Saebo Flex

I took delivery of my Saebo Flex finally last week, and have had some mixed experiences with it so far. The initially fitting of it seemed to suggest my arm had inflated considerable since my last measurement only a month or so before. I found this a little hard to believe, but the measurements seemed to bear it out. Maybe the few months going to the gym had an amazing effect on my muscles in that arm. I doubt it.

Anyway, fitting round #2 seemed to fit correctly, this time with Glyn again... I will say however, that at random, I struggle to fit the splint on my arm. So maybe I am just prone to swelling and heat/stress/etc. might play some part in that, who knows.

Getting the splint on isn't as hard as I was expecting if I'm honest, I was anticipating hours of yanking, screaming and general frustration that springs wouldn't fit in places and velcro would get glued to everything. Whilst a lot of this does happen, it's not as bad as you'd imagine. The hardest things to do are connecting the main spring, once the fingers are in their finger cups (I have no idea if there's a technical term for this - the book might say) as you have to yank against the tightness of the fingers and the rigidity of the spring to hook it on.

My biggest *hmm* about the splint is the position of the fingers - it's variable as to how well aligned you'll get them, depending on where the splint is on the arm and swelling etc. but typically my fingers end up pulling in the direction of my thumb and looking a bit like a bunch of bananas. This is quite painful, and would probably be even more painful if I didn't have hypermobile joints, so the visual is a rather uncomfortable image of my fingers bending awkwardly at a joint which shouldn't really bend that way. It's possible this is largely to do with the fact I am hypermobile and might be ok for a normally jointed person. The second problem is the pinching between the finger cup things and the hand plate. This will probably get better with time but currently the skin feels bunched and trapped between these two plates.

Saebo Stretch: Day 1 - The Morning After

I woke this morning rather reluctantly, but that was more to do with my 6am start for my pre-work driving lesson, than the neoprene bat strapped to my hand. The splint itself didn't seemingly cause me much discomfort, as I fell asleep with little problem and didn't wake up throughout the night having injured myself with it. Don't get me wrong, it's not the most comfortable or natural sensation, I guess I'd imagine it's like having a plaster cast on. When I unstrapped the Stretch (which has managed to stay fully strapped to my arm through the night) I had about an hour of very achey finger joints (the Metacarpophalangeal joint specifically) and I had quite floppy fingers for a short while. However as soon as I started to go about my daily routine my fingers began to clinch up again and returned to their usual fist-like state. I was hoping that I'd have a more prolonged flexibility in my fingers, but I guess it's pretty early days yet... Will watch this space for further developments..

Saebo Stretch: Day 1

I took delivery of my Saebo Stretch (roughly £200) yesterday, which I am going to start wearing at night to stretch out my fingers and wrist. The idea being, to relax my hand more so that it will be more receptive to the Saebo Flex when that arrives (ETA 2 weeks), although I'll continue to use it at the same time as the Flex.

Initially I'm doing a few days where I wear it for a couple of hours in the evenening to make sure it's comfortable and my fingers aren't going numb! It is pretty tricky trying to get the splint on, as with any orthosis.. I will say that I think the kit is very well put together, the splint is quite soft and is covered in washable neoprene. The end plate where the fingers wrest is interchangable for different grades of flexibility. This is a really clever idea, as previous splints are very rigid throughout. The Stretch actually allows for the fingers to bend if they need to, without making them buckle, which can actually permenantly damage the finger joints. I'm starting out on the most flexible plate, which is necessary right now as periodic spasms can set my fingers into a tight clench. Once I've worn the splint for a while (a few weeks/months) I should hopefully transfer to a less flexible plate which will prevent my fingers bending as much and support them in an flatter position.

Rockstar with 'bionic' arm

I happened across this in my idle googling - even rockstars use the SAEBO Flex. Dorian Cox, guitarist of the Long Blondes, who I have to admit, I've never heard of (but then their music isn't my kind of thing) suffered a stroke in June last year. He has apparently subsequently been using the SAEBO Flex, dubbed 'bionic arm' by fans and the media, to regain function in his hand. Perhaps this will give stroke therapy some sort of rockstar status and give some publicity to the devices. He's lucky that he has access to this form of therapy so soon after his stroke, I wish something like this had been offered to me earlier in my rehab.

