DIY and Low Cost Physical Therapy Aids

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We all have those happy days we will never forget—weddings, births of children (and grandchildren!!), Christmas, the day Ronald Reagan was elected, etc.  Then there are the other ones—9/11; December 7, 1941; perhaps January 6, 2021.  And we have our own personal days of infamy.  One of my (fortunately few) days is March 12, 2012.  The day I juiced 1/3 (I usually say ½) of my right pinky.  (Why do we call it “pinky”?  Seems kinda a funny name for it.) 

As often occurs with such disasters, I learned a lot about our health care system, things we’d all prefer not to know. Oh well.  And once the stitches were removed, I had the distinct pleasure of going to physical therapy twice a week.  I thought it was rather ridiculous at first; however, the physical therapist assured me that I really did need it.  Without therapy, that finger would be worse than useless; it would only get in the way of anything I was working on.  If I weren’t going to do the therapy, it would be better to just amputate it entirely. 

So not wanting to repeat the joys of amputation, I chose physical therapy. 

Try as I might, I can’t remember all the exercises I had to do.  I do remember having to rub my finger on textured fabric or towels several minutes each day to teach my nerves new tricks, or perhaps better said, remind them of their previous responsibilities.  When the hand surgeon sewed my finger up, he folded skin from the palm side of my pinky over to the other side.  And with that went the nerves.  I think. Or maybe they didn’t go.  For the next several months, whenever I touched an object with the palm side of my pinky, I felt it on the other side.  And vice versa.  It was bizarre to say the least.

During my two months or so of physical therapy, I observed many other patients seeking treatment to recover from and compensate for their injuries.  I often thought about what would happen when people didn’t have access to such treatment.  And I didn’t have any solutions.  It never occurred to me that there could be a manual to help. 

Earlier this week, Exile1981 emailed me an address for Low Cost Physiotherapy Aids, a 51-page pdf of a guidebook published by the Appropriate Health Resources and Technologies Action Group Ltd., 1982.  It shows, as stated in the introduction, “how to make simple aids for exercising different parts of the body.  The aids can be used in hospital or at home.”

As this was written to address needs in third-world countries, the materials are inexpensive and readily available around the house.  The devices can be easily made with simple tools every family should already have on hand.  The only drawback, as also indicated in the introduction, is that the patient must work closely with the medical adviser so that exercises are adapted to suit the patient.

So take a quick look-see, print it up, tuck it away, and hope you and yours never need it.  (You do know that if you don’t print it up, you will wish you had.  Right?  Cheap insurance.) 

References:

https://www.zetatalk7.com/docs/Medical/Low_Cost_Physiotherapy_Aids_1982.pdf