Day 50 – On the road…

Day fifty seems to be a special day for me. It seems like my fingers are getting stronger and my wrist is bending a bit more without any pain. For example, below is a list new things that I can do as of day fifty:

• I can dry my back after a shower by holding the towel behind me with each hand and sliding it right and left. I could not do this before because my right wrist was far too painful and wasn’t strong enough to hold the towel;
• I can rev my scooter throttle and reach and pull on the brakes;
• I can lift a cup of coffee full;
• I am starting to type with my right hand. My biggest problem now with typing is that my fingers do not raise all the way up and still have a curve to them which makes it a bit difficult moving them back and forth on the keyboard;
• I can stroke my dog on both sides using both hands simultaneously and he is really happy about that;
• I can pull my pants up using both hands;
• Yesterday I shaved in the shower with my right hand using a manual shaver and I’m happy to say there is no blood to speak of;
• I can rip open a plastic bag of ice cubes using both hands and pulling the plastic a part;
• I can turn a screwdriver although not too hard;
• I can shift my shifter from automatic part to drive in reverse without any problems or pain;

I started physiotherapy in Cornwall. I’m not certain that any of the physiotherapist here have much experience with a PRC however my physiotherapist in Toronto had spoken to Action Sport in Cornwall. But here in Cornwall they were not even familiar with Klein’s box disease.

They started me off by measuring my finger diameters,  my finger strength, my wrist movements and so on to benchmark.  They reviewed the exercises I am doing and made a few minor comments about them.  The biggest change is that I am allowed to use hot cold therapy once a day for fifteen minutes . I’m not certain that this actually helps in the healing process but it certainly feels good and release any pain that I have in my fingers for hours afterwards.  Some of the problems I have with physiotherapists is that they all contradict each other.  For example, my last physiotherapist insisted that when using hot/cold therapy that I start with hot and end with cold  while this physiotherapist insists that I start with cold and end with cold.  You would think that this would be standardized and agreed upon by now by all physiotherapists.

This week I will start physiotherapy three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday for one hour .  Additionally on Tuesday and Thursday I will try a special massage therapy to try to eliminate  the swelling in my fingers. I am hoping this works because I feel the swelling is what is holding me back at this point in time.  My fingers do not hurt so much during the day other than the tightness from swelling and that prevents my full range of motion.

My wrist seems to bend 20 to 30% inwards an 5 to 15% outwards. With this range of motion I can actually ride a Vespa safely  providing there is no pain with it.