I have lots of PT yet to go. My wrist & arm remain a work in progress and I need to remain diligent.
- I can almost straighten my elbow and make a tight fist. About 90% of the way there.
- I can bend my elbow up to my shoulder pretty well, and rotate my forearm. Maybe 80%.
- My middle finger can't stand straight up, but it's better than it was after the January reconstruction and I can type.
- From a flat hand, I can raise that finger a 1/4 inch off the table. Same when my hand is in typing position. Both take every ounce of strength I have -- my whole body tenses up -- and my knuckle gets bright white. Still, it's a start and when I raise both my middle and ring fingers, there's more movement. (The hand surgeon attached the middle finger tendon to the ring finger's.)
- I can bend my wrist back about 1/2 the way of the other hand -- so 50% the range of motion. And I'm strong enough now that I can lift a full glass of water off the table (w/ effort, but still).
- Also the other way, I can bend my wrist forward about 1/2 the way of my left hand. When I do, a line of muscle & tendon under the graft turns white -- the graft lets one see the working anatomy really well. Of course, I never understand that I was going to lose flexibility in that direction, but it's because of the weeks in casts, which caused the flexor tendons to shrink and atrophy, and the scar tissue.
- The graft isn't quite as "stuck" to the muscle below -- the skin moves a bit.
