Stroke rehabilitation
On the morning of September 16th 2003, I woke up and discovered I was still alive. Strange thing to say? I had trouble hauling my body to the bathroom because I couln't walk properly. I called my daughter to help me who was fortunately still in the house but the words were slurred like I'd been drinking. I'd had a stroke. A stroke, also known as a cerebrovascular accident (CVA), occurs when an artery that supplies oxygen-rich blood to the brain bursts or becomes blocked by a blood clot. This gives rise to abnormal brain functioning because a portion of the brain cells in the region of the brain supplied by the artery die from a lack of oxygen. As a result, the part of the body controlled by those cells can no longer function properly. I've seen my brain on the CT scans and MRA's so I know I've got one after all. The realisation that this was serious was so frightening for me and my daughters.
I was lucky to be alive and even more fortunate that my local NHS hospital had a specialist Stroke Unit. The rehab and Physio was fantastic and the emotional support was also there although I didn't have much control over my emotional well-being. It felt like grief from the pit of my belly. Anyone who has experienced grief will nod in agreement because it's an overwhelming feeling. The worst thing of all was that when I asked the consultant and specialists how long it would take to get back to normal - they couldn't answer because they don't know. Every stroke is different and your recovery depends a lot on your attitude towards it.
My question to the forum is ... Has anyone else had a stroke and have you tried any complimentary therapies like the ones featured in this forum?
Gina
Answers:
Hi Gina,
my daughter, then aged 10, had a type of stroke (cerebral venous thrombosis) in May 2002. Her was a blood clot deep in the venous system of the brain rather than the arterial, causing a bleed.
She also was very lucky to be alive. The drop in blood pressure had caused her to vomit, and as this all happened in the night, I found her in the morning, in bed in a pool of vomit that she had aspirated. She was initailly treated for that, but as she was not responding to neurological testing, a cat scan and then an MRI scan found the problem.
A very, very scary episode in our lives, so I can imagine how scary this must have been for you to experience.
She is still 2+ years later rehabilitating. It has been a long hard haul, she has had to learn every single one of her already limited skills all over, right from muscle control of her head, to learning to eat and drink.
Lots of physio, speech and language therapy and hard work have helped her. Homeopathy has always been a must for us, and rebuilding her strength with constitutional remedies I am sure helped.
I wish I had known about Reiki back then - I would definitely have liked her to have benefited from that.
And of course, many prayers from all denominations from many friends and family helped us all - even though I wouldnt say we are particularly religious.
I was near to the end of my massage course, but of course, being a blood clot in the brain Massage wouldn't really have been a good idea, although when she was on the road to recovery, gentle effluarage helped keep her muscles in check.
Gina, I wish you well with your recovery. DOn't expect overnight miracles, but you will get there in the end.
Karen x
Answers:
Hi Gina
Thanks for your story. It is really interesting for me as my father in law had a stroke in March of this year. It was on the left side of his brain which has left him paralysed on his right side. It has also left him unable to speak or swallow.
The hospital he was admitted to also had a stroke rehab unit. However, he was not admitted as he 'did not meet the criteria'. No one could tell us what the criteria were other than he hadn't shown any signifcant signs of recovery in the first few weeks, so was unlikely to make much recovery at all. We (his family) are of the opinion that one of the criteria was age related (he is 75), although they assure us that older people are admitted to the Unit. However, we believe that this is only when their recovery is likely to be relatively fast track. The doctors were unable to tell us what happens to younger people with very severe strokes - are they refused also?
Len was eventually moved to an 'elderly persons rehabilitation unit' where he was left to dehydrate and deterioriate to such an extent that he ended up in resuscitation with septacaemia. He was gradually rehydrated, contracting MRSA in the process, and only three weeks ago was moved to a lovely nursing home.
Although he is happy and reasonably responsive, he has not regained any of the faculties that he lost on 24th March.
I have given Len some massage on his bad arm and leg which has helped the odema and I used to give him reflexology, but that gave him hiccoughs which hurt him so I stopped.
Thank you for telling it from your side. Many times I have sat with Len and wondered what he is thinking. He cries often, although is mostly happy, although gets frustrated at not being able to communicate (we are looking into a communication aid for him).
Yesterday I was watching Ready Steady Cook with him and thought it really sad that he will probably never eat another thing (he is fed through a PEG into his stomach), although it didn't seem to bother him.
