Severe Muscle Contractures

Posted By Shirley on June 28, 1997 at 14:28:50:









My mom had a stroke in May of 1996 and was recovering nicely, having
regained most of the use of her left arm and was walking again when she
had a fall causing a compression fracture in the lumbar spine in Feb 1997.
Three weeks later, she had recovered significantly and had a very rigorous
physical therapy session which caused severe muscle spasms in her back. At
that point, her left arm began contracting, much worse than it had right
after her stroke, and the doctors say that she could have had another
stroke, or her stroke could have deepened for unknown reasons.
We've been working on rehabing her left arm now for the last 3 months,
doing the stretching exercises that were recommended to try and release
the contractures, but we're not making much progress. She continues to
have severe pain in her left shoulder, elbow, and hand, and must use
narcotic medications for relief.  She is currently on vicodin, but we
don't like to have her on it round the clock because it impairs her
cognitive functions and makes her muscles weak, so she is still
experiencing significant pain.
Is there any way to deal with these muscle contractures in addition to the
stretching exercises, which only seem to worsen the pain and prevent the
contractures from worsening, but don't seem to be able to release the
muscles?  How do you rehabilitate a contracted arm that doesn't seem to
respond to traditional methods? We've tried muscle relaxants as well as
morphine, both of which cause so much muscle weakness and cognitive
deficiency that it's almost impossible to care for her adequately, so we
don't want to use those types of medications if there's an alternative.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.