finger claw

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nebrhahe53

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Joined
Jun 13, 2014
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1,017
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PALS
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06/2014
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US
State
Tx
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Austin
another wonderful side effect. the forth finger of my left hand has begun ti caw-(move in towards my palm). Only the top joint of the finger. Anything I can do about it?
 
Gentle stretching. If you are able you can place your hand on a flat surface and press down to straighten and stretch your fingers. If you can't someone else can do it. And some sort of bracing. If it is just the one joint you could probably use a finger splint
 
Steve wears splints at night because both hands do this. It helps relieve the spasms.
 
My dad wore some type of hand splints to keep fingers and hands straightened out.
 
I wear splints at knight
 
i would do some of that for mine. but why they will go back to it again and i cant use them anyway.
 
Gentle stretches and daily ROM can slow it down. Unfortunately nothing can stop the loss. I have a trainer who understands ALS come here weekly. She has trained several of my friends to do the ROM, too. I think it helps
 
I have been having this since before my diagnosis. I do not do anything for it except when they lock then I do the hand stretch by pushing it on a flat surface.
 
Tillie's videos are very good. One important point she made is for us to let the person doing the ROM know when the pressure or stretch is too intense. Another thing I love about doing the daily ROM is the personal connection and loving touch from another.
 
so from what I get in the responses eventually both my hands will have all fingers clawed into the palms, no matter what I do. I can slow it down but not stop it. Does anyone ever get lucky enough not to have this happen completely once it starts?
 
Neil, I'm pretty sure in that video I did on the hands, I explain as I massage that the fingers/hands claw in as result of the wastage of the muscles in the lower arm, and that's why my technique does so much work there before attempting to stretch the actual fingers.

You may slow it a little, and certainly you can alleviate the resulting tension and make it easier to keep the hands clean and dry if you use massage and/or splints. I wish I could tell you these strategies could stop the nerves from dying, but this is of course what is causing all the issues.

How far it will go is another of those things we can't answer, definitely some PALS have less of this depending on which nerves completely die first. So I'm sure some PALS could report that they only had some curling/clawing of some fingers to some degree and others report full hand impacted.
 
Steves hands relax now into a claw. He has a lot of muscle.wastage in his hands ,forearms, and left bicep.
 
My left thumb does this... just kind of sits there. I still have some ability in it, but it always goes back towards the palm.
 
For me my left index finger will not straighten out at all (like when I am pointing at something) and when I try you can really see the atrophy between the thumb and index finger. That same hand has spasms all the time.

A PT gave me some exercises to do but all it seems to accomplish is tiring my hand out.

I am still working since I am in the early stages (no walking/breathing/swallowing issues) but by noon my left hand is worn out from typing.
 
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