I took my mom to her physical therapy appointment yesterday for her Semmes-Weinstein test. This is where the physical therapist uses these nylon filaments of various diameters to test the sensation in her hands and feet; the objective is to see if the Anodyne Therapy is working. The results were actually pretty good as "her numbers" were greatly improved from the first test several weeks ago. So it seems the therapy is working, just not fast enough to suit mom.

I've mentioned before that it is a common thing that a patient develops a unique bond with their physical therapist. Mom has names for each of "the girls" and for the guys as well. There is "Pigtail" named, of course, for her braided pigtails; "Cowboy" is the guy she talks football with, and her favorite, "Thumbs-Up" named for her hand-signals. "Thumbs-Up" talks with mom about all kinds of things; she is married to an oilfield engineer which won mom over because my dad was an engineer too.

The Anodyne treatments last 30 minutes one visit and 45 the next, then back to 30. It's boring. You just sit there. To break the boredom one day, mom was reciting poetry that she remembered from her school days; the first was some crazy Robert Louis Stevenson poem about a cow, and then she moved on to "Annabel Lee" by Poe. The cow poem had "the girls" in hysterics. They were standing a few feet away from us, discretely folding towels and updating charts and trying not to giggle too loud. It was hard not to!

Every time we go mom asks one or the other of them "how long" it takes for people to get the feeling back in their hands and if they've ever seen anyone who didn't. Of course there is no answer to this as everyone is different. She's a trooper though, and tries very hard to stay optimistic and upbeat. It must be difficult with no feeling in your hands.

The Semmes test yesterday took about 35-40 minutes with mom having to respond whenever she felt the filament touch her fingers and hands and say on which finger she felt it. They added that part - WHICH finger - because Mom would say, "Yes" repeatedly and it was hard to tell if she was feeling anything or not! "The girls" thought she might be cheating and got a kick out of that.

When we left yesterday Mom said she wanted to call and send a tray of cookies for the staff because they've been so sweet to her. But she wants to be sure it is on a day when "Thumbs-Up" is there.

For the past four weeks or so I've been taking my elderly mother to physical therapy twice a week for treatment on a compressed nerve which has caused neruopathy in her hands (and to a certain extent, her feet). I don't want to go too much into her personal issues here, but I did want to say a couple of things about the treatment she is getting because it was new to me.

I'm a real believer in physical therapy. After a car accident almost 10 years ago, I had to go to physical therapy for a while. The short version is that it took lots of tests and lots of doctors to finally figure out that a facet joint was knocked out of place in my neck. After a few weeks of physical therapy, which in my case included mild traction, my very gifted therapist one day said, "Here, hang on, I'm going to pop that thing back in now. I think the traction has done its job." And BAM -- he turned my head one way and pushed the other way on that joint with his thumbs and I was cured. It was miraculous. I believe in good physical therapy.

So as far as my mom goes, they've had her on something called anodyne therapy. The layman's explanation is that these pads are strapped to your hands and feet (where peripheral neuropathy occurs) and the pads emit what was described to me as "an almost, but not quite, infrared light" and the whole basic idea is to stimulate the circulation. There's no pain or discomfort, just a soothing warmth. We go twice a week and they alternate treatments from 30 minutes to 45 minutes and then back to 30.

After seven treatments, it seems to be working. I don't want to jinx anything, but for the past week and a half mom has been saying that the flexibility is greatly improved in her hands even though they are still totally numb. Yesterday she told me that she thought she could almost feel in her right hand (she bites on her finger to see how much pressure it takes to feel it!). She says she doesn't have to bite as hard to get sensation. Dubious, but still progress. After today's treatment, she said she could feel her toes for the first time in months. She said, "I'm a little excited!" Cautiously.

I'm not sure this will fix it all; there is still the compressed nerve to deal with, but for patients with neuropathies, this seems to be something hopeful. The girls at Tri-State Physical Therapy are awesome; they are compassionate, kind, funny, and skilled. I can't say enough good things about them. A patient really bonds with his physical therapist. I know this from personal experience and I see it in my mom too. Neuropathies are fairly common in diabetic patients (which mom is not) and I'm hoping that this treatment gains more widespread acceptance if it does, indeed, help. The research I've found on it is there, but there's not a lot of it. Lot's of places don't even offer it. Not all insurance companies pay for it because they see it as experimental.

But for us, for now, it seems to be working. Knock on wood!

(Photo credit: anodynetherapy.com)