Small Motions Make My Hand Useful

Rebecca Dutton
Home After a Stroke

January 21, 2014

After an electrical stimulation device called NeuroMove helped me regain movement in my hemiplegic (paralyzed) hand, I learned very small movements can make a hand functional.  If you can open your hemi hand 1-2 inches, you can pick up an object with your sound hand and transfer it to your hemi hand.  While the hemi hand holds objects close to the body the sound hand can do its job.  For example, when washing the crotch, the sound hand needs to be free to wash the nooks and crannies.  So my hemiplegic hand holds the shower hose close to my body.  A little bit of hand movement means my mother and I are the only people who have washed my bottom.  Preserving my dignity and feeling clean means a lot to me.

Retraining the brain requires repetition so it's good hand-to-hand transfers allow me to do 18 ADL tasks.  Another example -  my hemi hand receives a tube of toothpaste from my sound hand which then removes the cap.  The end of the tube is propped against my stomach because this new tube is heavy.  I don't want to drop it and splatter toothpaste all over.  Using my hemiplegic hand during ADLs gives me the repetitions I need to retrain my brain.

Current hand tests begin by asking clients to pick up small objects from a table.  Adding hand-to-hand transfers to hand tests would help stroke survivors see that opening and closing their hemi hand can be useful earlier than they ever thought possible.

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Small Motions Make My Hand Useful

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