McKinley to physiotherapy three times a week until he got to his feet. In January 2020, McKinley managed to take his first steps without his wheelchair or walker – almost 9 years after his diagnosis of PAD.
“She was so important to be able to walk again,” he says. Now he can walk anywhere, sometimes even without his cane.
“The main thing that keeps me going is trying to stay positive.”
Unrealistic therapy
Kay Smith, a practicing nurse living in the west of Scotland, travels around the United Kingdom to train medical professionals in wound care. Painful cramps in her thighs prevented her from driving. Soon after, even walking became too painful. After a series of doctors and tests, Smith learned he had PAD and found himself in a wheelchair at the age of 54. Her doctors canceled angioplasty to restore blood flow when they found a blockage in her aorta, the main artery that carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body. On top of that, Smith was allergic to painkillers.
“I was in a very dark place for the next few months,” she said. “Something that no one is discussing is mental health issues: anxiety and depression and the isolation of the disease. Then COVID-19 struck.
Then, thanks to high technology, Smith found a way to distort his desperate reality.
She found a doctor who prescribed virtual reality (VR) for chronic pain. This technology creates a computer-generated, 3D, immersive environment that allows you to explore and even participate in activities using headphones and sometimes special gloves to complement the illusion.
“He provided the equipment, and in hours I was pain-free for the first time in years,” Smith said. “I was an avid diver and I dived all over the world. So when I immersed myself in my VR world, I went diving. It gave me strength because it reminded me that it was still me. In a way, it actually gave me back I”
She still uses VR daily to help deal with the pain.
Smith then joined a large online PAD support network called The Way to My Heart. She began to share her experience in wound care. “At the same time, the care team helped me gain a strong mentality. I decided not to feel sorry for myself and to start fighting, “she said.
A year and a half later, she had endovascular treatment to clear the blockages. Five weeks later, she was fully erect again, dancing with her husband at a wedding and taking about 9,000 steps a day.
“There may be life with PAD,” says Smith. “But it’s a new and adapted way of life.”
Joy of not winning
Kevin Morgan is a trained veterinarian who, at 78, still competes in Ironman competitions. But since 2010, he has been doing them with a stent graft for an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), which limits the amount of blood that reaches his legs when he trains.
Symptoms of PAD on a resident of Carboro, North Carolina, first appeared around 2015. “I noticed problems with tingling in my legs during marathons,” says Morgan. At first he thought that the pain and lack of blood circulation meant that he was not training enough. “I’ve never associated it with PAD.”
His doctor diagnosed PAD during an annual stent examination with an ankle test, a brachial index that contrasts blood pressure in the arms and legs.
The stent has set “absolute limits” on what it can do, Morgan said. There is always a danger that running will displace the stent, so he changed his training. He rides a custom bike designed to reduce bending in his thighs. He replaced the rowing machine with an elliptical one. He cut bends in the pool.
“PAD and AAA gave me more empathy for the people in the same boat,” Morgan said. With a change of mindset: “You can always turn it around to do something good. I think the real trick is to do it not for you, but for other people. ”
Morgan also practices meditation and reads a lot. He has also written many self-help books, including How to train for aging.
He also finds pleasure in slowing down. “A man needs to know his limitations. That’s how you learn to appreciate what you gain, not what you’ve lost due to the inevitable changes in the health of aging.” He also added: “You meet the nicest people at the back of the package.”
[ad_2]
Source link