One car trip a day
by Erin Kelly, U.S.A.

My back pain is related to scoliosis, an enlarged spinal cord, arthritis and a bad fall a few years back. It's gotten worse over the years - I think partly because of my gait and the way I compensate for CMT with weird movements. Also not pacing myself well, I suppose. Since the three cortisone injections didn't work I guess I'll be facing major surgery - it's at the point of being non-functional, along with the CMT and I live alone, so....I have to make an appointment with the ortho. But he already told me the next step would be surgery that would need to be done at Case Western, with two spinal specialists - one operating from the front and one from the back.

Through all this I've started pacing myself a bit better. My rules (not always followed) are to make only one outside car trip a day with no more than two errands, alternate between sitting, standing and moving activities, frequent rest periods (I'm not good at all at this), go to bed when I'm tired. I usually have several chores going on at once - that makes it easier to alternate between types of tasks. And I don't feel bad at all that I sweep my kitchen floor in several stages.

For food preparation I bought a counter stool so that I can sit while chopping veggies, etc. I also bake/cook in stages - get the required tools out, get the ingredients out, mix dry ingredients, mix wet ingredients - doing other things in-between. I have to admit though, that I've begun doing this mostly because of my back - not CMT. The back never fails to let me know when it's time to switch tasks or rest!

I only make one or two good meals a week - the rest of the time it's sandwiches, salad, yogurt, cereal - easy to fix stuff.

That's the best I've managed to do about pacing so far. After I move on the 20th and get unpacked I plan to do better. I'm interested in hearing what the rest of you do. v