You have been through a really hard time Gina, but through your hard work (and a little luck also), you are coming through. Cherish it.
Much love to you
Lesley
Answers:
Hi Gina
I have not had a stroke, my Great Gran died of a stroke a few years ago, she was left with "no active medical care" ie no food and water in the hospice, she was in a coma for a while then passed away, I feel they should have still provided a saline drip etc for fluids.
Anyhow....I work with people who have had strokes although to my knowledge i believe they have all been TIA's....they have a mixture of massage ranging from deep to Neuromuscular techniques, reiki and reflexology, the improvements in the pain have been amazing. After 10 weeks I had one chap who said he had had his first pain free day in over 12years since the stroke.....amazing and very very worthwhile...
tell us, have you tried anything and found it works for you?
Wishing you well on your continuing road to recovery
T
x
Answers:
Hello Karen,
I'm sorry to hear about your daughter, it must have been very frightening for you especially not knowing what the outcome would be like when you break a bone - you know that eventually it will mend. I'm glad to hear that she is improving but as you say, it's a long haul programme of recovery. The positive side is that the younger you are the less stressful it is and with the right encouragement and support you can achieve anything. I hope your daughter continues to make good progress.
I've remained optimistic with my rehabilitation and my positive outlook on life has helped more than actual physical help i.e. physiotherapy. I will enquire about reflexology (my hubby is learning this), and I'd like to try Reiki too.
Please keep in touch.
Kind regards
Gina
Answers:
hi gina,
my soon to be ex had a stroke 8 years ago, so he would have been 43. he woke up one moring and had numbness/ pins and needles down one side but nothing severe enough to *worry*... you dont like to maybe. anyway, 3 days later he went to doctor who said it was probably a virus but he'd refer him to a consultant. as we had ppp then, he had an MRI privately (the NHS wait was 5 months!). this confirmed a bleed had happened with evidence that another may have happened sometime also.
its very alarming to be diagnosed with this and for a long time you worry it will happen again. he did get extremely depressed during the times. although left with no outward signs, he has weakness in the left side and mostly constant pins and needles, sometimes worse, sometimes better. just now, with the cold damp weather, its playing up.
because of our situation, i never did massage (misery guts that he is <g>) but i did have him as a reflex case study. he is a cynical sceptic but did say the pins and needles did have some relief after treatment. but he was always reading the paper or watching tv and i have said since, that he should let me do it properly but you know what its like... never get round to doing things for eachother.
i am an awful daughter too. my mum had a worse stroke 10 years ago, which has left her fairly disabled (left side again) and she is elderly (84 now). i have given her reflex once over the time but i dont do it as i should. and now she has other health issues that overide the stroke rather (impending removal of kidney or not as the case may be... she may not be deemed well enough to have it done :0/)
so i would say, try the reflex or indeed reiki (i did this on my BIL who also had a stroke last november... his head, left side in particular was so hot!).
Answers:
Hi Lesley,
Thank you for telling me about Len, your father-in-law, please wish him well for me.
I'm 42 now and my stroke was just over a year ago - the technical term is a Right basal ganglia infarct, which affected my left side. I totally understand what you said about 'did not meet the criteria' because I had to be assessed also and was admitted to the specialist stroke unit at the hospital. I was lucky that I could still swallow and communicate but I was surrounded by people that couldn't. I fully understand the frustration side of a stroke. I'm sorry to hear about how Len was treated, that sounds horrific and MRSA is nasty. I hope he's doing better in the nursing home.
It's not all doom and gloom though, having positive happy people around and a loving supportive family helps to elevate your spirit. I just wanted to get out of the hospital and my goal was to learn how to walk again as soon as possible. I managed it in three weeks which was some kind of record for the unit. I was paralysed totally down my left side. I got a wheelchair and learned to steer it with one arm and one leg (I kept going round in circles at first), causing much laughter in the unit. I wheeled myself all around the hospital, up and down in the lifts and got to meet lots of people.
When I got home, I had physiotherapists and occupational therapists coming for a few weeks. There was very little help for the emotional side of a stroke - it feels like grief and I couldn't understand why I would just spontaneously burst into tears or laugh 'till I peed myself!!:D
I do indeed cherish my life these days, since having the stroke, I have fallen in love with my soulmate and so what if I can't tie my shoe laces up! Life is good and ironically, it seems that it was a blessing in disguise. I continue to work on my walking and waking up my left arm and hand. I will not give up trying, in fact each day brings a new challenge and I'm thankful for what I have. I have full 24/7 love, care and attention from my hubby, daughter and step-sons.
