Over the last year and a bit I've enjoyed holistic massage and reflexology which I initially started because of severe leg pain. Whilst there's no direct way to prove it my leg pain has stopped, along with my personal faith massage was definitely a huge factor in my recovery. I now use it to keep me protected from more pain, to help my arms and to clear any excess fluid building up in my legs.
I get a build up of fluids in my legs because I'm in a seated position all day due to Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Being in a wheelchair hooked up to a ventilator all day is not great on the body and relaxation is hard to come by in these circumstances. As physiotherapy is difficult to find for an adult with DMD in the UK, massage is a great alternative because your getting passive movement whilst the therapist does their therapy.
The beauty of massage is that it can be tailored to your individual needs. For instance I have the treatment whilst sitting in my wheelchair and the therapist moves my legs when needed. This is especially done to access my feet for reflexology which enables all of my body to be treated indirectly. I highly recommend that others with DMD should try massage and reflexology if of course they can tolerate their legs being moved and so on. Even if they can't reflexology can be done on the hands at the very least.
If you live in the UK, check out this website to find your nearest therapist.
Whilst massage isn't in my book you can still find out what my life with DMD was like up until 2010 (when I wrote it) below;
EBOOK available here; https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/69702
Available on Amazon USA here; http://www.amazon.com/DMD-Life-Art-Ian-Griffiths/dp/1907652337/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288120811&sr=8-1
Available on Amazon UK here; http://www.amazon.co.uk/DMD-LIFE-ART-AND-ME/dp/1907652337/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288105302&sr=8-1
My new Ebook Poetic Diversions available to buy here; https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/206857
All links available in my website here; http://duchennemen.net16.net/Buy-my-books/
My art can be viewed here; http://www.redbubble.com/people/thebigg2005
Foreword
I’m Ian Griffiths from South Wales. This book is a story of my life so far up to the age of twenty five years. I live with and suffer from the ill effects of DMD which stands for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. It is a severe muscle wasting disease and a life limiting terminal illness. It won’t kill you in six months in the traditional sense of ‘terminal’, but it’s far crueller than that, it steals every muscle in your body first and then kills you, anywhere up to the age of thirty. There have been cases of men living past that into their forties and fifties but only with drastic interventions such as ventilators and tracheotomies, more on this can be found by reading on.
I hope to cover a few things in this book, from a history of my childhood years to a more detailed history from sixteen years onwards and finally onto my current problems and triumphs. At times things I write may make you smile or may make you pause and think about the seriousness of life with this devastating disease. I really hope there will be a cure but currently for us supposedly ‘older’ guys with DMD (over twenty one), there seems very little hope. If I don’t see a cure in my lifetime, I hope my campaigning helps in some way bring it about for future generations, so another child won’t have to see their body wither and die before their time
