Have you been seeing an OT?
Things I did aside from my OT regimen included:
When you wake up, write the alphabet with both hands (then do numbers).
Brush your teeth with your deficit hand.
Play with gripping putty.
Do peg board games (like the ones at Friendly's restaurants) with your deficit hand.
Make a fist then release and stretch fingers.
Practice using chopsticks to pick up objects (work your way from large to small items)
Hi paula,
Are you in the care of a physiatrist (a dr. specializing in neuro rehab)
http://www.aapmr.org/patients/aboutpmr/pages/physiatrist.aspx or a physical therapist?
A good PT can help provide 'tools' to strengthen or compensate affected areas.
Hi Paula. My friend…http://www.avmsurvivors.org/profile/PHILWALKER
May have some ideas for exercising. I love Matthew’s suggesstions!
It really depends on your level of ability. There are things you can do to keep from getting worse. Simple things like playing with your fingers, moving them while thinking of how you're moving them. Like pull them straight while literally saying to yourself, "straight" or bending them and saying, "bend." I don't know your range of movement/motion or fine motor skills.
What is you level of sensation? Can you move your shoulders? Is it limited to your fingers?
I can not move my left shoulder blade, shoulder, elbow, wrist.....fingers.
Only an occupational therapist can determine your level of abilities. I've seen 4 OT's but my current situation prevents me from returning for a 5th time. What I would recommend, if anything, is a consultation with an occupational therapist who will evaluate you and you can ask if there are things you can do at home so that your arm/hand doesn't get worse than it is. If you have fine motor skills, Matthews list is a good place to start BUT if you use anything like putty or a small rubber ball, remember to keep you palm down or you'll just be training your muscles to curl upward, into your chest and body. If you are anywhere as bad off as myself, I would strongly recommend seeing an occupational therapist long enough to learn what NOT TO DO which was my last option unfortunately. Good luck:)
Hi Paula,
I agree with the others! Therapy is so important! My hand was balled up. I started holding puddy at frist, then moved to holding a stress ball, to a grib cup, and so on. ot's will put your hand in something ruff like rice, and make you drag your hand in it. This helps with restoring feeling! I wish you the very best! I know this is hard! One day at a time. I hope this helps! Kristi is right! It is imporart to talk to someone trained to help guide you! Some places will give you a discount or evn give you free sessions. I was able to get 3 free sessions. After that I went to a place that is dicounted. If it is hard to pay for reach out to churches. I have a church take care of my pt bill. and the pt gave them a discount.
Hello, I'm Nicole... I am survivor bleed(6/1809) my bleed left me with left side- hemi parysis! Neither the left hand OR left foot works. I use an e-stim/tens unit to move the left fingers, seems to help, but NOT a cure! 3 years later, I can hardly wiggle them? Good luck!
cheers, Nikki
Hi Paula - My left side is still weak, but much better than it was initially after surgery (AKA no movement). The theraputty and what-I-call the mwa-ha-ha hand exercise seemed to help my hand stremgth and grip a lot.
The mwa-ha-ha hand exercise is rolling your fingers in and out for both hands.
It takes time, but it seemed to help doing it daily...then eventually, I could tell a huge difference.
Am proud of my wife! She is learning to use these forums finally. She wasn't sure how to post all this stuff, so I am trying to teach her. You guys please be patient with her, as I know you all are. She needs the extra help and support for sure. We are working to figure out how to work out with her hand, and her left leg a bit more. We can't afford OT, or PT anymore, so we are on our own. Thank you for the suggestions so far.
We are here for her. We have all been where she has been(at various levels). Most of us have had bleeds, which usually result in a stroke. I had to learn to speak again. I had speech therapy, as well as OT and PT. I congratulate Paula for figuring out this site because I havent figured out how to post a blog. In the beginning I just read what others have written. Now I post comments. One day, I’ll blog. She is fortunate to have you on her side. Maybe you could ask her Doctor to recommend exercises? The OT used to give me putty and a rubber band thing that strengthens the hand. I wish I hadn’t thrown it away.
From what i learned in therapy it depends on the amount of movement you currently have. If you have some movement already it would be good that you attempt to utilize your affected arm as much as possible even if activites are much more difficult and take longer. It will pay off. Google “fine motor skills ot exercises” for hand dexterity exercises. However i learned that in order to have better hand control it is important to have better shoulder control so you might also want to google “ot shoulder exercises”.
Also google “constraint induced therapy ot”
I agree. One of the things my OT (all of them, 5 total) taught me is that you need to work from the top down. You need to work your shoulder so your shoulder can work your upper arm so your upper arm can control your elbow and so on and so forth. Unfortunately, it's all connected and it all needs to be strengthened. It can be a slow process but if you really want it, you can get it:) It's definitely baby steps. And you should seriously consider at least one session with an occupational therapist so you can be evaluated and they can tell/offer/suggest some things to do at home whether alone or with your husband as a guide. livestrong.com has some basic exercises you can do but they recommend assisted help (I think it's a liability thing on their part) they also have some decent links that have a few sample videos. It is very important that you stretch your arm as much as possible. even if you don't do exercises...subluxation of the shoulder is painful. Don't be discouraged if nothing happens right away. Toes and fingers of true hemiparetics are the last things to move again....like I said, top down.
Utilizing your arm may be difficult, for example my sensations are completely turned around...hot is freezing, cold burns me. I don't feel you poke me, but I feel the jerk it caused my body, otherwise, I'd never know you touched me. A therapist told me to use my affected arm to hold things down....she didn't realize my arm was too heavy to stay on top of anything and would fall off, knocking things over....she was not a good therapist LOL But you should experiment as much as possible, find your boundaries, your limitations and then work on expanding them. Also, if your arm gets tense during a workout, take a break because it won't "unwind" unless you do, rendering any further exercise useless. I mean, that's just my experience but I'm not a therapist...just a cripple with a useless hand:) but I'm still trying.
Does your county offer any medical assistance? My county has a clinic program that is incredibly affordable but I'm still not quite in a position where I can afford weekly sessions. Most counties offer some sort of assistance, unfortunately not all counties offer these programs.