Therapeutic Creations

I do regular therapy for my disease. In the beginning, it was difficult to get therapy because we were in the military stationed in Germany. We would have to drive 10 miles out of our way 3 times a week to go to a manipulation therapy - which I wasn't too keen on because the girl I started with, was switched on my my second visit, and my second therapist was not proactive, or talkative, or ... good with English. Not that I couldn't converse with her because I speak decent German. Just health-wise, I know no terminology or grammar.

When we were re-stationed in Kansas, I found a new therapist at an occupational therapy clinic. I LOVED going to occupational therapy. My therapist was really good, and she loved her job. In fact, she switched careers mid-life when her mother had cancer and needed treatment. It got her into therapy, and so she became a licensed hand therapist. Now, don't get me wrong. It's not at all what you think. Yes, there is exercising, but there are also games and skill tests. Like .... digging lite brite pegs out of playdough, or inserting 50 pins into a tiny peg board, or finding the pennies in a bag full of change. All done one handed mind you. But, there were also difficult tasks like stretching ropes, and the arm cycle, and these weird stretches that would make me light headed.

Since I can't have therapy forever, I have come up with different things I do to keep my arm and hand healthy. My favorite is crafting. I scrapbook a lot. I will work for hours and get lots of pages done. I plan them, execute them, and I'm not half bad at my simple styled pages. My husband even bought me a Cricut machine one year for my birthday. I try to use it a lot because it can do so many cool things.

Another activity is coloring, though, I have to be really careful. Coloring can be too vigorous and because I can't feel my hand, it's really hard to loosen my grip or not to tense up my hand and arm.

A close second favorite would be jewelry making. In fact, my jewelry making inspired me to take a friend's advice and start my own Etsy shop. https://www.etsy.com/shop/TherapeuticCreations. I love making earrings in particular. You can never have enough earrings. But I also do a lot of barrettes, some bracelets and a few necklaces.

Another fun form of therapy is comic drawing. http://doniellcharie.doodlekit.com/. I draw stupid comics badly (yes, on purpose) that are taken from things happen in my everyday life. It's quite enjoyable since I like to make fun of a lot of things like people who say stupid stuff ... and do stupid stuff.

Other forms of therapy include (but are not limited to) Lite Brite, massaging vitamin E oil into my scar and scar tissue, hand and arm exercises, red band exercises, warm water manipulation, bracing, Kinesio taping (which is fabulous and I would recommend to anyone with horrible scar tissue issues and messed up muscles), just to name a few.