Why ART?

Turning started in the hospital. I couldn't yet talk or move, and as required by hospitals, patients must be turned to prevent pressure sores. I managed to indicate which side to turn on, usually by turning my head to the way I needed to go. Initially, I was keeping track because of the pressure sore procedure. Eventually, I could move again, and this procedure wasn't needed. I kept it up, though, for this reason http://thoughtfulveg.blogspot.com/2011/08/neurogenic-therapy.html.

  

At some point I remembered a conversation about "positive pressure" and a goal of physical and occupational therapy is weight bearing. A person might get 15 min of this "positive pressure" in a therapy session. Wouldn't it be even better to get 8 hrs of positive pressure?

 

So I continued to sleep on my side. My left side was moving. My right now was barely. This works on the brain, though, so I kept it up. I would put my new found movement to work. Range of Motion exercises went from passive to active. Then that arm got included in Physical Therapy exercises. Right now, I've added pegs https://plus.google.com/114061315171466252323#114061315171466252323/posts/P8PwAzowrny. I'm up to almost the whole board now.

 

I would say ART works. For me it has not only restored movement, but made what is there better. Initially, there was no movement at all on that right side http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/aha/strokeconnection_20090708/index.php#/10/OnePage. So shouldn't I stop now? Maybe I want to see how far this takes me, but for now, goal accomplished.

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Right hand is fisted.

Right hand is functional.