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Preserving Hand and Arm Function Is Vital for People With MS
When people lose mobility in their legs, in many ways, the hands become the legs. By Trevis GleasonFor Life With Multiple SclerosisJanuary 8, 2019Everyday Health BlogsFact-CheckedWhen you can’t use your legs to walk, you need your hands and arms to keep you mobile.iStockSo much — so very much — about multiple sclerosis (MS) is focused on our legs. The EDSS (Expanded Disability Status Scale) evaluation that many of us know as a way of gauging disability progression in general is actually exclusively about our legs. Testing how far we can walk (assisted or unassisted) and how fast we can do it is often the way many MS neurology appointments begin. In many cases, once someone has progressed to needing a wheelchair for mobility, insurance will no longer cover elements of therapy — physical therapy and occupational therapy, for example — because a paperwork threshold has been crossed. RELATED: All About Assistive Devices for MS Mobility When Our Legs Don t Work We Use Our Hands and Arms
Here’s the thing, though: For people who have lost most of the function in their legs, their arms and hands become their legs, both literally (in the case of operating their wheelchairs) and figuratively (as the next major set of limbs upon which they rely for strength, exercise, and independence). Even if a good bit of mobility in the legs is retained, those of us who use walking aids — like sticks and canes, forearm crutches, walking frames, and rollators — rely heavily on the strength and agility of our hands and arms to get around. At a conference for MS Ireland in September 2018, I heard many wonderful speakers. One of them, Gavin Giovannoni, MB BCh, chair of neurology at Blizard Institute in London, spoke to the very topic of maintaining and strengthening our hands and arms in advance of possible limitations with the legs, as well as after. Sure, Dr. Giovannoni has been preaching about the importance of upper extremities long before the hashtag #ThinkHand became a thing. RELATED: 6 Hand Exercises for Multiple Sclerosis It s Time to Focus on Mobility Not Just Leg Function
For people who are facing progression of their disease or continued weakening or numbness in their legs, or those who lost the use of those limbs to MS from the very beginning, maintaining dexterity and ability north of the equator is of upmost importance. Many medical insurance plans, however, don’t approve medications or other therapies to help keep us mobile after it’s no longer our legs that get us around. If we can no longer step toward an object we need, we must be able to reach for it. If we are unable to ambulate from point A to point B, it will be our arms that get us there. If we take our health seriously and can no longer use a treadmill to increase our cardiovascular rate, it will be our upper body that does the work. Our legs are our legs, and our arms are our arms. But for those without the use of their pins, our arms are our legs. Wishing you and your family the best of health. Cheers, Trevis My book, Chef Interrupted, is available on Amazon. Follow me on the Life With MS Facebook page and on Twitter, and read more on Life With Multiple Sclerosis. Important: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not Everyday Health.See More NEWSLETTERS Sign up for our Multiple Sclerosis Newsletter
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