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So, what will life after a stroke be like?

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  • Shorts

    TGT Addict
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    Good luck.
    Rehabbing is hard after a major trauma. Been there done that.

    Here's where being stubborn pays off. Don't take no for an answer and 'you can't' as a challenge.
    Venture Surplus ad
     

    PhulesAu

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    LOL, As I'm eat up with the Stubborn........ Cane's gone and can do the CostCo wander without much trouble. Getting the motion back in my hand, but there's still very little feed back from the nerves so far. If I stare at it I have a good bit of control, but look away and it just flops over.
     

    Shorts

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    LOL, As I'm eat up with the Stubborn........ Cane's gone and can do the CostCo wander without much trouble. Getting the motion back in my hand, but there's still very little feed back from the nerves so far. If I stare at it I have a good bit of control, but look away and it just flops over.


    Good progress. I'm sure you're happy about losing the walking stick. I left that soon as I could..of course AMA but hey, it's my life, if I fall I'll get up and try again lol
    Nerves are a bear to deal with. Least you got motor function, even if you have to look at the body part. The sensory and proprioception/spatial awareness takes a long time to get back, if you get that back to what it was before the stroke. Those it seems once they get thrown off, its hard to get to 100% like you grew up with. Keep working on it. I notice my weaknesses rear when I'm not staying in shape and I stop using/trying/working out and staying active. I imagine you'll need to stay on top of your physical activity from here on out in order to not regress. Probably not a bad thing for your health that you're "forced" to stay active huh?

    Keep it up. I know there are a days when you want to jump off the end of the Earth and not have to deal with the frustrations this has brought. And some days you're standing on top of the world you wanted to jump off the previous month. It's a rollercoaster. Get in, hang on and ride it.
     

    PhulesAu

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    Well after a few more days of "Workin' on it" , She laughed at me during dinner. I'm giving her the look and asking just what so funny? She replies " you're talking with both hands". Well I guess it's progress.:p
     

    jrbfishn

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    My mother grew up around Lake Charles. If you tied her hands down, she couldn't ask for help.
    Good news, keep it up.

    from an idgit coffeeholic
     

    leVieux

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    Yoyr Cane

    LOL, As I'm eat up with the Stubborn........ Cane's gone and can do the CostCo wander without much trouble. Getting the motion back in my hand, but there's still very little feed back from the nerves so far. If I stare at it I have a good bit of control, but look away and it just flops over.


    I noted you comment regarding your "cane".

    I am an elderly physician with decades in stroke diagnosis, not long-term treatment. My "health problems" are different from yours. I have used a "walking stick" for years, sometimes of necessity, mostly by choice.

    Please consider my advice.

    For forty years, I have had to spend time up at Harvard in Boston, where concealed weapons are prohibited.

    After a street-thug scare, I saw a heave cane in a store and bought it. Since then, my routine while travelling is to carry a tac-light, police whistle, & stout cane. Even when "carry" is legal, I still do this. I consider the cane as a much-valued accessory. The cane is indispensable with aggressive dogs & other street threats.

    There are several "medical" reasons to use a cane: to support instability, to relieve pressure pain in a joint, but importantly to prevent falls.

    As a stroke survivor, you are more likely to suffer an injurious fall, and to have another stroke.

    To prevent falls, the cane should be several inches longer than for the other uses. Thus, it can be used to steady oneself when descending stairs, stepping off a steep curb, etc. Unfortunately, therapists do not realize this, and continue to advise shorter canes, even after the original need is gone. Many find those cheap adjustable drugstore canes useful, but they are less useful for defense.

    I urge you to view your cane as your friend, your tool, and continue to use it when "out and about". The older you get, the more valuable the cane will be.

    I find my canes indispensable.

    leVieux
     

    PhulesAu

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    I have given some thought to continued use of a walking stick of sorts, for some of these very reasons. However for now I'm trying to "force" my sense of balance, back into compliance. Being the size and shape of a medium sized bear, off the rack isn't a shopping option. I'll have to do some digging to find a vendor? who can give some advise and custom fit a good stick.
     

    Byrd666

    Flyin' 'round in circles........somewhere
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    HOW did I not see this? I'm a head injury patient (similar in symptoms with stroke patients), and can tell you, it ain't fun.

    My balance was almost, really, totally gone when they placed me in the vertical "standing board". Hell, it was gone when they first had me sit up in bed. Looking back, it must have been comical watching me fall over like a limp rag doll every time my head shifted, or I tried to lift my arm/hand. They finally ended up strapping me into a wheelchair with a board behind my back. Literally, strapped in. From my shoulders down to my ankles. Thankfully, that was as short lived experience.

    Fast forward a few weeks of Occupational and Physical Therapy during which upper and lower body parts were "stressed", tested, taught, re-taught, and worked until sweat and tears came. And then came the day I'll NEVER forget. With my PT on my right, my OT on my left, a nurse with a wheelchair behind me, I stood under my own power, and "walked" for the first time in almost three months. I took all of three or four steps before I was sweating so hard the tears I were shedding were looking as one. I was a twenty five year old baby taking his first steps. My PT later joked that "Those were the ugliest first steps shed ever seen." Granted, I did see smiles and tears in both the therapist's eyes, so I didn't take it personal.

    Walking for me, is definitely not what anybody would call a "natural" gait. It is more like a controlled hobble on three legs. With my stick being a Major player in that. I have, unfortunately, learned how to fall in almost any environment, season, or surroundings. And I've learned how, mostly, to control my forward vertical momentum with that stick. Except for the occasional tripping over air, or up the stairs.

    My non-dominant arm/hand, well now, that's another story entirely. It don't. Period. No matter what any of the O.T.s did, or have done, nothing works. There are a few associative, or, related reactions to actions, but, nothing that it totally controllable. I remembered/remember seeing my Grandfather shortly after his stroke with the same problem when I was a kiddlin'. Luckily for him, he got some controllable movement back after a bit with a lot of therapy.

    I guess where I'm going with this, I really lost track after my memories came tumbling back, is not to give up on Any of it. Keep up with the therapies they give you. Keep getting out there and walk that Walmart or Costco. Walk around the house, inside or outside. Use whatever tools necessary in order for you not to need those tools. And don't ever give up.
     

    Byrd666

    Flyin' 'round in circles........somewhere
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    Phules...

    The best stick I've ever had is the one that was given to me years and years ago. It's a branch off a Boisd'arc tree. Hard as steel, almost, and fits like a glove. He put some sealer/clearcoat on it after the bark came off and screwed in a rubber stopper/foot on the bottom of it. I put those rubber cane "ends" on the bottom of it after it finally wore out.

    Works great for me, might for you as well.
     
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