I noticed in the last couple days more swelling in my son's hands then the minor normal, more so on his right side. The arm is also involved... a bit of swelling in the forearm and upper arm. I did range of motion, elevated his arm and will limit the salt intake. Any ideas why this would be happening? We haven't seen much of this before...yes there is daily swelling of the feet and ankles after being up for 12+ hours in his chair, but that is normal. Connor is 19, broke his neck last June of 2008 when he dislocated both shoulders, which in turn broke his neck... severe whiplash. We suspect that he has torn rotator cuffs and some shoulder damage, as his shoulders easily pop out. The doc. is working on getting him an MRI to see what we need to do to stabilize those shoulders again.
So the question is... What would cause swelling? Lack of movement? I haven't done as much range of motion on his upper body due to the instability of his shoulders... I will be more aggressive in that area again. How to I reduce the swelling? Any ideas, or experiences with this would be greatly appreciated.
Connor is suffering from quadriplegia, and is a C2, injury level was at C4/C5.... They don't know why it is acting so high a level. But after surgery something changed.... Finger movement has began, and he has some toe movement on demand.
www.connorwatch.org
Thanks again, Cherie' (the momma)
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Swelling in arms and hands
- By connorsmomma
- Posted September 9, 2009 at 12:35 pm · 2 replies
- In New paralysis/rehabilitation
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- By graybeard
- Posted September 11, 2009 at 2:06 pm
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Cherie'.....not sure wha would cause the hands to swell. A good place to ask this question would be to go to CareCure.Org, and pose the question under the forum Care. They have nurses on duty there that may offer some insight as to what is going on. Best of luck to both of ya'll.
- By Patricia7
- Posted September 12, 2009 at 11:21 am
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I don't know for sure but the MRI should help. Sometimes arms/hands swell due to positioning especially if they do not have active movement to help move lymph fluids along. Sometimes you will see it with injuries. But that will be up to the Doctor to find, since he seemed to have suffered a lot of upper extremity trauma in his injury.
The best thing would be to position up on a pillow to help the return flow, if he is able to move his hands and fingers as much as possible to get the muscles to help with the flow.
My daughter intially had wrapping from an OT, that was individualized to all fingers and thumb as well as her hand to help with the swelling. She had suffered a broken wrist /arm along with her neck and, back and head injury. She had no active movement of her hands at that time. Everthing was based on positioning, splinting, gentle stretching with range of motion, I even used the electrical stim system to facilitate movement.. you should ask the therapist about these options as well. At first her hands were flaccid, but within a month or two they increased in spasticity and it became harder to open her hands and stretch her fingers... if this occurs do not wait to get help as joints can be damaged and range of motion can be lost quickly.
Hang in there, he sounds like he is making some gradual recoveries... my daughter today 4 + years later can use her hands to type on the computer, put on makeup, brush her hair and her teeth.... She is not a fast typist and uses the Dragon Speak program if she is writing papers for school. I wish you the best.. Patricia
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