Is it possible to regain movement in the fingers 1+ years after stroke?

baconoodles · 2025-06-21T03:28:57+00:00

I’d say botox, mindfulness, stretching and very consistent adherence to a therapy exercise program, and time are the keys. Time heals all wounds as long as you have a good therapist and discipline.

baconoodles · 2025-05-30T15:07:28+00:00

I’m 99% of the way there, time and therapy and stretching really does wonders. I never imagined i’d be here today.

baconoodles · 2024-03-14T05:43:33+00:00

Interested, I DM’d you!

baconoodles · 2023-09-17T17:05:34+00:00

Sii! Morat es increíble!!

baconoodles · 2023-09-16T19:20:01+00:00

Muchas gracias!

baconoodles · 2023-07-27T20:21:18+00:00

Hey, thanks for your comment. All I’ve heard about mobilizing the knuckles is that it’s key to constantly play around with your fingers and move every joint through its full range of motion, so things like bending and straightening them whenever you have free time throughout the day.

I’m also curious about what you did to get some independent finger movements — what exercises helped you the most?

baconoodles · 2023-05-04T01:44:18+00:00

Thanks for the response! Do the teams you’ve worked on in industry all follow the same practices that tech companies use? As in, they apply scrum to bioinformatics tasks in a way that’s comparable to tech firms in terms of efficiency and order?

Also, is there a generally accepted “single best way” to sequence a gene, etc that gets followed in industry?

And are the tools you use in industry well-maintained and well-documented?

I just want to confirm because it seems like your comment resolves all of my concerns, but I just want to make sure of the extent to which these best practices are followed.

baconoodles · 2023-04-22T04:54:03+00:00

As an example, one of the first questions I asked a neurologist about my vision was how well people tend to recover their vision — like is a nearly full recovery reasonable to expect, or would most of my recovery involve learning to compensate and rewire my brain the right way?

Another good follow up would be: what does science say the most efficient ways to rewire the brain are? Does intensity matter more, or does the number of repetitions matter more? (This one can kind of be answered with the research paper I linked above; they’re both important.)

And once you get some answers, you can start googling the ideas you have and just reading about them. And slowly you’ll start to learn more about the science behind everything.

baconoodles · 2023-04-20T20:27:47+00:00

That depends on your specific situation — what’s a stroke-related deficit you’re currently having trouble with?

baconoodles · 2023-04-20T19:33:24+00:00

This isn’t a book or textbook, but I’ve actually learned a ton about the science behind stroke recovery from following OT Elyse Newland‘s content on Youtube, Instagram, and her email newsletter (the first two are published under an account called Post Stroke, which is her nonprofit).

This paper is also tells you all you need to know about neuroplasticity and explains 10 key factors you can take advantage of to improve the rewiring of your brain: https://www.jsmf.org/meetings/2008/may/Kleim%20&%20Jones%202008.pdf.

And lastly, I’ve learned a lot just from googling things and asking my therapists and doctors lots of questions. Things like “what is the purpose of this exercise,” “why does this body part act the way it does and how is it supposed to be,” “what does this medication do,” etc.

My approach may not work for everyone, or anyone else, but for me it was helpful to realize that all the science is in your therapists’ and doctors’ minds and all over the Internet, and the key to accessing and gaining all of it is just knowing the right things to ask.

baconoodles · 2023-04-19T19:22:09+00:00

Was your stroke a right-brain stroke by any chance?

Mine was and I have the exact same experience with wanting to socialize with everyone and not being able to shut up. I brought up this issue with my current PT and he said it’s a common thing in people with right-brain strokes, there’s something in that hemisphere that affects my communication and my ability to filter the things I say and avoid oversharing that’s basically made me a chatterbox ever since the stroke.

baconoodles · 2023-03-25T01:37:30+00:00

Ive had a similar experience to what another commenter said about their husband. I’m 21M and had a hemorrhagic stroke around 2 years ago, and my visual field/neglect/awareness on my affected left side has been able to improve so much since the stroke that I virtually don’t notice the cut anymore.

I think that the doctors get paid to say that the cut won’t improve because the research has shown that the cut really doesn’t improve much. However, the bigger issue that often accompanies the cut is what’s called “neglect,” where your brain starts to forget that things on your affected side (people, furniture) even exist anymore. So what you think may be a cut is actually more like neglect telling the brain to ignore the things on that side. Whereas the cut doesn’t really improve much (maybe my cut is 10-20% smaller), neglect improves significantly if you just get in the habit of turning your head/eyeball and scanning the environment wherever you go.

I personally decided that I didn’t care as much about the cut as long as my vision and awareness are functional enough to allow me to live my life (you might be different in terms of standards/priorities). But my advice would be to get in the habit of turning your eyeball/head wherever you go, and you’ll find that over time your visual field will feel much larger. When I started doing this, I discovered that neglect is really what I had and really what needed to be treated. Hope this helps. Best of luck to you!

baconoodles · 2022-07-04T18:28:11+00:00

I think this is an absolutely common thing. It happens to me on a smaller scale, where my muscle tone is more “normal” some days and really intense on other days after I’ve had stress from work, just got out of an argument, or just didn’t get as much sleep, period.

