Variety of exercises

by Sandra
(Rimrock, AZ)

Question: Had a stroke a month ago. Right side paralyzed. I now can walk but still need strength along with my hand. There are SO many exercises. How do you know which ones to work on. Very confusing.

Answer: I would say that you would want to determine what goals are important to you and work on exercises that help achieve those goals. As you achieve a goal, then you can move on to something different. It is also important to know the cause of your difficulty. For example, if your having trouble with your hand, you have to be more specific as to what is wrong. Is it a sensation issue, increased tone, lack of strength, paralysis, impaired fine motor coordination, swelling, etc. I've seen people who actually didn't have a coordination problem but rather a lack of sensation which made it look like they had a coordination problem. Maybe a certain part of the hand isn't working rather than the whole hand. Maybe tone or swelling is interfering with movement. Sometimes your therapist will give you too many ideas/exercises (I know I'm guilty). In that case, you have to talk to them about what is important to you, your goals, and trimming your therapy program down to something manageable that you can follow. If you haven't already, I would encourage you to talk to your therapist about what your specific deficits are, how they are related to your personal goals and which exercises are needed to address these deficits and achieve the goals you are interested in.