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| Rebecca Dutton Home After a Stroke |
Now that it is cold I need to zip my coat. Velcro closures on my raincoat do not keep me warm. When I sit, gaps form between the Velcro tabs which lets body heat escape. I was surprised to learn the hardest part of zipping a coat is not grabbing the zipper tab. The step that requires the most precise finger control is holding the bottom of the coat. The 2nd photo below shows I am holding the bottom of the coat with three fingers in a 3-jaw chuck grasp.
Before zipping I use one remedial strategy. To remember what I learned while doing finger exercises, I rehearse pinching my thumb and index finger together to wake up the muscles I need to zip. I use 3 compensatory strategies. (1) I don a rubber finger cot designed to sort money to get better traction. (2) My hemiplegic (paralyzed) thumb and finger grab a small piece of fabric that is attached to the zipper tab (see white rectangle above). The fabric is less slippery than the metal tab. (3) My hemiplegic hand can pull the zipper tab up only two inches. Going higher requires wrist flexion which forces my hand to open. After two inches I switch my hemiplegic hand to holding the bottom of the coat still while my sound hand finishes the zipping. The 3rd photo shows you why I am not sad that I use a combination of remediating deficits and compensation. I also hate being stared at when I stand next to a wall near a store exit so I will not get bumped by people as I zip my coat - another reason to speed things up with compensation + remediation.
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