Clarification/Follow-up by vijay on 12/20/02 8:06 pm:
Jefferson:

thanks for all the help ... i will see if I can reach him via email!

Clarification/Follow-up by tutorjb on 12/21/02 11:03 am:
Dear Vijay,
Thank you for your generous rating. I explained more for you in reply to your follow-up question and hope it helps. Be sure you tell Dr. Steve more about the details of the residuals from the stroke than you told me so he'll be better able to direct you to resources on the web. Dr, Steve isn't an M.D., either, but isa minister in Texas who suffers from severe cerebral palsy and knows many resources on the web. Dr. Steve uses Dragon Voice Recognition; something you might consider as I explained in my other answer for you.
Yours,


Jefferson ;-)

Clarification/Follow-up by tutorjb on 12/22/02 11:43 am:
Dear Vijay,
I've not been able to figure out the Answerway site very well yet. Did you receive my explanantion of range-of-motion finger exercizes I gave in response to yourfollow-up a few days ago? If not, I can explain them again. To help your fingers, you first need to work on your shoulder, elbow and wrist with stretches an occupational therapist can teach you. Then you'll be better able to isolate yourfingers to improve their function. By the way, please rate this answer and then ask another follow-up, if you'd like. Dr. Steve is expecting your email. Please let me know if you're unable to reach him so I can be positive I gave you the right address. Yours,

Jefferson....

Clarification/Follow-up by vijay on 12/22/02 1:52 pm:
Actually dr steve already joined as drsteve but hasnt signed up as an expert yet!

Clarification/Follow-up by tutorjb on 12/23/02 2:07 pm:
Dear Vijay,
I still don't know whether or not you received my explanation of range-of-motion exercizes for your fingers. You need to keep them limber so you can work toimprove their function.

Yours,

Jefferson :-)

Clarification/Follow-up by vijay on 12/23/02 2:46 pm:
sorry jefferson .. i did receive everthing you sent me including the range of motion suggestions and excercises

Clarification/Follow-up by tutorjb on 12/24/02 9:33 am:
Dear Vijay,
I was wondering. At Askme, people could ask particular experts questions and they'd still be public so all could read the answers. Users could also make questions private so only the asker and the person answering could see the Q&A. Here, if a user asks a particular expert a question, does that make it private so no one else can view it?
It'd be nice to have both options available. I was also wondering whether or not personally asked questions could be made FAQs.

Yours,


Jefferson :-)

Clarification/Follow-up by vijay on 12/24/02 9:51 am:
I am working on making any answers into faqs easily ,, any questions asked of experts privately will still have to be considered privste questions but once the faq system has been improved these can always be made into Faqs as long as the expert keeps the clus to the question askers identity a secret

Clarification/Follow-up by tutorjb on 12/24/02 10:23 am:
Dear Vijay,
Itmight be simpler if you followed AskMe's system. All answers could be sent to users that an expert had made a FAQ except those specifically asked privately. Questions asked of a particular expert were not considered private unless the askeror expert made them so. It worked very well.
I'm in a rush to get everything ready for tomorrow so you needn't reply until after Christmas.

Yours,


Jefferson :-)

Clarification/Follow-up by tutorjb on 12/27/02 10:02 am:
Dear Vijay,
I only have experience with stroke victims who are either unable to use the extensor muscles in their fingers to open their hands or are unable to use the flexor muscles to close their hands, but range-of-motion exercizes are important for both. In your case, where you seem to have uncontrolled, involuntary movement of your right fingers, you may need a different set of exercizes. For instance, an occupational therapist might have you hold your right hand still in a particular position while you do other, specified movementswith your left fingers. I'm unfamiliar with the involuntary action in your right fingers so you should probably see an occupational therapist immediately to have a series of exercizes tailored to meet your needs. I don't think keeping your joints limber can do sanything, but help until you are able to have a series of exercizes designed specifically for your particular problem by a professional.

My best wishes for you,


Jefferson....

Clarification/Follow-up by vijay on 12/27/02 10:50 am:
thx jefferson!

