Fine motor skills - what exercises do you do?

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Nan22

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The title basically describes my question. Surgeons need good fine motor control and I'm wondering what possible exercises can be done in order to enhance fine motor skills.
Do you do any exercises? Finger stretching? Rolling a tiny ball between your fingers? Stacking coins? Playing with rubber bands?

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Video games and musical instruments.
 
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I practice closing the straps on my Jimmy Choos and putting on diamond earrings. ;)

Is this really a thing? I never thought about trying to enhance my fine motor skills. They seem to be fine as is.
 
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I practice closing the straps on my Jimmy Choos and putting on diamond earrings. ;)

Is this really a thing? I never thought about trying to enhance my fine motor skills. They seem to be fine as is.
I suppose if one has a deficit for some reason that going to OT and doing the exercises they have you do (stuff like the OP said and squeezing dough are some of the things I saw others up to while getting PT after rotator cuff repair) would be good. Without a problem I don't know if there would be value but I suppose the same stuff could be done without harm.
 
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Disassemble watches. If it’s your watch, you gotta reassemble it too, so I don’t recommend that.

Any electronic will do, but the smaller the better. Your cousin’s iPhone, your partner’s hearing aid, your sister’s baby monitor, some cop’s walkie. Whatever you think you can take apart before someone sees you. It’s the risk that tests your skill.
 
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Thank you all for replying.

I don't have any deficit (as far as I know), but I do tend to sometimes tense up and even get fine tremor when working with tiny delicate movements (microsuturing etc). Is that normal?
 
As a guy who does microsurgery pretty frequently, if you get under enough magnification, everyone has a tremor. The biggest thing you can do is to work on stabilizing techniques. How to position your hands, and how to hold instruments a little differently to try to minimize that without effecting maneuverability. Keep in mind that while small motion is important in microsurgery, you really don't need to be able to fully pronate your wrist, for example (simply because you're not working in a big enough field for that to be relevant). Most importantly (and I cannot stress this enough) release the tension in your shoulders, arms, and back, and BREATHE. Most students (myself included) subconsciously hold their breath when they're working under a microscope because they're trying to control their tremor. That's the opposite of what you want to do, and your tremor will get worse. Finally, take a minute or two pause when you can to recenter your thoughts. That's helpful when you're at critical points in the surgery.

It's not so much about fighting off the tremor, it's about making changes to minimize it. This is true for microvascular, ear surgery, and probably also for whatever you're trying to do.
 
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As a guy who does microsurgery pretty frequently, if you get under enough magnification, everyone has a tremor. The biggest thing you can do is to work on stabilizing techniques. How to position your hands, and how to hold instruments a little differently to try to minimize that without effecting maneuverability. Keep in mind that while small motion is important in microsurgery, you really don't need to be able to fully pronate your wrist, for example (simply because you're not working in a big enough field for that to be relevant). Most importantly (and I cannot stress this enough) release the tension in your shoulders, arms, and back, and BREATHE. Most students (myself included) subconsciously hold their breath when they're working under a microscope because they're trying to control their tremor. That's the opposite of what you want to do, and your tremor will get worse. Finally, take a minute or two pause when you can to recenter your thoughts. That's helpful when you're at critical points in the surgery.

It's not so much about fighting off the tremor, it's about making changes to minimize it. This is true for microvascular, ear surgery, and probably also for whatever you're trying to do.

As one of my pediatric surgery attending told me, "everyone has a tremor, I just don't want to know how much of one you have." His point was the same as yours: learn techniques to minimize it.
 
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This seems obvious but minimize stimulants. If I have an ear case beyond tubes I don't drink coffee that morning. Can give me what feels like an earthquake tremor under the microscope of I have too much coffee
 
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Thank you all for replying.

I don't have any deficit (as far as I know), but I do tend to sometimes tense up and even get fine tremor when working with tiny delicate movements (microsuturing etc). Is that normal?
yes. that is normal. work on the tensing up part.
 
This seems obvious but minimize stimulants. If I have an ear case beyond tubes I don't drink coffee that morning. Can give me what feels like an earthquake tremor under the microscope of I have too much coffee
Definitely true. Although I have this weird thing where my addiction is bad enough that I get more shaky when I don't have a cup of coffee before surgery. I tried holding off before ear surgery (especially stapedotomy) in residency and found my tremor was worse. Tried it again after residency, and same thing. When I have one cup (not more), my tremor is minimal.

