What is a good way for a double jointed person to retrain their muscles to walk !

What is a good way for a double jointed person to retrain their muscles to walk again?

i've had multiple sclerosis for the past 7 years and a cancer has been removed from me with no followup treatment needed.

for the past 2 years i've been switching off from a wheelchair to a walker and in September, i rediscovered the fact i'm double jointed. after that shocking discovery, i was able to walk without the walker for a bit but that ended with the discovery of the cancer.

now the atrophy in my legs scare the heck out of me; i haven't seen them this thin since i was 11.

are there any sitting or lying down exercises that might be able to help me? i'm leaving it to those 2 positions because i have a daily battle with muscle spasms & fatigue (MS) and i'd rather not end off on the floor to add more bruises & cuts to myself if not necessary; especially when no one is around to help me up from the fall.

yep, gravity isn't much of a friend of mine right now.

1 week ago
added bit of insight: learning how to walk isn't something we really remember from childhood; to add the double joint factor to the rehabilitation is unfathomable to me.

I like the idea of therabands. They help with strength, but the best way is to get walking. I'm not sure what insurance you are on but most will provide for some in-home therapy. That is a great way to get you started. If you can, see if you can (or your insurance company will) rent some parallel bars to walk with.

The best thought is almost certainly to get into a 1-on-1 therapeutic pool program (by 1-on-1 I mean 1 therapist to each patient). At a minimum, a therapeutic pool program should be about chest height, be indoors, heated to 88-90 degrees F (some even go to 92), have a long ramp as an option for getting into the pool, and have little or no other in the pool when you are there (e.g.: kids splashing around on the other side of a rope is a bad sign). Other things can include bars to hold onto along the edge of the pool or even in the middle, kick boards, strap-on floats, strap-on weights, hand-held floats or weights, a well-trained therapist staff who can customize the program to your needs, and a senior person with goobs of experience overseeing the program as a whole. Check with your insurance, or Medicaire/Medicaide as most will pay for necessary therapy (get a note from a doc explaining how come this is needed), and even transportation.

I see I've rambled on about the pool therapy without explaining why it is so good. First, it is warm which helps with joint and muscle aches (eg: MS). Second, in the water you feel lighter and can probably walk with little or no difficulty (even if you need to one-arm the side of the pool). Third, moving through the water is much more difficult than moving through the air and so a 10 or 20 minute pool workout can give you the workout of twice that time out of water without straining your muscles or joints.

If you don't have a therapeutic pool nearby, see if you can work with a local pool (perhaps a YMCA?) or something to get access to the pool during a quiet time or even suggest that they start a therapy program. A more standard seniors water program might be too hard for you but if you explain your situation to the instructor and stay near a wall you might be able to do it.

I think you already have figured out the most important thing, start slowly and build. If you can do an exercise 5 times or for 5 minutues one day, set a goal for 6 in a week. Just take your time and move up slowly. That way you'll avoid the costly setbacks (sounds like you've had more than enough of them already!).

Best of luck to you and my warmest wishes,

- Neil