Clarification/Follow-up by tutorjb on 01/03/03 11:46 am:
Dear Vijay,
I'vejust spent three hours searhing thewebfor more information about hand orthotics for you. I mostly found foot-related information, but came across a few sites that might help give you an idea of what's available to help you.
First let me distinguish between Orthotics and Prosthetics. Prothetics are things like artificial limbs and devices that are implanted inside the body. Orthotics include all manner of braces and are worn on the outside of affected body parts. The Robinson Inrigger glove I told you about is a leather glove with open finger holes and metal rods for positioning your fingers in any manner an Occupational therapist decides will most benefit your particular condition. It can be very difficult to put on until it has done its job for a while. I was taught to wear mine at night while sleeping so I could use my bad hand as a helping hand while awake,butI could also wearit during the day ifit was convenient and I did as often as I could. It was a tremendous help. In your case, from the little I understand, such a glove might help you develop a more natural hand position and at least prevent your fingers from being able to interfere with your typing while doing its work to improve your hand's function. I found a few sites that might interest you, but you'll need to search for hand products since there are many more concerning foot problems. You might look at www.oandp.com, oandp.org(that'sthe Journal of Prothetics andOrthotics Online Library), www.abcop.org is the American Board for Certification in Orthotics and Prosthetics, you can request free information at www.medcatalog.com/orthoped.htm, www.DocOrtho.com might lead you to something. The only site dedicated to hands I could find was at www.trugrasp.com, but had many choices. It might be www.Tru-Grasp.com. I know there were hand splints there. Most of these sites are part of webrings concerning Orthotics and special gloves for hands. I hope Dr. Steve was able to help. I just sent him links to various sites I encountered during my search and he should be able to refine them for you. Yours has been the most serious question I've received orseen on the boards since coming to Answerway and I'mhonored you asked me for help, but sorry I can't offer more. If I think of something else,I'll be sure to add it for you. I just type(sort of)with one hand and try to keep my bad hand loose and spread on my thigh as I'm typing. You should definitely get a referral to be seen by an Occupational therapist at, hopefully, a teaching hospital; but if you can only get to the therapy department of a non-teaching hospital there have been great advances since 1974 when I was first injured a registered Occupational Therapist can help you with. To my knowledge, they didn't have special gloves to help when I was first treated, but do now. I wish I could offer more and I'll be trying to think of something and relay anything I learn to you. I'll ask my doctor about your condition the nexttime I see him(in about a month)and let you know what, if anything, he has to say.
Yours,
Jefferson

Clarification/Follow-up by vijay on 01/03/03 12:54 pm:
thanx jefferson .. I am seeing an Occupational therapist now based on your suggestions ... and she is pretty good and we have biweekly seesions now ... Blue Cross is even helping a little with the costs ...

Clarification/Follow-up by tutorjb on 01/03/03 2:36 pm:
Dear Vijay,
I'm happy to hear you're getting professional help. Be sure to ask her about any special orthotics, such as a Robinson Inrigger Glove, she thinks might help. Sometimes there's so much, they forget things unless you bring them up. I'm just using a Robinson Inrigger glove as an example. You might need something entirely different, but still called an orthotic. There might be a special hand clinic near you you could check out. There was one close to UNC Hospitals that wasn't part of Memorial Hospital at UNC-Chapel Hill,N.C., itself. I heard from Dr. Steve. He said he was waiting to hear from you and I told him you were probably waiting for him to sign on as an expert so you could ask him here, but you're under professional care now,so you should be in good shape.
Good luck,
Jefferson :-)

Clarification/Follow-up by tutorjb on 01/07/03 11:20 am:
Dear Vijay,
I'm concerned that you said you were only receiving occupational therapy bi-weekly. If you mean only once every two weeks, that doesn't sound like enough to me. When I first had physical, occupational and speach therapy in 1974 while recovering in the hospital(one with a good therapy department), I had physical and occupational therapy daily for the three months I was there until being discharged from the hospital and more as an out-patient. 24 years later, I thought I could use more occupational therapy and my doctor refered me for it. I was covered by Partners Blue cross insurance at the time and the therapists only approved 4 sessions ofthe 13 my doctorrecommended(the maximum covered by Partners).
It turns out that therapists consider themselves teachers and not motivators, even though the best are very good motivators, and there were a lot of questions concerning my insurance(Partners). I think if I'd had regular BC/BS atthe time, the therapists would have approved more sessions, but even so they had me come in every week for 4 weeks and it worked out pretty well. I wonder why they're only seeing you every other week and how long they expect to continue your therapy. It sounds like you're getting the short end of the stick, especially if you've never had any sort of physical or occupational therapy before.
If it hurts, that's good and is an indication that you need to be doing what hurts. If something seems impossible, keep trying. What you're doing is training nearby brain cells to do the work of those that were injured or destroyed by your stroke.
I'm very sorry and a little surprised that it was your dominant(right)hand that was affected. Since my injury I've noticed the disabled much more than before and it appears that it's generally the non-dominant side that's affected, but that might just be the people I've observed. Most have had their left side affected and the only person I've met who had his right side affected was left-handed.
You should also see an Opthamologist about your affected eye as soon as possible. There may be something new they can do to help it or at least help you preserve the function in your good eye. Maybe there are eye exercizes you should be doing to preserve the sight in your good eye by not overworking it or something. I really don't know, but it would seem as if you'd want to wear especially good UV protection on your good eye and do other things to preserve it. There may even be something they can do to help restore the vision in your affected eye. There are a lot of recent advancements in ultrasound and laser proceedures to help.
If you're wearing an orthosis for your right hand, I'd like to know what its called and how often you wear it in order to advise furture askers who may have a similar problem.
I consider yours the most important question I've ever received here or at AskMe.com where there were medical experts and wish to be as much help as I can.
Find out how many therapy sessions they have planned for you and why only once every two weeks. It seems to me that you should be getting more. It may just be an insurance deal preventingyou from receiving therapy more often.
You might also ask the therapy department to refer you to an organization called Assistive Living. They will provide things like hand grips, one-handed nail clippers andother devices to help you in day-to-day activities to help you live indepentdantly and safely. I'll be waiting to hear what you learn in these areas so I can make further suggestions to help you.
Yours,
JB

