(From Jamie)

I thought it was time for an Occupational Therapy update. My OT has been very pleased with my increased range of motion with my left arm. We're seeing more shoulder movement, elbow flexion (bending), wrist extension (straightening), and some slight finger movement, specifically the thumb and pointer finger flexion (bending). 

As part of my home program my OT has incorporated what's called constraint or forced use therapy. It is the hardest thing I have been asked to do since starting this journey. To give some background of what this is she asked me to incorporate 30 minutes to 2 hours a day of forced use to my left side upper extremity. Essentially constraint therapy is restraining my right hand by wearing a sock or a glove and forcing me to use my left hand to complete tasks such as turning on the light switch, opening a door or drawer, holding my phone and bringing it up to my left ear, turning on a water faucet etc.  As you can imagine since I’m still gaining function on my left side, I have a lack of coordination with my left arm.  Oftentimes the forced use is not smooth and pretty. A simple task of turning on a light switch can take several minutes as I power my arm up to the height of the wall fixture and then bat at the little switch until I eventually get it. I'm often in tears of frustration feeling like this will never work and then my wonderful mother reminds me how far I've come and how hard everything else has been prior.  Even though it’s hard, I am seeing improvements and eventually I know I will be able to make the motions without the struggle.  How wonderful it will be to use two fingers to flip a light on and off!

I have very exciting news! I passed pre-drive assessments from OT, PT, and Speech therapies in order to be approved for the adapted driving assessment and driver’s training at Craig. My pre-drive assessments covered vision scanning, timed right foot reactions, driving simulations, and cognitive processing assessments.  It's encouraging to get this far on an aspect of life I took for granted pre-stroke but scary to consider driving with some limited physical function currently.  I laugh to think I ended up waiting several extra months to get my first driver’s license as a teenager because I drove home a few minutes after my driving curfew and got a ticket...the night before my birthday!  All that seems easy compared to this adventure.   I will be working with OT's that specialize in adaptive driving and I’ll let you know how it goes.