NOTE: Always consult the proper doctors before beginning your own therapy routine or before trying these tips!!
Those who know me personally or who've been following my story for the past several years, are aware that my right hand and arm were virtually useless since my birth, due to severe spasticity and high-tone. Up until last December, all I could use it for was as a paperweight, and now my functionality has drastically changed for the better.
Most people take for granted the luxury of having the use of both hands. But if you've ever broken you arm before, you know just how it alters your daily life overnight. Every single task suddenly becomes incredibly time-consuming, and forces a person to learn to improvise. You can no longer hold as many things as you're used to, nor can you carry the same weight. Dressing and bathing become hard and so does styling your hair (if you're a girl). Tying your shoes and cutting your food are also new obstacles.
After extensive researching on my own time, I began coming across various therapies that could potentially enable me to use my arm, and came across Bioness® Electrical Stimulation Units for the leg and arm. After testing a demo out on my arm, incredible progress started to show. Now, I cannot guard enter that Bioness® is the right option for you, because the effectiveness all depends on the individual's medical diagnosis, motivation and discomfort tolerance. Basically, what I found was that after only one try, the direct stimulation was enough to "wake up" my nerves. What an incredible joy that was to see my wrist flex up and down and to make a fist for the very first time without assistance from my other hand!
When I realized my nerves were capable of "waking up" and receiving messages launched by electrical stim, I took my progress into my own hands (pun intended, haha). I purchased a handheld massager that I continuously applied to my wrist, fingers and arm, vibrating my limb until it got "numb". This made my hand almost like putty or clay. With this in mind, here are my tips for training your hand after you've gotten it to this point:
MY TIPS FOR TRAINING YOUR HAND TO FUNCTION PROPERLY & WHY:
1.) Teach It Like It's A Child: verbally tell your hand what it's supposed to be doing at any given moment, gently directing it with your unaffected hand. Repeat as many times as needed until your brain understands and follows through
2.) Blindfold Yourself: once you've gotten a certain simple movement almost mastered, never minding the slowness, blindfold yourself and direct your hand in that movement physically and verbally. By keeping yourself from seeing your hand work, you will relax more, just like if you were getting a shot. This will also train yourself how to do the movement absent-mindedly eventually, just from the thought of the movement!
3.) Work With Plush: to ease irritation due to sensory difficulties, most especially caused by the hyper-extension of PIP Joints, repeatedly exposing your fingers and palm to plush fabrics may help. You can work on gripping them, petting them or holding them up in the air
4.) Expect It To Work: it's not gonna get better right away, usually, so you need to have patience. But continuously work it. Do not compensate for it's lack of functionality; instead expect it to do simple tasks, like doing a puzzle, pushing doors, gripping and carrying small objects, or picking up and passing objects between hands.