My stroke was in May 2023 and I spent over 6 months in hospital before I was well enough to go home. I still have weakness on my left side but I am supported by home visit physio sessions and I was referred to Odstock Medical for support through FES tratment. This is all going well.
I also purchased a hand rehabilitation device from Re-Hand.com to help getting my hand working again. This ‘glove’ worked well initially but after about 6 months I noticed that the glove wasn’t getting enough pressure from the pump to work my fingers. I am not sure how many e-mails I sent to Re-Hand to get support. None of my requests were satisfactorily answered. They even suggested I take the pump to a local electrical supplier to get the pump looked at. I did this and there was no fault found with the pump but it still didn’t work.
Having seen the benefit from using the glove and not getting the support from the supplier I decided to buy another device. This only arrived yesterday and I have yet to try it.
My advice to anyone looking for something to try is NOT to use Re-Hand. after paying a significant amount of money, (Over £120) I don’t feel I got the support from them that I needed.
I will let you know how my new glove works for me once I get started with it.
I will let you know how it works out.
The results with the first glove were encouraging. My fingers seemed much more loose and I found it easier to move my fingers. My FES treatment also helps so I cannot say that the results are clinical. I haven’t tried my new glove yet but hope to tomorrow.
I do do all sorts of exercises given to me by my physio most of the day. Stretches, reaches, shoulder shrugs, shoulder rolls etc. from when I get up. I also do leg strength exercises through the day.
I think my perseverance with all my exercises is generally helping my recovery. I know it is a long road I am on but you have to keep going and not give up.
Andy
I’m sure as a ‘gingerbeer’ in electrical/ mechanical terms you have a great deal of useful heuristics such as the examination of how your good side functions and the comparison to the affected side’s defect to give a delta to be worked on
Your exercise regime where it pushes the moving boundaries at every stage and dimension every day should also include the battle against Learned On The Use. Neuroplasticity is like gravity. Irresistible, constant useful for keeping your beer in the glass but painful if fallout of tree
At a guess your exercises are coming from two documents published by the university of British Columbia. The first is the hospital or instructors guide to the Graded Repetitive Arm Supplemental Program
(Note this is a link to it down load; it doesn’t open a page on your browser [unless you have an acrobat reader natively installed])
Graded is the key word - repetitive needs some expansion because the repetitiveness of exercises and the repetitiveness of daily living to fight learn non-use are different in character. Repetitive exercise builds muscles and stretches tendons which is what your FES does but it doesn’t build neuroplasticity
Page 20 is the key!! And all it it is useful however this manual does not include the exercise - it’s more a guide to the concepts and principles
And this is a comprehensive post of the links that I’ve been planning to do for a long time so thank you for providing the stimulus to extract the digit and make good on my intent
Ps I was one of the guinea pigs for the Bio Liberty Life Glove picture but not explained on this page Bioliberty | Life Independent - I was interested in what benefit your glove had given you because my conclusion was that these gloves didn’t do much for us. I was interested in an opinion that would expand my horizons by contradicting my conclusion
I haven’t tried anything ‘pump’ driven, but have used various other contraptions. I found the Saeboflex worked well, as long as you did the exercises for 1 hour a day and had someone else there who could untangle the various rubber bands and chains and tighten any screws that come loose. I’m afraid I had to abandon it in the end because I couldn’t do all the fixing on my own (and that wasn’t doing my blood pressure much good!)
The Saeboglove is what I use the most, when I need an open hand to perform a function (gardening etc) as it is easier to use.
Another thing you might want to look at is the Neuroball, from Neurofenix. Again, it is useful if you regularly set aside time to use it. I go through phases of using it, then stop again.
Most physios take these gadgets with a pinch of salt, however, preferring repetition of manual exercises over and over until the brain re-wires itself. I still find this incredibly boring, but when my trainer visits once a fortnight I can lift items like plastic cones and small balls from one side of a table to another.
