I have started a 4 month course of hand therapy. Unluckily/luckily I broke a finger or two a couple of weeks back and was sent to hand therapy, where I stumbled across a lovely therapist who deals with arthritis. She suggested I asked my rheumatologist if I could see her...and voilΓ !
I thought I'd share the exercises with you. There are a few photos, so you'll have to scroll down to find them all.
The lovely Carole said that she's only been running these sessions for a short while and the rheumatology department are only just realising she's there! She started by measuring the angles of each joint, the movement and the strength. I was asked: what do you want from this...that's always a tough one eh?π€
I was given a certain putty and a certain coloured band, tailored to my strength on the day.
Anyhoo...here's the photos of the exercises...have fun!
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Moomin8
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I had 6 weeks of hand therapy back in 2019. I was given many of the same exercises, plus the squidgy putty. They worked very well for me, and I continued to do them twice a day for long time afterwards. I gradually decreased the frequency and now do them twice a week.
I had hand physio a few years back and found it really useful too.Along with more appropriate drug treatments and as long as I take care and don't do anything silly, my hands are ok.
Iβm having exercises with a hand physio at mo after my replacement knuckles operation Iβm 5 wks in and hand and fingers getting stronger my extraterrestrial similar to yours xx
Thank you so much for posting the hand exercise information,made me realise how stiff and weak some of the joints in my left hand had become.Verykind of you and much appreciated.π
You are a treasure for posting these wonderful hand exercises. There was a time when I was desperate for that sort of help and Iβm sure Iβm not the only person.
You were very lucky to have found someone to do hand therapy with you. I broke my wrist last January, when I asked about follow up physio - my hand was trembling and looked awful, the doctor pointed to a single A4 sheet with line drawn exercises on it and said βthatβs your physio!β I couldnβt believe it so I took my sheet and my poor shaking hand and I went home to do the exercises.
Worse still was that I had developed CRPS which was pretty awful and which definitely needed physiotherapy help. As the first lockdown had not long started my GP just didnβt want to know so I was on my own.
My wrist got better fairly quickly but my hand was a total mess and stayed that way in spite of working hard on the exercises on the sheet I was given. Then eventually like you I accidentally stumbled upon a physiotherapist linked to the fracture liaison service which comes under rheumatology at my hospital and who rang to find out how my wrist was because her group osteoporosis physio classes had been cancelled.
I told her how awful my poor hand was with the CRPS and how desperate I was to get something done about it while it was in its early stage and she gave me links to helpful web sites and got me started with desensitisation exercises and then organised an internal referral to a hand therapist who I worked with over zoom. I had the putty and Thera bands too plus a link to mirror therapy
Every rheumatology dept needs a βCaroleβ and they need to use her. Something so simple can make the world of a difference to our poor sore hands. The one really useful thing she said was that I should only be working at an effort level if 3/10. I was working flat out at probably 10/10 and it was too much as things definitely improved when I didnβt go mad exercising it.
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Hands
Does anyone get cramp/spasms regular in their hands?
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Cold and pain go hand in hand
