Hands

Samantha was born with hands, but she has never used them properly. Most of the time they are tight, balled up into fists. They have been this way since she was an infant. We have worked on having her open them up, and we've seen improvements...but she still has a long way to go. There have been moments when she actually even relaxes and we see her hands laid out "normally" on a surface. That's quite a sight, and I get really excited!

Recently, with our new at-home therapy program we are doing, I do an exercise with her hands. I think I'm supposed to do it about 10 times, but I do it all the time...every time I think about it. And lately, that's been a lot. Plus, Analisa, my wonderful sister-in-law, regularly does these hand exercises with her. It takes about 2 minutes, and we're done.

Results? In 2 short weeks, her hands are opening up. She doesn't fight me anymore. This morning, even, she sat still as I did it...stretching her fingers back as far as they'd go. It was amazing. Earlier this morning, in PT, Kathy was shocked at the use of her hands! She asked me if this was because of the program we had started -- I told her that I didn't know exactly, but there has been definite changes since we started. That is soooo exciting!

We are all born with parts of our bodies for a reason. We have hands for a reason. And what if, just what if Samantha could use her hands better? Maybe she could explore more. Maybe she wouldn't feel the need to put everything into her mouth because she could explore with her hands instead. Maybe, she could one day she could even feed herself! Oh, the possibilities are endless when you can use your hands! AHHH Wahoo for progress!