Hello Derek,
I was wondering how you were doing so thanks for the update, and sorry it’s not going so well. I have my own problems, which had me screaming in pain in my stroke-side eye and a horrid feeling I was going cross eyed last night. Today was my classic locked-glute day, but those are getting milder each time. Neither Ophthalmologist has any idea what’s really going on with my eye, so I know how frustrating it is not to have answers. The most amount of help and understanding comes from my Chinese Doctor, who sees me for acupuncture twice a week. For instance, last time I saw him, on Saturday, I asked him “what could possibly be the answer to me feeling there are worms wriggling about under my eyelid?”… the answer felt so true “nerves usually give that feeling.”
Thinking further, I estimate a period of about 6 months after a stroke for residual muscle tone to wither away. This explains why a deterioration period of half a year to a year follows a stroke. Residual muscles are not accessed by the brain, but the muscles that live on are definitely under brain control. The trouble is that they are under rough control, the redundant part of the brain that takes over is a complete beginner. Thus the movements are ungainly, in the rough, and need much in terms of refinement. Repetition leads to refinement, so, the standard answer to spasticity is stretch and keep moving. We know of a couple more tricks, like lean on the leg; apply pressure to relieve the hyper-tone. In my case, my locked glute has required direct action. I have learned to isolate my Gluteus Medius, and activate it when doing a set of customized exercises. Leg abduction with a looped resistance band around both thighs. Going upstairs/downstairs. The reason is that the glute-med sometimes switches off, even with people who have not had a stroke. This even leads to them falling down. Normally we have muscle synergy where 20-30 muscles will accomplish a task together. That may be the ultimate refinement, where even back muscles are perfectly orchestrated to play their role in walking, for example. What I am saying is that we lose the ability to use muscle synergy, and may have to work on individual muscles to wake them up so that they can be integrated in a balanced way.
I may still be quite away from offering help to you, Derek, but in my case I had to rethink what the term muscle synergy means. And fully understand it. I think I partially resolved my locked glute problem, since it is about 50% what it used to be. The theories I have about my eye are many and wild. Again, I have never heard of anyone with my set of problems, but the eye is a very delicate part of the body. I know the liver channel ends with the eye, and again, this goes back to Chinese medicine, but I am comfortable with that, and I am not particularly fond of Western medicine, though it does depend on the topic.
I hope you come up with ideas that help. The odds seem unsurmountable, but I often tell myself to persevere, as the solution may be right around the corner, and I may be closer than I realize. This is what I tell my Violin students, so now it’s my turn not to give up.
Wishing you some sort of breakthrough, even a minor one.
Hope to hear from you soon, ciao, Roland