In earlier blogs, I wrote about some of the physical effects of MND, particularly the continued deterioration in the use of my legs and, more recently, my hands. What I haven’t described is the chronic fatigue and the muscle cramps that also come with MND.
Initially, I ascribed the fatigue, like my other early symptoms, to natural ageing. Pre MND, a typical Saturday included 18 holes of golf in the morning, and 3 or 4 sets of tennis in the afternoon, but soon after the onset of symptoms, I found myself just too tired after golf to do anything else but collapse in front of a game of rugby on TV.
As my other symptoms worsened, so did the fatigue. Now, any kind of physical activity is intensely tiring. My fishing trips, which used to be all day, last just 3-4 hours before I have to concede defeat, and then I am wiped out for the rest of the day. A recent trip to an England cricket ODI completely exhausted me which took 3 days to recover from. I have to limit myself to one activity per day. If we want to go anywhere in the evening, then I have to take things very easily that day, or risk running out of steam before the end of the evening.
For me muscle cramps, particularly night-time leg cramps, pre-dated the onset of MND. Perhaps these were very early signs of what was to come, or maybe I was just prone to cramp anyway. Once the other symptoms appeared, the cramps began to spread to the muscles in my torso, and then to my hands. They seem to be brought on by ‘excessive’ stretching or shortening of a muscle. The cramps can be painful but are generally more of an inconvenience. More disturbingly, though, they do seem to be an indicator of MND beginning to affect that particular part of my anatomy.
I mentioned previously the amazing support and offers of help coming from so many people. My daughter, Fiona, having read extensively about MND, discovered that many people with the condition had found massages to be beneficial, so she bought me a gift voucher for an aromatherapy massage at her local beauty salon. She reassured me that the salon had male clients as well as female, but being a typical male, I was highly suspicious of this treatment, and wary of entering a bastion of female beauty procedures. But my daughter had made the gift, and being a dutiful father, I felt obliged to give it a go! Grasping the nettle, I rang the salon and made an appointment.
The massage would take an hour, but my first appointment allowed an extra 15 minutes consultation with the therapist to choose which aromas I most liked so they could blend an oil specific to me. This troubled me. Did I really want to come out smelling of curry, beer and new cars?!! I suspect the masseuse had previous experience of male clients as she simply gave me a choice of two blends based on a quick sniff of each. Dead easy!
And what do you wear for an aromatherapy massage? Entering the unknown, I packed my swimming shorts, and made sure I was wearing a relatively new pair of underpants!! In practice, the whole thing was very easy, with a great regard and respect for modesty and decorum. The massage itself was superbly relaxing and enjoyable. Did it help the MND? I don’t know, but I might well do it again, especially as the salon is next door to a superb pub, selling Castle Rock craft beers, where we enjoyed an excellent lunch with my daughter and grandchildren after the massage. Definitely something I’d like to repeat.