Using Your Hands

updated 3/26/2015 

1.  Invest in a stress ball.  These are usually made of gel or foam and fit in the hand.  Some health depts and banks give them away.  I've even seen them as promos for buisnesses and at fairs.  An idea of an exercise would be to squeeze it 20 times.

 

2.  Do Silly Putty or clay.   I once had an OT that used something that looked like Silly Putty.  She would have me press down with a finger to make an indent.  Then she would take and re-shape, and then have me press with another finger.

3.  Get a handwriting book. It's just easiest (and cheapest) to use what the kids use.

4.  Clapping

5. Snap your fingers

6.  Touch thumb to each finger (a lot of neuros will have this in their exam)

Some activities are good.  Try for 5 min with the bad hand before giving up and going about your usual way. Things like washing your hands, wiping a table, and tying your shoes.  In everything you do, just try with your bad hand (this may only mean to reach toward it).  (I started turning off a light with my bad hand.  This meant reaching to the switch.  I then let gravity do its job.  As my hand fell, it would brush the switch and turn it off.  Now I don't have to do that anymore.)

Oral-Motor Exercises

speech exercises

These are actual speech exercises.  I am copying this hand-out here.  It is the best I've seen.  I've kept mine over 5 years in a plastic protective sleeve. 

Highlight it.  Put your cursor on the highlighted area and right click.  Print.  It will most likely be 2 pages.  Just do a few exercises. Select new ones when you need a change.

ORAL EXERCISES

Please practice the  exercises checked

_____ times a day

_____ repetitions each.

MOUTH AND LIP EXERCISES

1.  Open and close your mouth slowly/quickly.  Be sure your lips are all the way closed.  Repeat.

2.  Pucker your lips, as for a kiss, then relax.  Repeat.

3.  Spread lips into a big smile, hold then relax.  Try to make both sides of your mouth even.  Repeat.

4.  Pucker, hold, smile, hold.  Try to make both sides of your mouth even.  Repeat this alternating movement without holding.

5.  Close your lips tightly and press together.  Hold for 3-5 seconds.  Relax and repeat.

6.  Move your jaw from side to side as slow as you can.  Relax  and repeat.

7.  Puff your cheeks up with air.  Hold the air in for 3-5 seconds.  Try not to let the air escape out of your lips or nose.  Rerlax and repeat.

8.  Same as exercise 15.  Tap your right cheek with your index finger while holding air in your cheeks Try not to let air escape through your lips or nose.  Relax and repeat.

TONGUE EXERCISES

9.  Stick out your tongue so that it is in the middle of your mouth and it does not go off to the side.  Hold that position for 3-5 seconds.  Relax and repeat.

10.  Stick out your tongue and move it slowly from corner to corner.  Relax and repeat.  Repeat moving your tongue quickly.

11.  Stick out your tongue and try to touch your chin with the tongue tip.  Relax and repeat.

12.  Stick out your tongue as far as you can and try to reach your nose with the tongue tip.  Don' t use your bottom lip or your fingers to help.   Hold that position for 3-5 seconds.  Relax and repeat.

13.  Hold a spoon  steady and upright (like a popsicle).  Push your tongue tip against the back of the spoon.  Relax and repeat.

14.  While holding your head steady, pretend to lick a sucker moving the tongue tip from down  to up.

15.   Move your tongue all around the inside of your lips in a circle as completely as you can touching the upper lip, corner, lower lip and corner.  Relax and repeat.  Do the same exercise moving your tongue around the outside of your lips.

Medicaid-The Govt Program

        

Medicaid - The Government Medical Program

   
http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MedicaidGenInfo/
This is the main site.

This is a big topic to cover.  It will take many times for me to add  to this, so check back to see if I added to it.  Sometimes I might refer to Medi-Cal.  California adds its money to the Medicaid money and therefore can call the program Medi-Cal (a combo of of the 2 names).  Some states will call the program something else, some call it Medicaid, and some don't offer it at all.  There is a wide variation and you will have to find out your state rules and names.

Medicaid is the government program for medical care    One would need this if they didn't have medical insurance.  Also, if the cost for medical care is too high for one to meet, then  use it.  I found a great description of Medicaid:

Medicaid is a medical assistance program jointly financed by state and federal governments for low income individuals and is embodied in 42 U.S.C. §1396 et seq (http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/42/ch7schXIX.html). It was first enacted in 1965 as an amendment to the Social Security Act of 1935. Today, Medicaid is a major social welfare program and is administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (http://www.cms.hhs.gov/), formerly known as the Health Care Financing Administration.

Among the services that Medicaid covers are: in-patient hospital services, out-patient hospital services, laboratory and x-ray services, skilled nursing home services, physicians' services, physical therapy, hospice care, and rehabilitative services. Patients are restricted when selecting who will take care of their needs by selecting from pre-approved physicians and other providers of medical care. Because physicians are not fully reimbursed for services provided to Medicaid patients, many of them limit the number of Medicaid patients they see.    (http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Medicaid)

Because eligibility requirements vary from state to state, you should apply.  There's no telling if you qualify.  Basically, if you are low income and disabled, you should apply.  Low income is the key.  Sometimes you can qualify with a higher income but there is a share of cost, or co-pay.  This might be worth it if you have medical expenses that exceed this (i.e. the month you pay your insurance premium).  

If you have savings or an inheritance then you should first consult a lawyer before applying.  For example in my case, my father can't leave me anything because the state will take it (he consulted a lawyer).  It will be up to my sisters to make sure my children will get property that has been in the family.  The house I live in belongs to my father.  When he dies, a sister will get the deed and I can live in the house.