Found this lady (Jen) and her videos very interesting and different. I have a very rigid hand myself: She has many videos for children and adults. Click on videos after viewing this one.
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Hi Outlander, Iâve just had a quick look at this and itâs very interesting. Iâll have a good look tomorrow when Iâm home alone. Thanks very much for sharing, Iâm looking forward to watching more.
Regards Sue
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I am just about two years after stroke. Left hospital not walking, largely immobile.
I have made a lot of progress in the last three months.
Having been told that repair in arm and leg starts at shoulder and hip I began to try to address this.
I was trying to get hand working but am now concentrating on shoulder and upper arm movement.
Most of this I have found difficult but over three months there is improvement.
The exercise I am doing is gentle and occasional.
We had a banister rail fitted and just pulling on that once a day has brought along a big improvement.
Also lifting my arm so I have my hand behind my head seems to be waking up stuff, again starting at shoulder, then down arm towards hand.
I am also trying to help my arm reach up my back behind me.
Individually the improvement is slow but together is showing signs of increasing mobility.
I can now get both hands on the table top unaided and can make a good effort at lifting two handed.
My hand seems to be integrating into all this. I am hoping to gain a little more dexterity.
I hope my rather poor description of my âexercise routineâ is useful to somebody.
Two years after stroke and definitely seeing some more recovery.
keep on keepinâ on
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@Susan_Jane Hope it helps Susan
@Bobbi Yes, the key words there are gentle and occasional. Iâve been pushing and strainingâŚnot good.
Amazing how everything in our body is all connected. Keep up the progress and best wishes.
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@Outlander
I agree and think as we are talking nerves rather than skin, bone and muscle, a slightly different approach might be more appropriate.
I have a feeling that improvement will come if you seek it. Equally if you rest content with your state at any one time you will just stay there.
This means plateaus are just as possible as recovery.
I have been inspired on this forum reading of those going out for a stroll, others who have been able to play a musical instrument.
Each of us has experienced limited ability, but I believe it is possible to enjoy some success dealing with things.
Life doesnât need to be a battle, it will be what we make it.
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@Bobbi my OT Introduced me to a technique called Constraint Induced Movement Therapy. This was to improve limb function and motor dexterity in my affected arm. I was at first somewhat dubious but I stuck at it and the result was a big improvement. Itâs basically making you use your affected arm and fingers to do as much as possible including set exercises and not using your good side as you normally would. Constraint Induced Movement Therapy - Physiopedia
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I did a 3 week constraint induced movement therapy program too.
Itâs got some great strengths but some worse weaknesses too. A lot depends on the supervising therapists. Too much in fact.
One of the differences between upper and lower limb is that nobody tries to walk one legged.
Trying to behave as a two-armed person is where CIMT puts a spotlight on what would otherwise be learnt non-use.
CIMT has a weakness that its program was designed by book readers who knew the Canadian GRASP UL program but not what itâs like to make a cup of coffee with a non-functioning hand as a component of your life. The mit becomes as much the problem as potentially the enabler. Thereâs some very easy fixes could be brought to the CIMT definition and application - something I think this community could do if there was a bit more organisation to our joint needs
I found out from Nick Wardâs presentation that neuroplasticity is busily building compensation from the moment of our strokes so that the brain avoids the form of neuroplasticity that we all place our hope in after the first few months.
That negative neuroplasticity then contributes within two to four weeks to the physical degrading of muscles and tendons unless they are exercised at a pre-stroke level. Something that is physically and often emotionally & cognitively out of reach .
If I knew these things when I had my stroke I would have recovered much faster. If I had known these things when I had my stroke I would have been better able to match offered interventions to the realities of the stage at which I had reached I - I would have been able to shorten the duration of some of those stages, not all of them but I would have known how to prepare for when new stages were dawning.
If I describe my upper limb journey then from the very start I have been trying to develop it. The only clue I had was that recovery is âproximal to distalâ.
I first had to decode to English and then to understand
It would take a lot to say what it all meant but I can reach out in the morning and pick up my medicines basket with my right hand and my elbow and shoulder at full stretch now.
Making my fingers work required using ONLY the correct muscles to action my elbow and my elbow required the correct muscles in my back/ scapular - otherwise they all fired off and my arms stayed in a handbag pose and control of my fingers was even more compromise than it currently is.
For about the last 3 months I have been stopping 4 ft short of each door I need to open and reaching out a long stretch to the door handle because that is using shoulder and elbow - through this technique I have improved wrist and finger.
But itâs all too much to write a full screed.
If we worked togetherâŚ
2¢
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@Strings
@SimonInEdinburgh
Getting back to my original post with the video by Jen; She is a student of Anat Baniel and she speaks of sensory movements.
Along with constraint therapy it may be important to do those tasks with complete attention and focusâŚslowly.
Please see my new post on âDiscrepancyâ.,
Great to hear you guys are doing well with your endeavors.
Derek
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Bobby, you can also use a tea towel to help pull your hand down into a deeper stretch. Or a belt looped around your wrist if your hand canât hold on. And as you pull down, push your elbow up more toward the ceiling for a better stretch all under the armpit as well. Great for stretching and unlocking muscles.
You can also use the method for pulling your arms up your back.
Another one which would be good for you to try is holding the tea towel/belt in both hands, arms out straight in front of you and raise them up over your head as far as you can. All the while, keeping your arms as straight as possible and keeping the towel/belt taught.
Keep it up, so pleased for you 
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