Trace triceps

My new OT, Mike, held my left arm in his hands. He asked me to pull my hand in toward my face against resistance, carefully assessing my strength and control of my biceps and determining what muscles I was using -- that I had the ability to use -- to move my arm. I pulled my hand up with fairly little difficulty. He nodded and indicated as much to Jen, the student OT who is training with him. She jotted it down on the page with other statistics about the sensory-motor function of my upper extremities.

"Now, push your hand out toward me," he said.

I already knew it wouldn't move, but I did as I was asked, and attempted to push my hand out and straighten my arm.

Mike nodded. "Trace triceps," he said to Jen.

My breath caught in my throat as the world opened up. On the scale that muscle movement is measured, a "trace" is just above nothing. But, it is still more than nothing -- which is, up until this afternoon, precisely what I thought I had. That trace can be built up, strengthened. I suddenly have the prospect of the use of a new muscle, and all the possiblities that use affords me.

The coming months will, I think (or, at least, I hope), be a series of small victories.