ot, rolling backpacks, and fairy wings

My first occupational therapy appointment Friday went really well. My doc's name is Jenny, and she's great. I learned all kinds of things, and it was really... different. It was even different than I thought it was. It was really different. 


I got these exercises to do, because my upper body strength is literally half that of people my age. The average 16 year old has 57 lbs of grip strength, if I remember right, and mine was about 30. The average 16 year old has about 17 lbs of pinch strength (again, don't quote me on that, I think I remember though), and I have slightly over 10. I'm pretty weak. It doesn't really surprise me though, I've always been weaker than my friends. It literally took Jenny NO effort to push my arms down, and less to collapse my wrists. I'm REALLY hypermobile. She was kind of amazed at how loose my joints really are. 

I did though, get these really awesome finger splints. You see, my fingers collapse with the slightest bit of pressure put on them, and they have absolutely no muscle strength. They collapse when I type. Honestly. Its ridiculous. But anyway, she gave me these splints that keep the top joints in my fingers from bending backwards! It was great! 

Clunky Splints!!!

HALFWAY FUNCTIONAL FINGER!!!

They look clunky, but they have rings that do the same thing and I'm looking into getting them. They're expensive, but they work at least. It was really exciting for me to put my finger down on the table and not see it arch into a rainbow- thats what I call them. My "rainbow" fingers. Aside from that, I now have a four-square ball tat I use for exercises, and a wash cloth. I do some different things with each of them, but they're both for upper body strength. I won't get to do anything that helps my legs and my hips for another little while- actually, it will be April 25th. So I have about another month to wait. I'm not particularly excited about the wait, but thats okay. 

Rainbow Fingers!! (And no, thats not the furthest they go...)

Another big thing since my last post is my rolling backpack. I'm excited about that because not only is it big enough to fit all of my school stuff in it, but it's super-cute. :) I should take a picture... I really like it. It came in the mail two days ago, and I can't wait until the end of spring break- I get to take it to school with me and use it. 

Wicked Awesome Backpack!!!

Last but not least, I worked yesterday. As you can tell from my profile picture, I'm a facepainter. I wear fairy wings and make little kids smile. Its a great job. I love it. Its also exhausting which is why I've been sitting on my behind all day staring at this computer and doing homework. I've just been so exhausted. I woke up sore everywhere, and I felt like there were bruises on the bottoms of my feet. It was crazy- I slept until noon. I only worked for two hours even, and I basically chilled out after work. I just sat around, went to my boyfriends house where I sat on the couch watching movies on his new Dish TV subscription... His mom decided that cable was too expensive, and they get two months of free movie channels. I'm excited because in the two years that we've been together, he has never had internet and that makes playing Words with friends on my ipod at his house very difficult... anyway... I sat around. I wasn't even out late. I came home at 9 and went to bed. Which means that I effectively slept for 15 hours and was still sore. AM still sore. Its crazy... EDS sucks. 


Sorry about the quality of the pics in this post- I tool them last minute with my computer. :) Thats also why the JanSport logo on the backpack is backwards... Whoops!!


caesura