I love medical terminology. I want to know it all. While that is an unreachable goal, I learn a lot along the way, and the world of spinal cord injury is no different. So I’m going to teach you one.
Clonus.
Also know (by Brady and I) as the cloney.
Clonus is a neurological condition that causes involuntary muscle spasms/contractions. Its pretty common along the lines of spinal cord injuries, because lots of those neurological signals are mixed up.
Brady’s clonus showed up in the months before his surgery. It would happen during his physio treatments regularly, and sometimes just in daily life, but we didn’t know what it was. He just called it a leg spasms and moved on. Now its a lot more prominent. And SO bad when his legs tire. Thankfully, it doesn’t hurt him or worsen anything. But its a considerable annoyance.
When Brady’s right foot gets bumped, it starts jumping. His toes stay down and his heel pops up and down quickly, rhythmically, over and over. In order to stop it, Brady can either press his foot down for a few seconds, or he can just lift it up and relieve the pressure. The second way sounds more comfortable, but at least half the time, setting his foot back down starts it all up again. Plus, he literally has to lift his leg with his his arms. So more often than not, he just presses down on his knee until his foot stops jumping.
When Brady wheels outside, or anywhere that isn’t perfectly smooth, his foot just jumps and jumps and jumps. With that, any hope of carrying anything on his lap, ever, is lost. Papers fall. His phone falls. And then he has to try and retrieve them from his chair. Really, its just a pain.
Brady started a medication that sometimes helps those things, but at this point, his body hasn’t responded particularly well to it, so he’s less keen to keep taking it. Wearing his ankle brace helps a lot, but his foot goes a little bananas when he takes it off, as you’d expect.
I’m not entirely sure why I’m telling you all about clonus, but 🤷♀️ the more you know, I guess!
Say it with me, friends. Clonus. 🦶