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My brother-in-law has a tbi and suffers from brain abscesses.

His physical therapists are working on loosening up his right arm, leg, and his core. His right side, his predominant side, was affected. He uses his right hand to pick up and drink from his cup and his index finger to spell on his alphabet board. Are there any exercises you can recommend to help bring back and finesse the use of his right hand, especially since that's how he communicates? 

This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.

1
Occupational Therapist

I’m happy to hear that he’s in some therapy. That's good, it might be beneficial to maybe see if you can get an OT consult, but I would also just make sure outside of his therapy sessions that you're doing passive range of motion of the hand. It's going to be really important to make sure that the joints are loose and there's no limitation in range of motion. I think what’s really important is repetition of movement. I know that he's able to grasp a cup, so you know repetition of doing that activity and doing other activities. It sounds like he might be able to do a little bit more, so it might be beneficial to get an OT consult too just to think about feeding and being able to hold a spoon. Maybe using built up utensils to help with grasping. We also have things like a universal cuff- if you can't grasp you can just put a cuff on the hand and put the spoon in and kind of bring up to the mouth. If the grasping doesn't help, there's other options. Just using a loofah or wash mitt to wash the face might be good to kind of see if he can start incorporating those things into more functional activities since he's getting some movement. Just doing a lot of practice, like mass practice, is really really good and shown some good for recovery. Also thinking about electrical stimulation, but you have to talk to your doctor first because if he has seizures, a pacemaker, or cancer, it shouldn't be done. So talk to the doctor first, but with electrical stimulation, electrodes are placed on the weak muscles and help re-educate those muscles to build strength. Just kind of working on that motor learning and increasing the circulation, decreasing swelling if there's any swelling, and increasing range of motion. I think that would be beneficial for him.