SEABO Assessement

I had my SAEBO assessment today, and was fortunate enough to have Glyn Blakey, the UK's SAEBO trainer, come to help with the assessment - and his expansive box of tricks. The Flex, which I am most interested in, is rather like one huge Meccano set with metal levers, screw posts and springs connected together. However, it was suggested that I'd get more use out of the Flex if I also slept using the SAEBO Stretch at night. I have worn night splints in the past, but if anyone has ever attempted this, they will know all too well how uncomfortable it is to do. If you haven't, think of it like sleeping with a badminton racket strapped to your hand.

I was a little dubious that the Stretch would be any different, as from photos it looked pretty similar to every other splint I'd tried. However, when I was strapped in I have to say the Stretch was quite comfortable, there is a lot more soft padding around the edges of the splint so I hopefully wont poke an eye out in the night. The Stretch is meant to be less harmful than previous splints because it protects against damage that is regularly caused by the plastic and metal splints. The general thought on splint design is to keep both the hand and wrist in an 'up' position to counteract the natural tendency of stroke/paralyzed hands to become contracted and claw like.

The problem is, that lifting the wrist makes the tightness and contraction of the fingers worse, so strapping the fingers down in this situation just makes it worse and causes long term damage to the hand. I'd actually thought this for years, which is why I gave up on them, but it seemed to be the standard text book notion of what you do with a splint. Thankfully SAEBO have actually worked this one out, so the splint sacrifices perfect wrist position in favour of straight fingers, but over a course of months raises the wrist gradually to let the fingers adjust. As you can see (from the slightly blurry photo) my little finger is kept separate from the other fingers, acknowledging that it tends to get squashed when you strap all four together, and although the wrist isn't in a perfectly flat position, it's better than the one it would usually be in.

After this I tried on the SAEBO Flex, which took a little while to set up (adjusting metal struts, screwing them together and adjusting spring loads), and afterwards I felt a little like Tom Cruise in Minority Report or Edward Scissorhands, but it was quite nice to have my hand in a semi-open position albeit sheathed in metal and plastic. The task they get everyone to perform initially is picking up a squashy grapefruit sized foam ball and depositing it in a box - and then repeat for as long as they want.. The gripping aspect was relatively easy since I can get my hand to naturally clamp shut most of the time, although the springs were trying to fight me. Releasing the ball was more of a task, but after two or three ball drops I was getting the hang of it. Psychologically, if nothing else, it's nice to see that my left hand could still perform a function without my right hand being involved. The devices are quite a commitment, you have to
at the very least do 40 minutes of exercise a day with the Flex for it to be effective, but I think that quite reasonable for the potential pay off. Well, I'm convinced, so watch this space whilst I await the delivery of my own Flex and Stretch!

Lollipops

Sadly not of the sugary sweet variety.. I've been learning to drive with a steering wheel turner mushroom which is 'ok' but I have fairly small hands so being able to hold the turner and reach for the indicator button or lights etc. is quite a stretch for my thumb. It also requires me to look down because I can't see where the buttons are. My instructor told me there was a new device one of his other pupils wanted to try and thought I might like to use it.. the Lollipop, made by the same company that made the mushroom ball turner that I currently use (Lodgeson). The idea is that you unscrew the Bluetooth device (the circular pad with the indicator buttons on) and screw it into this new Lollipop turner. I have to say that driving with this is hugely easier, it's more like driving with a joystick, as you grip the handle and use your thumb to press the buttons above which feels more natural. You can also see the buttons in your peripheral vision which means you don't need to take your eyes off the road.

Theory Test

Yay, I have officially passed my theory test, so the only thing between me and driving is the Practical now (argh). Well I'm trying to put that one to the back of my mind for the minute, and I think I probably have a few more months to go before I'm likely to pass, although my instructor has suggested I look at booking soonish. The test centre itself was a mini-test in itself, there was no map supplied on how to get there, and Map Quest and Google Maps seemed clueless about its exact whereabouts. I thought naively that it must be clearly sign posted when you get close to it - it is after all, the area Test Centre, so surely it should be very obvious where it is. Well... the road didn't have a name post, there was no nearby parking and certainly no disabled spaces. I wonder how anyone in a wheelchair could possibly manage to get to the place. I might have at least expected a tourist sign (you know, the brown road signs that tell you where Legoland is) to say where the Theory Test Centre was, but no such luck. Well anyway, I passed, thank God - I didn't want to repeat that again.