After chemo, it’s not uncommon for people to say, “I just don’t feel like myself anymore.” Chemo is incredibly taxing on the body, and a lot of times, it can affect a person’s daily life after treatment. Sometimes that feeling shows up in unexpected ways, like struggling to button a shirt, open a jar, or turn a key. It’s not just fatigue, but also numbness, weakness, and an overall feeling that tasks aren’t feeling quite as they used to.
That’s where hand therapy comes in.
How Chemotherapy Affects Your Hands
Chemotherapy affects the whole body, including your musculoskeletal system (that means your bones, muscles, and nerves). Many people notice hand weakness after treatment. This can show up as:
- Numbness or tingling (this is called neuropathy)
- Loss of grip strength
- Loss of muscle mass
- Muscle weakness from nerve changes
Everyone’s experience is different, depending on the chemo drugs used. But one common theme is that daily tasks start feeling more difficult.
How Can A Hand Therapist Help?
Some things your therapist might work on with you include:
- Strengthening exercises for your hands and wrists
- Techniques to reduce pain and manage numbness
- Ways to build back your grip strength so you can hold and use objects again
- Home tools and tips to make things easier as you recover
How Do You Know You’re Getting Better?
Progress doesn’t always show up in big ways. Often, it’s the little things that tell you therapy is working. You might find that:
- Turning the key in your car feels easier
- You can chop vegetables without help
- Grip a hairbrush or toothbrush
- Holding a coffee cup feels steady again
- Zip a jacket without pain
Pro tip: Keep a list of your daily wins on your notes in your phone or a special notebook, no matter how small. That way, you can look back and see how far you’ve come—even on tough days.
Be Warned of Risk of Fracture!
After chemo, some people are more at risk for fractures—especially women. That’s because bone density can decrease during and after treatment. Wrist fractures are one of the most common injuries we see. While therapy can’t change your bone density, it can help strengthen your muscles, improve balance, and reduce your risk of falling or injury.
Getting started with a hand therapist early can help prevent injury to protect you and prepare your body for the future.
How You Can Help Yourself Heal at Home, Too
When it comes to supporting recovery at home, we focus on simple, effective strategies. For people with neuropathy, desensitization can help, which is where we take different kinds of fabrics and textures and rub the hands on them to retrain the nerves.
Something else that is also extremely helpful is using adaptive tools around the house, things like jar openers or rocker knives. These tools give people back their independence while they’re still building strength. That independence makes a big difference in how they feel day to day, and they are really easy to buy online these days.
Know That It Takes Time!
Some days, progress looks like opening a jar. Other days, it’s just getting through without pain. After chemo, your hands might not feel like your own, and that can be frustrating. Hand therapy is here to help you reconnect with them. We are here to focus on what you need and want to get back to—whether it’s strength, coordination, or simply the confidence to do the little things again. But know that with a little water each day, flowers grow. And although it is frustrating that these take time, you will also rise from this.
To have intentional care after chemotherapy with a trusted hand therapist, schedule your appointment today!