I'm a better person these days - please tell Len not to lose hope.
Love Gina
Answers:
Gina
Thank you.
[sm=hug.gif][sm=hug.gif][sm=hug.gif]
Lesley
I was lucky to be alive and even more fortunate that my local NHS hospital had a specialist Stroke Unit. The rehab and Physio was fantastic and the emotional support was also there although I didn't have much control over my emotional well-being. It felt like grief from the pit of my belly. Anyone who has experienced grief will nod in agreement because it's an overwhelming feeling. The worst thing of all was that when I asked the consultant and specialists how long it would take to get back to normal - they couldn't answer because they don't know. Every stroke is different and your recovery depends a lot on your attitude towards it.
My question to the forum is ... Has anyone else had a stroke and have you tried any complimentary therapies like the ones featured in this forum?
Gina
Answers:
Hi Gina,
my daughter, then aged 10, had a type of stroke (cerebral venous thrombosis) in May 2002. Her was a blood clot deep in the venous system of the brain rather than the arterial, causing a bleed.
She also was very lucky to be alive. The drop in blood pressure had caused her to vomit, and as this all happened in the night, I found her in the morning, in bed in a pool of vomit that she had aspirated. She was initailly treated for that, but as she was not responding to neurological testing, a cat scan and then an MRI scan found the problem.
A very, very scary episode in our lives, so I can imagine how scary this must have been for you to experience.
She is still 2+ years later rehabilitating. It has been a long hard haul, she has had to learn every single one of her already limited skills all over, right from muscle control of her head, to learning to eat and drink.
Lots of physio, speech and language therapy and hard work have helped her. Homeopathy has always been a must for us, and rebuilding her strength with constitutional remedies I am sure helped.
I wish I had known about Reiki back then - I would definitely have liked her to have benefited from that.
And of course, many prayers from all denominations from many friends and family helped us all - even though I wouldnt say we are particularly religious.
I was near to the end of my massage course, but of course, being a blood clot in the brain Massage wouldn't really have been a good idea, although when she was on the road to recovery, gentle effluarage helped keep her muscles in check.
Gina, I wish you well with your recovery. DOn't expect overnight miracles, but you will get there in the end.
Karen x
Answers:
Hi Gina
Thanks for your story. It is really interesting for me as my father in law had a stroke in March of this year. It was on the left side of his brain which has left him paralysed on his right side. It has also left him unable to speak or swallow.
The hospital he was admitted to also had a stroke rehab unit. However, he was not admitted as he 'did not meet the criteria'. No one could tell us what the criteria were other than he hadn't shown any signifcant signs of recovery in the first few weeks, so was unlikely to make much recovery at all. We (his family) are of the opinion that one of the criteria was age related (he is 75), although they assure us that older people are admitted to the Unit. However, we believe that this is only when their recovery is likely to be relatively fast track. The doctors were unable to tell us what happens to younger people with very severe strokes - are they refused also?
Len was eventually moved to an 'elderly persons rehabilitation unit' where he was left to dehydrate and deterioriate to such an extent that he ended up in resuscitation with septacaemia. He was gradually rehydrated, contracting MRSA in the process, and only three weeks ago was moved to a lovely nursing home.
Although he is happy and reasonably responsive, he has not regained any of the faculties that he lost on 24th March.
I have given Len some massage on his bad arm and leg which has helped the odema and I used to give him reflexology, but that gave him hiccoughs which hurt him so I stopped.
Thank you for telling it from your side. Many times I have sat with Len and wondered what he is thinking. He cries often, although is mostly happy, although gets frustrated at not being able to communicate (we are looking into a communication aid for him).
Yesterday I was watching Ready Steady Cook with him and thought it really sad that he will probably never eat another thing (he is fed through a PEG into his stomach), although it didn't seem to bother him.
You have been through a really hard time Gina, but through your hard work (and a little luck also), you are coming through. Cherish it.
Much love to you
Lesley
Answers:
Hi Gina
I have not had a stroke, my Great Gran died of a stroke a few years ago, she was left with "no active medical care" ie no food and water in the hospice, she was in a coma for a while then passed away, I feel they should have still provided a saline drip etc for fluids.