Clarification/Follow-up by tutorjb on 01/17/03 1:24 pm:
Dear Vijay,
Be sure to concentrate very hard and do the exercizes the Occupational therapist recommends as often as you can. If you decide you'd like more therapy at a later date, even at a different facility, the therapists may decide you only want motivation and deny the services you deserve like what happened to me. Did you ask why you were only getting treatments bi-weekly and how long they planned the treatments to continue? They should give you a series of illustrated prints explaining each exercize to take home with you either as they teach the exercizes or when they've finished to remind you what to do.

Vijay - I'm worried about the ruckuss going on in the forum concerning an innocent remark I made about Tarot Cards. A few days ago, Princess0061 attacked my stand on psychic matters and wanted me to respond privately. I can only surmise so that she could continue her attacks unnoticed. I declined the "question" and stated my reasons in the declination. I always do my best to answer questions in my declination even when I decline,which isn't often.
Yesterday, Dalthaeus asked the same sort of "question" and threatened to restrict my accesss to the psychic Qboards if I didn't answer him.
As with Princess, I answered in my declination. I don't know what Dathaeus has planned, but am worried about it. Of all the owner/operators of AnswerWay, you know me best and can be the best judge of my use of the site. I enjoy Psychics and many of the questions there are pleas for help that could best be answered in Disabilities or in the Relationships category.
When I declined Princess's question, I told her the true fact that Houdini had debunked Tarot cards decades ago when he was exposing phony psychics who were just preying on the fears of the uninformed and told Dalthaeus the same thing in my reason for declining his question.
When Princess first attacked me, I didn't see any use in filing an abuse report since she'd probably be the one to judge it.
I do believe in psychic powers,but not to the exclusion of common sense and think they arise from the subconscience or other, unknown demensions. You may be old enough or have seen new versions ofthe old magic 8-ball that one shook to cause a piece inside to come to a view-hole to say: "No," "Yes," "Maybe," "Probably," and other vague answers like that. In my opinion, Tarot card-reading is on the same level as those "magic" 8-balls and feel I can be more help to people asking under Psychics by relying not only on things that happen in my subconscience, but on my common sense, extensive education and the hard knocks you are aware I've lived through. I've been asked to apologize, but that would be an admission of guilt and I'm not guilty of anything. I intend to refrain from making public comments about Tarot cards or anything else in that realm in the forums and hope you have enough power here and understanding to prevent Dalthaeus from restricting my use of AnswerWay. I admit to being a PC moron. I've only had a PC since 2,000 when Vocational Rehabilitation got me a very old,almost dead one to use as an online math tutor to try to supplement the very little SSDI I receive. I can't support myself on the SSDI I receive so am still having to live at home. I am able to help my mother, who is also disabled, in certain ways and am delighted you have created this marvelous site where I can share my expertise to help others. I hope you'll be able to defend me here. I don't intend to say anything more about Tarot card-reading or anything ofthe sort even though I know it's just a toy with no real powers to make legitimate predictions.
You may qualify for some amount of Social Security Disability Income, yourself, either based upon your own payments into the system or on your parents' if you were disabled before you had a chance to work a regular job and I can tell you how to apply and what to expect after your application if you'd like to ask me another question about that.

Cordially,

Jefferson :)

Clarification/Follow-up by vijay on 01/17/03 2:42 pm:
Jefferson:

Thanks for writing and sharing your thoughts .. I am having a hard time defending you but am trying my best ... Jay and me are the only two people who run Answerway so only Jays and my opinions matter ... I am sure that as long as you stop posting inflammatory stuff on the boards and forum that you will be very welcome here ... I do urge you not to name past/present askme or answerway IDs in public posts ... If you do get any further harrassment here please do submit an abuse report ... I am the only one who receives them but when I am out or need a second opinion I do forward stuff to Jay ...

By the Way, when I speak about Jay here its the same person as Dathaeus .. Its just that we have been best friends for over 12 years including 5 yrs of being roommates... so I usually just call him Jay

Hope this clarifies things for you

Vijay

PS. My thearapy is twice a week .. I am sorry to confuse things by saying biweekly but I grew up in India and am used to saying biweekly when I mean twice a week ... its like how we use thrice ... heh

Clarification/Follow-up by tutorjb on 01/25/03 6:53 pm:
Dear Vijay,
An easy way to remember that "bi" is used in America to mean once every two of something is to think of the 1976 bicentennial of the 1776 American Revolution. That was once in two hundred years, not twice in each hundred years. You're doing remarkably well for someone who grew up in India instead of the U.S. How's the therapy coming along, by the way? I know you can get attached to your therapist and be disappointed when they tell you it's over so see if you can learn how many sessions total or how long they have therapy planned for you so it won't be a shock when they tell you the next week is your last.

Yours,

Jefferson....