To follow closures

I once had a patient who fortunately had a mild stroke, but unfortunately it happened during the Covid period when hospitals were on lockdown. At that time, there was no physiotherapist available, so he developed a joint contracture (restriction of range of motion) in his knee that no one will ever be able to stretch, maybe only a surgeon...
Later, a physiotherapist came to him, who only passively stretched his leg, he walked nicely with it, but he couldn't stretch it out for him either. He told him that he would never be able to walk again. Then this physiotherapist couldn't take care of the patient anymore either, so the family was looking for a new physiotherapist. They recommended me to them, and that's how I ended up with this patient.

The first time, I stretched his leg, and then I checked how much muscle strength he had. He was pretty strong, so I strengthened him, because no matter how much we stretch a joint (and with it the muscle, or vice versa), if there is no muscle control over it, we only create an unstable segment (in this case, a facet joint)...
Tom (Toma Balchin, founder of ARNI) said at the training that ARNI is a way of thinking! We need to think and work differently with stakeholders.

This happened here too. I didn't do any big things with him, there were no big ARNI or big physiotherapy exercises, I simply said that if he wasn't going to walk with these contracture legs, at least he should be able to turn sideways on his own, sit up in bed, transfer from a wheelchair, etc. In the end, we got to the point where he was walking with these contracture legs. With a walker, but he was walking.

And that's a big word.

The big thing is that he learns to turn sideways with a new technique, that he sees and feels that he is not bedridden, that he can move his hands and legs! Not like he did before the stroke, but he knows and uses it!