Wednesday marked one full week since my breakup with graduation from OT. One week of being on my own, using my leg pumps daily to replace the 45 minutes of trained leg massage I had been getting twice a week. What could possibly go wrong?
The leg pumps themselves are fairly simple, if you've been given a demonstration by the sales rep, and a couple of crucial tips from your occupational therapist. You pull on the shorts, then the legs. Zip them up so they are snug but not tight. Then plug in SEVEN hoses to the pump, turn it on, and start your hour of treatment.
Here's a picture of the controller/pump. I have it turned on, because there was a glare on the screen when it was black.
OT had told me that one of the #1 hose slots would be blocked off. #1 is for the shorts, which only have one hose. Each leg has three hoses, all coming out from the same hole, which get plugged into their corresponding numbers. They lock in, and you're ready to start.
There they are, all plugged in, in the middle of a session. It doesn't matter which leg's hoses plug into the top or bottom. You can't see it here, but each of the hoses has a number on the connector. It might look like the numbers, but that little white imprint on top of each is just a LOCK sign. They snap down as you put on the duck-bill-looking blue parts, top and bottom. Two clicks.
Anyhoo... on Wednesday, I was all laid back in my OPC (Old People Chair), about 15 minutes into the session, watching TV. There are pockets in the leg sleeves that inflate in a sequence. Like a little ring of squeeziness that pulses up the leg to the trunk/belly area covered by the shorts. The shorts actually start first to clear a pathway for the leg fluids that will be coming. Then the thighs to trunk. Then calves to thighs to trunk. And around 15 minutes in, the feet start. It's actually relaxing. A couple times I've fallen asleep. The pump shuts itself off when the 60-minute cycle is complete.
Anyhoo... on Wednesday, I noticed that my left foot had begun the contractions, but the right did not. Huh. What wasn't normal. I squinted to see if the right foot was blowing up the little air pockets. I didn't think so. OH NOOOOO! I've only had my leg pumps for two weeks! Surely I hadn't broken anything. I'm very careful in putting them on, taking them off, making sure the hoses don't get caught in the moving recliner, and putting them away in a box when I'm done.
Of course I was fretting. But I didn't want to pause. Nothing was hurt. I could finish the cycle, then worry about what was going on. The contractions go faster through the cycle towards the end. With about five minutes left, I noticed a pattern. When the left foot started contracting, the right calf did the same. Then when my right foot was contracting, the left calf contracted.
AHA! The right leg seemed to be in the normal sequence, yet the left leg started at the calf, skipped to the foot, then skipped to the thigh. I had solved the mystery! I must have plugged in the hoses wrong for the left leg.
Indeed, when I was finished, and unplugging the hoses, I saw that I had Hose #3 in the #4 slot, and Hose #4 in the #3 slot. The next day I made sure they were correct, and everything was back to normal. Whew! That was a relief.
If I'm ever surveyed about what the company could do better, I would suggest putting the numbers on the hose connectors on both sides, so they're more visible. When I'm sitting and plugging in, I can't see over the top to where the numbers are located on those blue connectors.
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