Hand therapy continues....

Where I go for physical therapy, they always start you off easy with very simple and low resistance exercises. Then, a few weeks into your program, they start really working you hard to get to the real meat 'n' potatoes of your therapy regimen, and that seems to be where I am right now in my hand rehab program. At first they had me doing some simple stretches and hand exercises, most of which I could do at home, but now, they have me doing some really tough theraputty exercises that require some resistance in order to strengthen my surgically repaired finger. It's pretty painful and tough and it always hurts somewhat, even after a good solid warm up on an "arm bike" beforehand. Still, it's what I need to be doing at this juncture, especially since this marks my 6th week since surgery and although the incision is fairly well healed, the pain and stiffness is still very much a part of my life right now and I lack the full function of that finger as yet. I've tried several times to pick up a coffee cup with it and it doesn't work. Too weak, too painful. That is what they're trying to help me with right now in PT - to regain strength as well as fine motor control in that finger. It's amazing how much you take for granted how much you use your index finger, and even though I am right handed, I still require the use of my left index finger a lot more than I often realized until now. I use it for everything from braiding my hair to tying my shoes. So having it tight, stiff and sore and still not fully functional is, at best, frustrating. I know I still have a long road to full recovery ahead, as Jay told me today in PT when I asked him why it was still so stiff and sore this far into things. He said that it's still very much healing and will take a while yet to fully recover, so just be patient. Ha! Not my strong suit, I'm afraid!
One of the more interesting exercises that Jay had me do today was to use something called a "Purdue Pegboard", where you have to take these teeny tiny little tubes and put them into the pegs, and then put a washer on them after you finish putting the pegs in the holes. The whole point of this exercise is to regain lost fine motor control, so I imagine that I will do this again on Wednesday when I return for my next PT session. It was really tough to do this because I am not left handed and my dexterity on my less dominant side has never been great on a good day, but with a stiff and sore finger, to have to pick up these little tubes and put them in a hole and then put a washer on top of that and do that almost all the way down the peg board was extraordinarily challenging! I had no idea that this exercise would be so hard! I had to do it for five minutes, and then I had to do the reverse - first take the washers off and then the little tubes and put them back in their containers, using, again, my left index finger and my left thumb only. I felt clumsy and stupid seeing how poor my dexterity is with a surgically repaired finger, but by the same token, I kind of enjoyed the challenge. Maybe I can find an old cribbage board somewhere and practice this exercise at home. It would be very similar to what we did in therapy and it would continue to help me regain my lost fine motor control until I feel it coming back some more, which I know is going to take some time, but....I must be patient. Like all tough things that life has a way of throwing at us, this, too, shall pass.