The cast is off… and now the hard part begins!

My cast came off on Tuesday and I got a glimpse of a very skinny arm. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the muscles atrophy. Between my forearm and hand, it wasn’t a pretty sight!
It was obviously stiff, so I had myself booked in with Heather, a Physiotherapist, at the clinic to get started.
My grip strength was something to be desired (20 on the left vs 80-90 on the right), my range of motion was minimal, but it feels good to (kind of) move!

I have seen Heather twice, done some wax baths, and am of course doing my exercises. This is where it is a great reminder what goes through our heads as a practitioner. For a practitioner, it becomes second nature to think of all the different factors that are important for recovery, but we don’t always vocalize it.
For some patients, this is important to them, they want to know exactly what is going on (and if we don’t tell them, Dr. Google will). It is important to outline the ‘plan’. For example, we outlined working on ROM exclusively for a few weeks, including both active & passive ROM and joint mobilizations, and then progressively bringing in strength and weightbearing.

I have been listening to a lot of CDs on my drive into work about patient care and I am getting to see first hand how important it is to ensure the patient understands and agrees with the plan and ANY questions are answered. I look forward to bringing this experience back in as I start to see patients again… with my wrist brace on for now…