Life's Final Battle: Raging Against Immobility

By J. K. Edwards

Old age happens whether you like it or not.

Your final years have arrived, and you must deal with it. You wish that these years had never come to you. You wish you could go back in time. You’re powerless to make such wishes come true.  Will you passively surrender to failing balance and strength, like a Stubborn Mule, or a Denying Ostrich, and bury your head in the sand? Or will you fight like a Raging Lion against immobility and dependence.  

This is life’s final battle. Is your freedom precious to you?  If so, you must do something to help yourself, and you must do it before it’s too late! 

Drawing upon more than thirty years of experience as a Physical Therapist, Edwards empowers seniors—and those who love them—to take control of, and responsibility for, their own independence. His program is easy, pain-free, requires a minimum time investment…and it works! 

This book is essential for any senior who desires to live autonomously and avoid moving to a nursing home or assisted living facility. It is a critical resource for those who love and care for those seniors. And it is a valuable guide for therapists who are frustrated with marginal results with their senior clients.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Edwards
• Release date: Oct 17, 2016
• ISBN: 9780692782606

Book preview

LIFE’S FINAL BATTLE:

RAGING AGAINST IMMOBILITY

By

J. K. Edwards

Life’s Final Battle:

Raging Against Immobility

J. K. Edwards

All rights reserved

Copyright © October 2016, J. K. Edwards

Cover Art, Layout and Design Copyright © 2016, May Beltran

Edited by Chrissy Szarek

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas, from THE POEMS OF DYLAN THOMAS, Copyright © 1952 by Dylan Thomas. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.

J. K. Edwards

Austin, TX

No part of this book may be reproduced or shared by any electronic or mechanical means, including, but not limited to printing, file sharing, and email, without prior written permission from the Publisher or the Author.

Neither the publisher nor the author is engaged in rendering advice or professional services to the individual reader. The ideas, exercises, and suggestions contained in this book are not intended as a substitute for consulting a physician. All health matters require medical supervision.

Neither the author nor the publisher shall be liable or responsible for any loss or damage arising from any information contained in this book.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-692-78260-6

Print Book ISBN: 978-0-692-78261-3

Published in the United States of America

First eBook Edition: October, 2016

First Print Edition: October, 2016

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

—Dylan Thomas

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

INTRODUCTION

ESTHER

THE COURAGE OF THE ELDERLY

WHAT I KNOW

LIFE’S FINAL BATTLE

PART ONE

A SOBERING REALITY

THE UNTEACHABILITY OF MANKIND IS THE PROBLEM

THE FACES OF REALITY

Some Quick Pieces of Advice and a Few Frightening Statistics

PART TWO

THE THREE CHOICES

THE WAY OF THE STUBBORN MULE

THE WAY OF THE DENYING OSTRICH

THE WAY OF THE RAGING LION

A Few More Pieces of Flotsam

PART THREE

THE WHY OF BEING A RAGING LION

THE HOW OF BEING A RAGING LION

Three Warnings Before We Start

MINIMALIST MOBILITY ONE

Get into and out of Bed: Exercise 1

Get into and out of Bed: Exercise 2

MINIMIALIST MOBILITY TWO

Stand-up and Sit-down from a Chair: The Exercise

Walking Endurance: The Exercise

MINIMALIST MOBILITY THREE

MINIMALIST MOBILITY FOUR

Walking Balance: The Exercise

MINIMALIST MOBILITY FIVE

Up Stairs: The Exercise

Down Stairs: The Exercise

YOUR BEST GOOD

APPENDIX A

APPENDIX B

APPENDIX C

About the Author

Dedication

For Anna Thompson, a dear eighty-five year old friend whose unbridled enthusiasm for life and mobility rekindled my flagging zeal to finish what I started.

INTRODUCTION

ESTHER

THE COURAGE OF THE ELDERLY

WHAT I KNOW

LIFE’S FINAL BATTLE

ESTHER

Go away! I don’t need you. You’re the third therapist that’s come to my home in the last two years and none of them has helped. They just teach me to kick my feet out, lift my knees up, and bend down in my walker. That was okay when I first came home from the hospital, but now it’s a great big waste of time! If that’s all you have I don’t need it! If that’s all you’ve got, go away!

—Esther Rublowski, Raging Lion, 91

I sat down with Esther on my first visit to her home and was immediately verbally bombarded by this feisty four foot, eleven inch woman. She was a strong-willed woman. Spunky, opinionated, and highly motivated to improve her lot in life.

Her beloved cat died the month previous to my first visit and she was living completely alone. Her high pitched, squeaky voice made me feel like I was being assaulted by a raging mouse. An endearing mouse, mind you. Not dissimilar, I imagine, from what it would be like to be on the wrong side of the sword of Reepicheep, the warrior-mouse of Narnia.

I’d been sent to Esther by a physician who was afraid for her safety. The doctor was considering putting some not-so-gentle pressure on Esther to get her to move into a nursing home for her own good.

Even with the assistance of a walker, she was barely able to hobble across the fifty feet of uneven, cluttered floor to get to the front door to let me in. She struggled to get out of her favorite chair. She tottered everywhere she went, reaching out dangerously for the support of tables, chairs, and walls. Unless something changed soon, she was clearly headed for a fall, the hospital, and the nursing home.

No medicines were going to help her to remain independent in her home. No pills were going to restore her strength, her balance, or her ability to walk. The three previous rounds of home physical therapy covered a total of nine months, cost several thousands of Medicare dollars (taxpayer dollars) and resulted in a minimum of short-term improvement, with no long-term improvement at all.

All Esther wanted was to remain in her home and die at home. She was scared because this simple, final hope was rapidly evaporating. She desperately wanted a set of easy exercises that wouldn’t hurt but that would improve her balance, improve her ability to get out of a bed and a chair, and her ability to walk to the front door. That was all she was after from the therapist who preceded me. Instead, what she got was a set of exercises from well-intentioned, compassionate professionals that made no difference in her life.

Esther was frustrated with therapists who spent two or three hours with her every week for many months but who’ve been unable to teach her a set of exercises that makes a real difference in her life. She knew how to do straight leg raises, quad arcs, and partial squats. She was great at heel slides and hip abduction. Her ability to hold onto