hi everybody and merry christmas/happy holidays!...what a pleasure to see how festive the website looks!...my therapy consisted of 5 hours a day of saebo exercises as well as other mat work...we had 1/2 hour for lunchand 1/2 hour rest...we started at 8am and went until 2pm every weekday...it was gruelling...thank god i had 2 friends with me doing the cimt program in the same room...the therapy there is all based on constraint induced movement therapy pioneered by edward taub, md at the university of birmingham in alabama...i recommend everyone inform themselves about the stroke rehab results this therapy is getting...it has provenbeyond a doubt that recovery of function does happen years after a stroke when the principles of this protocol is followed...it's given me the most hope i've had since my stroke occurred...they explain the condition of 'learned non-use' where the brain learns to not use the affected limb...at arrc they forced me to engage my affected arm/hand in activities i had never thought possible: turning light switches on and off, opening drawers and using a remote control...sometimes i needed to assist with my right hand and often i didn't complete the activity but i sent those all important signals to my brain to implement cortical reorganization so that i was more able to perform these tasks...they must be performed over and over and over again until the infarcted area of the brain reexpands and nerve connections are restablished...by the end of the third week i could just about raise a toothbrush up to my mouth and hold up my arm at 90 degrees to lower it with control...keep in mind that as of today i still do not have extension in my fingers tho trace movements of my extention muscles is now palpable...the key now is for me to continue continue continue demanding task oriented movement of my affected limb...it's monotonous repetitive work but from everything i've done thusfar it has rendered the most tangible results in a short amount of time...no one ever said stroke recovery was easy but at least now i have a roadmap based on proven results...please contact me for any further info...i'd be glad to provide it if i can...PBS stations have had a special running about these new findings about brain plasticity including taub's work...you can order the entire program and more by contacting them: try www.wliw.com and look for the brain gym...

on another note i'm also engaging my new bioness L300...it's still being fine tuned by my therapist but already i can see how it is improving my walking by raising my foot as my affected leg moves forward...my walking speed has also improved noticably...!!!!...www.bioness.com