Occupational Therapy appointment

Rachael attended an appointment with Julie at B Hospital to try to resolve the problem of her fingers crossing over each other.

Julie attempted to find a solution that would also resolve the ongoing issues of flexion in Rachael's dip joints and hyper extension of her pip joints on the first and second fingers of her left hand.

Julie observed that Rachael found adduction of the forearm much easier than abduction, contrary to what is considered the norm, meaning Rachael finds it much easier to steer her chair to the right than to the left. This appears to be due partly to the angle of Rachael's arm when at rest and that she steers from her shoulder instead of her wrist.

Julie initially recommended a hard thermo-plastic splint but realised that this would not give Rachael enough hand movement to steer her chair. She tried a wraparound finger splint but this seemed to have little effect.

Julie decided that a softer neoprene glove and a hard plastic finger dividing splint at the same time would be more suitable.

After further discussion with her colleagues Julie returned with a ready made Lycra glove. She sewed the fingers of the glove together to prevent them from separating. This also allowed for small pieces of shaped plastic to be inserted into the spaces between the fingers to act as additional dividers if required.

One disadvantage to the gloves appeared to be their lack of grip on Rachael's wheelchair joystick. This caused her hands to slip off the controls especially when pulling from left to right. Julie provided Rachael with some tape backed rubber matting to stick to the joystick to create grip. 

At home Rachael trialled the rubber matting but it was still quite slippery and Rachael again struggled to maintain a grip.