Sunday, March 6, 2011

finger intrinsics and stroke rehab

First some definitions.  Intrinsic muscles are those completely contained within the hand/wrist unit.  The extrinsic muscles are contained in the forearm and connected to the hand by tendons and provide
most of the power and range of motion of the joints of the hand.
Intrinsics stabilize the hand in fine motor tasks.
I have been working a lot on passively flexing and unflexing my fingers which are the extrinsic  muscles, flexors and extensors but have not been working on the intrinsics mainly because I think I need to get the extrinsics working first.
On my 21 day canoe trip on the day I ripped the skin off my left palm we were paddling downstream with an upstream wind of 20-30 mph and I was paddling as best as I could  on the right side with my left hand gripping the t-grip. My extension of my left arm was pretty poor, only able to get it out maybe 10-12 inches from my chest. We beat against the wind for maybe an hour until we were all forced ashore. After some consultations it was decided to set up camp, sleep and start paddling again in the evening when the wind usually dies down. So we slept from 5-10 pm and started again at midnight paddling until 3 am(24 hour daylight is wonderful at this latitude) I didn't sleep too well because the left hand was aching a lot. I think what occurred is that I totally overworked my finger flexors and the intrinsic muscles in the hand started firing to try to help hold the paddle. This was a wonderful occurence to find out about since it may lead me to a way to get the intrinsics firing again.
My other possibility is Theraband progressive hand trainer sheets. This is not clinically researched or tested so don't bother listening to my ramblings. Ask your therapist how to get intrinsics back and watch them blanch.

1 comment:

  1. That is great, Dean! I have a feeling that it's been too long for me but keep on doing whatever you're doing.

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