Tues 09/08/16

Hey folks 

How has your day been?

Mine was pretty productive. I done some arm exercise which took a lot out of me, but it is improving which is great. It’s just that as I do the exercise I can feel the difference in my shoulder. The best way to discribe it is to think of it this way…….

Imagine you try to push open a door, but it won’t budge, the hinges are rusted. So you use all of the strength and energy and the door starts to open, but you have to keep pushing hard until it’s fully open……that was how it felt trying to raise my at the start of my physio with James. With his help in a short space of time it now feels like a very heavy door. Still takes a lot of energy but I am able to repeat again & again until my shoulder hates me like it does right now. 

As promised here are some videos, I didn’t get to do videos of my arm and leg exercises as I couldn’t find a decent place to stand my iPad. As you will see from the video of the FES machine.

FES set up 

Pincer grip

This morning I was reading through Twitter seeing what was going on in the world and there was a post that came up from @CIMTuk (cimt.co.uk) who are all about arm & hand rehabilitation (Contraint Induced Movement Therapy).  I was watching the small children who have their “good” arm in a cast and just using the affected arm regain the ability to draw, write, eat, drink & build again. I was overwhelmed with their determination. 

So I am now doing to be just as determined as those little guys and get my affected arm to do more of the work. I know I know James is probably reading this and thinking “really I’ve been telling you from day dot you need to use the right hand more”. I know you have James, in our session together I was as you were there to push me. Once I was home and doing tasks I thought I was doing a good job but after watching those little guys I realalised that I wasn’t pushing myself hard enough. I think I was kidding myself of the effort I was putting in. So over the next few weeks until our next physio session I’m going to push my limits so that Sept is kick arse time. 

That was started tonight. We went out for dinner and I’m a left handed eater now. Holding the fork in my right hand I was stabbing the chicken, cutting a piece with my left hand then resting the knife against the plate and then using my left to encourage my right hand to turn and put the chicken in my mouth. I felt so pleased with myself plus we were in a public place and I didn’t care I was eating my dinner my way.

Right folks I’m off to plan my day tomorrow.

Laters 💋