E-Stim After TBI: Kelly Part Seventeen
Our previous part about Kelly, ends with her battle for independence by leaving her cane behind her occupational therapist. This act then leads to a fortuitous encounter with her physical therapist. She also touches on the use of an E-Stim after TBI to help the troubles she has with her left hand.Kelly picks up her story:
And then, we’re walking up by the nurse’s station going back to my room, and neurologist just happens to be standing there. And I’m walking along and PT is, they’re talking to him. And she says Kelly, what is wrong with your hand? I said, it won’t work. It’s just frozen. She said we’ll see about that, and so I keep walking, keep walking, and then she says, I’m going to come get you for more therapy. I said okay.
So I get back to my room and then in comes the physical therapist. Said let’s go down to the PT room. Okay, so I walk with my little trusty quad cane down to the PT room, and she lays my hand out, like somebody going to take your blood. Lays my hand down, she puts two electric nodes on my forearm here, and puts a metal rod to something else, and it’s, it’s called internal stimulation or I-Stim. They also have E-Stim which is electric stimulation.
And as soon as she hit that, that button with the tube, the rod, my fingers shook. I mean I broke into tears right there. I started crying. Because my hands came open and they didn’t go back closed. And then she says, let’s keep working. She gave me a little ball to start squeezing. When I did my internship, back at Stallworth, I was a recreational therapist, there were a lot of people there that had the same thing done. Their hands were open but they were wearing an open glove to keep the fingers from running back up. (They used an E-stim after TBI)
The E-stim After TBI Was Miraculous for Kelly
What is that called what she did to you?
It was called either I-stim or E-stim. Internal stimulation which stimulated the muscles.
The E-stim after TBI is a miracle for you?
I felt so. Her name was Christy. I remember that because she was my, I say my savior, though I know she wasn’t physically my savior. She was my mobility savior.