Sunday 4 th May

I have been doing a lot of exercises today. My goal is to regain more extension of the wrist towards the forearm. I cannot accept that I will have a stiff wrist for the rest of my life. I want to be able to do push-ups, if I wish to, yoga postures such as the cobra, salutation to the sun, the dog, the cat, etc., grab jars or bottles in my right hand and pour from them without positioning my forearm to allow for a limited extension. Regaining an acceptable degree of wrist extension has become extremely important to me.

The exercises I did today:

- more sitting at the edge of a chair, with forearm on right thigh, and lifting hand upwards; a number of sets during the day plus a few more in the evening after putting my hand in hot water to loosen it up.

- flicking wrist towards the forearm, in different positions: forearm horizontal, vertical, left hand holding right forearm, etc.

- hook fist and finger extension,

- a lot of rice manipulation, does wonders for regaining fine sensitory feelings in my wooden fingers and palm; also grabbing a handful of rice and then flicking the wrist upwards.

Had a reasonably long walk this morning (8-9 km). Did gardening for two hours in the afternoon: digging and putting soil in big bucket (using left hand and right forearm to push the shovel), carrying full buckets and spreading soil and mulch onto garden (with my right hand), watering (10 litre watering can), mainly with left hand but with occasional help from right hand. Was exhausted afterwards, am really out of shape.

Had to use the TENS tonight for about an hour, pain on surface of skin was too accute.