Anyhow....I work with people who have had strokes although to my knowledge i believe they have all been TIA's....they have a mixture of massage ranging from deep to Neuromuscular techniques, reiki and reflexology, the improvements in the pain have been amazing. After 10 weeks I had one chap who said he had had his first pain free day in over 12years since the stroke.....amazing and very very worthwhile...
tell us, have you tried anything and found it works for you?
Wishing you well on your continuing road to recovery
T
x
Answers:
Hello Karen,
I'm sorry to hear about your daughter, it must have been very frightening for you especially not knowing what the outcome would be like when you break a bone - you know that eventually it will mend. I'm glad to hear that she is improving but as you say, it's a long haul programme of recovery. The positive side is that the younger you are the less stressful it is and with the right encouragement and support you can achieve anything. I hope your daughter continues to make good progress.
I've remained optimistic with my rehabilitation and my positive outlook on life has helped more than actual physical help i.e. physiotherapy. I will enquire about reflexology (my hubby is learning this), and I'd like to try Reiki too.
Please keep in touch.
Kind regards
Gina
Answers:
hi gina,
my soon to be ex had a stroke 8 years ago, so he would have been 43. he woke up one moring and had numbness/ pins and needles down one side but nothing severe enough to *worry*... you dont like to maybe. anyway, 3 days later he went to doctor who said it was probably a virus but he'd refer him to a consultant. as we had ppp then, he had an MRI privately (the NHS wait was 5 months!). this confirmed a bleed had happened with evidence that another may have happened sometime also.
its very alarming to be diagnosed with this and for a long time you worry it will happen again. he did get extremely depressed during the times. although left with no outward signs, he has weakness in the left side and mostly constant pins and needles, sometimes worse, sometimes better. just now, with the cold damp weather, its playing up.
because of our situation, i never did massage (misery guts that he is <g>) but i did have him as a reflex case study. he is a cynical sceptic but did say the pins and needles did have some relief after treatment. but he was always reading the paper or watching tv and i have said since, that he should let me do it properly but you know what its like... never get round to doing things for eachother.
i am an awful daughter too. my mum had a worse stroke 10 years ago, which has left her fairly disabled (left side again) and she is elderly (84 now). i have given her reflex once over the time but i dont do it as i should. and now she has other health issues that overide the stroke rather (impending removal of kidney or not as the case may be... she may not be deemed well enough to have it done :0/)
so i would say, try the reflex or indeed reiki (i did this on my BIL who also had a stroke last november... his head, left side in particular was so hot!).
Answers:
Hi Lesley,
Thank you for telling me about Len, your father-in-law, please wish him well for me.
I'm 42 now and my stroke was just over a year ago - the technical term is a Right basal ganglia infarct, which affected my left side. I totally understand what you said about 'did not meet the criteria' because I had to be assessed also and was admitted to the specialist stroke unit at the hospital. I was lucky that I could still swallow and communicate but I was surrounded by people that couldn't. I fully understand the frustration side of a stroke. I'm sorry to hear about how Len was treated, that sounds horrific and MRSA is nasty. I hope he's doing better in the nursing home.
It's not all doom and gloom though, having positive happy people around and a loving supportive family helps to elevate your spirit. I just wanted to get out of the hospital and my goal was to learn how to walk again as soon as possible. I managed it in three weeks which was some kind of record for the unit. I was paralysed totally down my left side. I got a wheelchair and learned to steer it with one arm and one leg (I kept going round in circles at first), causing much laughter in the unit. I wheeled myself all around the hospital, up and down in the lifts and got to meet lots of people.
When I got home, I had physiotherapists and occupational therapists coming for a few weeks. There was very little help for the emotional side of a stroke - it feels like grief and I couldn't understand why I would just spontaneously burst into tears or laugh 'till I peed myself!!:D
I do indeed cherish my life these days, since having the stroke, I have fallen in love with my soulmate and so what if I can't tie my shoe laces up! Life is good and ironically, it seems that it was a blessing in disguise. I continue to work on my walking and waking up my left arm and hand. I will not give up trying, in fact each day brings a new challenge and I'm thankful for what I have. I have full 24/7 love, care and attention from my hubby, daughter and step-sons.
I'm a better person these days - please tell Len not to lose hope.
Love Gina
Answers:
Gina
Thank you.
[sm=hug.gif][sm=hug.gif][sm=hug.gif]
Lesley