3rd SaeboGlove Fitting - - - and 9,000 Views

Over the last week the Blog statistics indicate that it has been viewed 9,000 times and rising. To those who are reading it, I hope that if you are a Stroke survivor, you will gain some kind of insight and encouragement to know that with a good positive outlook and a good support network or sheer determination we can "all get there" however long it may take.
I wish you all the very best in your quest.

Yesterday I had my 3rd appointment with the neurophysio for an update of the SaeboGlove. I am pleased to say that all is going well and as usual, further new exercises were introduced and general advice regarding posture/stretching and the wearing of the glove and resting splint were given.

The tensioners on the SaeboGlove were altered and an extra one has been put on the ring finger, this finger is the only one that I still cannot get fully straight. Using this formation makes it more comfortable whilst wearing the glove and also means that I can now bend over the ring finger and push it back to being straight.  Something to work at.

Up to now I have been wearing a resting splint overnight to keep my fingers straight and it was decided that it is now the correct time to try without it or use it for a lesser amount of time. Last  night was the first night in more or less six and a half years without it. I had a disturbed sleep as it did feel rather "weird" without it and I kept checking the state of my fingers! I am pleased to say that the fingers were nice and long and straight when I got up in the morning and I hope that this will continue.
A discussion ensued about the wearing of the SaeboGlove overnight and I am prepared to try this, although I would not like to do this on a regular basis as this would entail not wearing it for any length of time during the day when exercises are undertaken.

Have you ever paid much attention as to how you get out of bed? I admit that it isn't something that I've given much thought to, however, there is a simple exercise which can be done at this time that can become second nature. By placing your affected hand flat onto the mattress and pushing it down, then swinging your body round to put your legs over the side of the bed you are actually giving a stretch to your wrist. Again, something which is quite simple can be effective.
If you still need to stretch the wrist other suggested ways are:
* Open the hand and try and stretch it over the corners of a wall
* Try and put the palm of the hand, fingers down, flat onto a wall - I find this quite difficult and have not yet mastered this technique.

Trying to keep the affected elbow straight sometimes proved to be a challenge earlier on in my recovery. These days this is quite good and I have found that the wearing of the Glove and just simply walking about has helped tremendously. I also challenge myself by pushing both hands, palm upwards at the back of me, then swing both arms backwards and forwards freely.
I have tried without too much success to push out both arms, keeping elbows straight, in front of me whilst keeping my shoulders down. (If you are not too sure what you are achieving do exercises in front of a  mirror, and then you will see which techniques need improving.)
The following methods were suggested:
* Sit on a chair that has arm rests, put both straight arms onto the rests and push the elbows down - to measure your effectiveness place a squeaky toy under the arms and wait for the noise!
* Get your partner to place their palms uppermost and place them underneath your elbows, keeping your arms straight and shoulders down press the elbow into their palms.
* Place your good arm across your body, palm upwards, hold out straight the affected arm resting the affected elbow in the palm and press down. Hopefully these can be achieved without raising the shoulders.

Lastly, as I am now more active and do more walking I can sometimes experience back, neck and knee pain. A simple, but nonetheless effective way of correcting posture was also discussed at the appointment and this is to use a Pilates technique:
Stand with your back to a wall - feet not too near - pull in the core muscles and roll the shoulders back until they touch the wall.

This can be done as part of a daily routine eg:
After breakfast, lunch and evening meal or if you return from a walk.

All of these exercises do not incur any expense and in the long term will be beneficial.

In another few weeks it will be the annual group trip and I look forward to letting you know how I survived and what techniques were used.