I think I have a problem.
 
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Definitely true. Although I have this weird thing where my addiction is bad enough that I get more shaky when I don't have a cup of coffee before surgery. I tried holding off before ear surgery (especially stapedotomy) in residency and found my tremor was worse. Tried it again after residency, and same thing. When I have one cup (not more), my tremor is minimal.

I think I have a problem.
Addiction is a bitch
 
I remember as a young teen working with ophthalmologists. They knew I wanted to be a doctor and let me shadow surgeries at times. Watched one under microscope and was thinking holy **** this guy has a bad tremor but then looked outside the eyepiece at the field and realized that in fact his hands looked super still. Was interesting to see the difference magnification made.
 
As one of my pediatric surgery attending told me, "everyone has a tremor, I just don't want to know how much of one you have." His point was the same as yours: learn techniques to minimize it.
God, I hate pediatric surgeons.

On a related note, I drink my usual one cup of coffee and diet soda in the afternoon and I am fine.

For me in vascular, my tremor is the worst when I feel super nervous with attendings glaring at me. Practice as much as you can to feel more comfortable with the instruments. Minimize caffeine if possible. And learn ways to stabilize yourself as others have mentioned.
 
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Definitely true. Although I have this weird thing where my addiction is bad enough that I get more shaky when I don't have a cup of coffee before surgery. I tried holding off before ear surgery (especially stapedotomy) in residency and found my tremor was worse. Tried it again after residency, and same thing. When I have one cup (not more), my tremor is minimal.

I think I have a problem.

Same. I know if I'm doing a stapes or facial recess, just one cup of coffee. Any more or less worsens tremor.

Knowing how to brace and position my hands makes all the difference.
 
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Definitely true. Although I have this weird thing where my addiction is bad enough that I get more shaky when I don't have a cup of coffee before surgery. I tried holding off before ear surgery (especially stapedotomy) in residency and found my tremor was worse. Tried it again after residency, and same thing. When I have one cup (not more), my tremor is minimal.

I think I have a problem.

Yeah... I got up to 4 or 5 Rockstars a day while on 4 back-to-back months as Trauma Chief as a PGY4. Definitely had withdrawal jitters/exacerbation of tremor. But eventually started having withdrawal migraines at night on call after getting off trauma. Never had migraines before that. Had to scrub out of a few cases and vomit in the trashcan. Of course when you’re a woman people automatically assume pregnancy. :rolleyes:

So decided I didn’t need that and took almost a year but weaned myself off daily caffeine. I still drink caffeinated coffee sometimes but usually only postcall or if I’m really dragging in the afternoon I’ll have a soda. No more migraines or jitters. Bonus: now caffeine actually gives me a boost instead of just keeping me at a steady state of barely conscious.
 
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Yeah... I got up to 4 or 5 Rockstars a day while on 4 back-to-back months as Trauma Chief as a PGY4. Definitely had withdrawal jitters/exacerbation of tremor. But eventually started having withdrawal migraines at night on call after getting off trauma. Never had migraines before that. Had to scrub out of a few cases and vomit in the trashcan. Of course when you’re a woman people automatically assume pregnancy. :rolleyes:

So decided I didn’t need that and took almost a year but weaned myself off daily caffeine. I still drink caffeinated sometimes but usually only postcall or if I’m really dragging in the afternoon I’ll have a soda. No more migraines or jitters. Bonus: now caffeine actually gives me a boost instead of just keeping me at a steady state of barely conscious.
I wean off completely once per year for about a month just to verify that I can. But I only drink 1-2 regular sized cups of coffee/day. Maybe 3 if I'm in the OR all night. So I don't legitimately think it's an issue with too much caffeine, I just haven't noticed that backing off of it has been helpful. I'm sure if I drank 4 rockstars every day that would be a different situation. But I'm too afraid of the MI to test that theory.

I think for most people, however, avoiding caffeine is a good idea before mico.
 
Uh I think the right answer is just doing more of that thing you're trying to do. You can try to recreate an apparatus to help simulate doing a tibial bypass, but it's not even the same when you're actually there and operating inside a keyhole. So you just have to find more fat people with the sugar-beetus and do more distal bypasses on them. Good news: there seems to be no shortage of fat people with the sugar-beetus being referred to my center for their CLI.
 
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