Keep those joints moving!!!

Hello Blog People- You know who you are.

It has been a while since I have written anything substantial. A week or so ago I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote an entry in my head as I lay there trying to fall back asleep. It still has not been written, but it would deal with the importance of KEEPING YOUR IMPACTED JOINTS MOVING.

(DISCLAIMER- I am not a Doctor or a Physical Therapist- Do any exercise program not prescribed by them at your own risk-)

Movement is essential to regaining any of your strength. What good would it be to get back strength if you could not move the joint? Start passive movement of the joint as soon as you can do so without pain. Your Physical Therapist can give you exercises to help. But remember that PTs are just there to remind you of what you should already know about your body. If you do not use it, you will lose it. In order to use it, it has to be able to move. Strength will follow.

A good and easy passive arm motion exercise is to just bend at the waste, and let the impacted arm hang lose towards the floor. Gently swing it using movement of your upper body. Swing it back and forth, or in a circular motion. Maybe go one way for a few turns, and stop and reverse. Do not use your arm muscles in any way to do this. That is the passive part.

Another passive exercise you may be able to do yourself if your good arm is good enough to lift your impacted arm through its range of motion. Or, you can enlist the aid of someone you trust. I say that tongue in cheek a bit, but trust is important in dealing with allowing someone to lift your arm for you and move it through range of motion you may not have. You have to be aware of when and if it is uncomfortable for you, and they have to be aware that you may not react in time to stop them before you reach that point. It is best to do this after being shown by a Physical Therapist, but if you do not live with one, you may have to improvise.

You can also do arm movement on your back on a bed. At that time, your scapula is fairly well supported, and may actually be in its normal position. When I tried to do range of motion on my back in this way, I was pleased to discover I could do a lot more movement than I thought I could do. But still be careful.

Regular readers know that I have used push-ups as a gage of my strength being there, or not. This is not something you should just start out doing on your own, or at least, not full push-ups. My PT suggested to me that I start with scapular push-ups. For these, you get in the standard position, but instead of lowering yourself to the floor, you attempt to just flex and release muscles of your scapula. It is not easy to describe. Here is a You-Tube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4G0lSwL2os). It would be better if the guy was shirtless to see if he had the right technique, but it looks OK to me.

Along with those, there are various stretches to try. Stand in a doorway and put your arm up at a 45 degree angle as if you were motioning for someone to stop. With your arm against the door jamb, push through the door enough to slowly stretch your upper arm.

Then there is wall walking. I tell you, the internet has everything. I was going to try to explain this, but here is a link that does it with pictures. http://nih.kramesonline.com/HealthSheets/3,S,89905 Like it says; do not try this unless you have been cleared by a professional. I was cleared fairly early. In fact, I think it may have been too early. It was at least before they knew I had the scapular winging. But, the range of motion and strength I have to lift my arm over my head are because I did this exercise from the beginning.

What if your arm is OK and you have a problem elsewhere? Well, for me, my hand was also impacted a few years earlier. All they told me was that I should keep my tendons flexible. Be creative. Your hand is a lot easier to do passive exercise on. People may look at you funny, but you really have to make it such a habit to keep your fingers moving that you do it without thinking about it. Do a bit of passive, and then try to actually move the fingers that will not move yet. I mixed this a bit, and physically moved the finger with my left hand as I tried to move finger of my right hand on its own. It would also help to have some sort of electric muscle stimulation treatments. At least, it helped me. I was lucky that a Physical Therapist who was interested in my case loaned me a muscle stimulation unit that was surplus for his practice. I used this at least a couple of times a week as my right hand returned to function.

Well, that is not quite how I wrote it in my head, but it will do. Good Luck getting movement back!!!