When I was in the hospital and doing inpatient rehab my brain was not working very well. Now, cognitively, it works pretty well I guess but it certainly didn’t then. I wrote a post entitled Synergistic Movement. In it I described the movement I experienced right after my stroke. I had a flexion synergy so when I would perform a movement all of my muscles would flex. So when I did something, anything, with my right hand for instance, every muscle on my right side would flex. This means that my elbow would bend, my wrist would curl up, my shoulder would elevate. It happened really bad with walking. Synergistic movement does not allow your muscles to work independently. I once asked my physical therapist, who worked on the STROKE REHAB floor of the hospital, why this was happening and her response was “maybe because you’re putting so much effort into it.” You’d think a PT who works everyday with people who have had a stroke would know why that was happening. But she didn’t. It went away for me. It’s normal for synergistic movement to happen right after a stroke. It’s freaky and weird, I know, but it should go away. Read this.
Categories: Brain stuff, Recovery, Rehab, Stroke stuff
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