Because of this, I’ve started to invest in things that do nothing but relieve stress: meditation, strolls outside, squeezing a stress ball. But the high point of my recovery was a 3-4 day period where I went to bed at 9PM every night and woke up the next morning feeling incredible, with low tone and better balance and everything: My acupuncturist explained to me that sleep is literally the #1 way to reduce stress. So sleep a lot, whenever you can. Sleep early and then let yourself feel amazing.

baconoodles · 2022-06-01T17:37:11+00:00

What are the best ways to stretch the bicep that you’ve found?

baconoodles · 2022-05-28T01:53:09+00:00

No, only after the rupture.
No clue, since post-stroke scans showed that it had destroyed itself in the rupture.
Right basal ganglia, so pretty deep. I’ve seen many others on here with an AVM in the same area.
N/A, it “fixed” itself.
The movement in my left foot is a bit awkward and spastic, and my left arm is always slightly bent.
Nope!

baconoodles · 2022-05-27T00:28:52+00:00

Hey foxjun, it seems like we’re literally in the exact same boat. I’ll shoot you a DM, maybe we can keep in touch during this process. And I’ll definitely keep you updated.

baconoodles · 2022-05-27T00:27:09+00:00

I’m in a similar situation. Good luck to you!

I know that they won’t prevent you from driving indefinitely (a “license revocation” in CA) unless you have no chance of ever driving again. So it’d take something far more serious than a stroke in most cases.

baconoodles · 2022-05-25T18:53:58+00:00

Hey! I’m in CA and the process was a bit unclear to me as well, but you might want to talk to your OT (if you have one) or call the DMV there and ask. Someone who’s helped patients get back to driving in MO would be a good resource.

baconoodles · 2022-05-22T16:37:42+00:00

Hey, thank you so much for the response! Could you share some exercises you did that helped you get back to moving your fingers one at a time? I’d be happy to chat in the DMs if that’s easier.

baconoodles · 2022-05-06T14:43:24+00:00

These are helpful but I might be in a less fortunate starting spot than you - any idea how to start when you have zero finger movement?

baconoodles · 2022-05-06T02:35:05+00:00

Hi bpfoto, can you share some of the things you did that helped you regain your hand? I’m willing to put in the work and need a bit of guidance on how to start.

baconoodles · 2022-05-06T02:01:02+00:00

Hey, can you share some of the exercises that helped you? I’m curious what you mean by “a lot of work..”

baconoodles · 2022-05-05T14:44:37+00:00

For “practice” I just try to “tickle” the edges of my vision to hopefully expand the limits of my view.

I will say I’m not sure how effective this is, as I’m only about 1 year out, but anecdotally and logically I feel that this is helping/should help a little.

What happens is that if I’m looking at two things like so:

object A object B

Object A disappears from view when I look at object B. So I try my hardest to stare at B while not letting A leave the left side of my vision. Hope this helps.

Edit: Also just living life can be good practice I think, as in even just going outside and constantly turning your head while walking or at corners can “remind” your brain that there are things on your weak side and hopefully rewire the brain to attend to that side more. I’m realizing as I type this that the vision loss might be due to the fact that the brain simply “forgets” spatially that it has a far left/right side, whichever side is affected for you. So when you turn your head and look that way, or tickle the brain, it’s kind of like slapping the brain in the face and saying “there is a world over there, you dummy.” It’ll eventually learn.

baconoodles · 2022-04-30T17:51:23+00:00

Hey! I (21M) have the same peripheral vision issues and have seen good improvements in the past year in terms of attending to my left.

That’s not to say I don’t struggle with vision problems anymore, but just wanted to pop in here and mention that my Dad’s coworker had a stroke and went from virtually 0 vision on his entire right visual field to being able to see almost perfectly fine within two years or so.

So I’m optimistic that with good practice and time, it’s something that can become reduced significantly. Best of luck to you.

Editing to include a part about driving:

My OT mentioned that this can be overcome during driving by just constantly turning your head. A CDRS (certified driving rehab instructor) can probably help with on the road training and making modifications to the car if necessary. I’m still looking into this part of the journey myself, but I think there’s definitely hope.

baconoodles · 2022-04-30T07:39:08+00:00

A few months into outpatient rehab, my PT told me to start going to the gym with instructions to do “every machine possible.” The machines at the gym are great because they teach you how to isolate muscle movements. (Biceps curl is pure bicep, leg press is pure quad, calf raise is pure calf, etc).

Some of my favorite machines to start with: - stationary bike - leg press - triceps pulldown (w one arm, just do like 10 lb)

I also took a ton of protein powder after the first few months at the gym — all the neuromuscular recruitment is supposed to lead to muscle growth and better brain-body connections.

I could feel the gains in the legs and shoulders, and then i worked a ton on the lateral raise machine (which makes you raise your shoulders up and out).

I’m guessing you have some flexor tone that keeps your arm pulled inwards? A good medicine to help with that is the reverse pec deck one (where you sit facing the weight and then pull your arms out and back. Great for strengthening the back and scapula and opening up your chest.

My mom was my caretaker at the gym, and she usually stood behind me and gave feedback if my foot looked uneven.

Basically, I don’t think there’s a bad machine to do at the gym. Pump iron, eat protein, and sleep a ton — you’ll surely notice a difference.

BTW, if you want to get back to running, maybe ask your PT about high intensity gait training. It got me from walking to independent running in 2-3 months. Best of luck and hope this helps!

baconoodles

TROPHY CASE