Tuesday, August 5, 2008

If I had a Hammer

My post-surgery physical therapy is really consuming my life right now. I'm slowly getting the movement back in my right wrist and fore-arm, but it is so slow and I've got such a long way to go still that it's really getting frustrating. The minute I feel a little joy ad noticing a millimeter or so of improvement I drop into anxiety about how limited I still am and fear that I'll never get back the flexibility I lost.

There are two main movements I'm working on. One is to bend the hand at the wrist forward and back. The other is rotating the whole forearm in both directions. For the latter movement I'm doing an exercise with a hammer.

I hold the hammer in my right hand with my elbow held against my side and the hammer sticking straight up. Then I slowly rotate my arm to the right letting the weight of the hammer head pull my hand around. I let the arm turn as far as it can and feel it stretch. Then I turn the hand back up and let it turn over the other direction. I go back and forth holding the arms in each position for as long as I can stand it and then take a break.

1 comment:

Robin Edgar said...

Well as long, as you don't walk into a Comcast office and start smashing things up, you should be OK Rick. ;-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Shaw

I certainly wish you as complete a recovery as possible but it may well be that you do not regain the full flexibility that you had prior to the accident. The break seems fairly serious. Also, at some point down the road, it would be best to remove the pins and screws etc. You probably will not fully recover until after they have been removed.

Best Wishes,

Robin Edgar