Stroke Rehabiliation and Recovery Tips

Submitted by PatientsEngage on 28 October 2018

Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery is a long drawn out process which can be exhausting and de-motivating for both the survivors and their family members. We have compiled some of the best tips from patients, family caregivers and professionals.

Stroke survivor Javed Ameer's 3 most important tips for rehabilitation for a cerebral stroke patient are:

  • Be ‘physical’. Cycle, walk, jog, run, exercise………
  • Accept your fate and state. Mentally. Faster you do it, better for your peace of mind!
  • Reading can take you places (my choice has been travelogues), music and meditation help but remember you are there absolutely alone. Don’t even expect anything from anyone. Each one of us have our own battles. Get up and go. As I said ‘be physical’.

Read Javed Ameer's Recovery Journey With Stroke - Challenges and Tips

She fainted and lost her vision, speech all at once due to a stroke but she eventually resumed painting. Her motto in life is: 

  • Always count your blessings! My family doctor taught me that. Don’t lament on what is gone. He made me understand that loss of an eye was insignificant in the greater picture. I should be happy to have my loving family, my life and having recovered a stroke and tumour with minimal damage.

Read the rest of her lived experience here and if she could have prevented it

Tips for Stroke Caregivers by Deepa Samant Soman, who looks after her father who was paralysed after a stroke

Vasant Samant, a supremely independent man, lost all that was dear to him when he suffered a stroke and was paralysed on the left side of his body. Into 10 years of his stroke, his daughter, Deepa Soman, noted down 10 lessons to caregivers drawn from her experience of inspiring and being inspired.

  • Keep them as an integral, participative part of an equation and not on the periphery.
  • Connect with the patient’s friends, relatives, colleagues, caregivers, doctors, therapists. Enlist and co-opt their partnering. Make the recovery a ‘shared goal’. Everyone is working to the same cause of reclaiming ‘wholeness’. Acknowledge and cherish.
  • Positivity begets energy to stay invested in the long haul of the road to recovery.  Celebrate wins, big and small milestones. Make every moment count.

Read Deepa's reflection on her father's recovery and hacks recommended for caregivers. 

After a stroke nearly 20-40 per cent patients develop communication problems or aphasia.

Aphasia is the inability to comprehend and formulate language because of damage to specific language areas in the brain. Dr Sujata Gandhi, Speech Therapist, Nanavati Hospital, advises that speech and language therapy is the best way to restore normalcy and quality of life and shares the following guidelines for communicating with people with Aphasia

  • Respect the patient’s age - do not treat or speak to them like a child.
  • Do not ridicule or laugh at the errors or mistakes that they make.
  • Speak slowly and clearly. Do not shout.
  • Be patient and encouraging.

For more on understanding how to deal with Aphasia and other speech related issues click here 

Mood disturbances, like depression and anxiety disorders, are common post-stroke. 

35% to 60% of stroke survivors experience cognitive impairment with impairments in concentration, slowness of thought and response, memory, planning and doing things, perception, communication and language.Porrselvi A.P. a cognitive and psychosocial interventions specialist recommends

  • Screen for cognitive and mood disturbances within 6 weeks post-stroke
  • Start rehab as early as possible as most of the recovery post-stroke takes place in the first three months. 

Read here for more on "Healing The Mind After A Stroke" by Porrselvi A.P

 

Community
Stroke Rehab and Recovery
Condition
Stroke

Stories

  • Robotic Hand therapy equipment for Stroke Patients
    Stroke Rehabilitation Helps Relearn Lost Skills
    Stroke rehabilitation is an important aspect of the management of stroke. It can help to maximize recovery and regain as much of the body functions that is lost after a stroke, emphasises G Srinithya, Senior Occupational Therapist at NIMHANS. What is Post Stroke Rehabilitation? Post stroke Rehabilitation is a patient-centred, goal driven process that attempts to maximise the functional independence of patients who suffer from variety of stroke related disabilities. The aim of rehabilitation is…
  • Profile pic of a man in a red tshirt smiling
    A Stroke Survivor’s Mantra to Live A Better Life
    Sharad Kumar Tekalkote, who lost his ability to speak after a severe stroke, had to undergo intense rehabilitation and speech therapy exercises, to resume normalcy. Today, he is a motivational speaker. Here, he shares ten tips on how to live a full life. I was diagnosed with a haemorrhagic stroke. I was given a 5% chance of making it through an operating table. While no one expects adversity or enjoys experiencing it, the fact is that challenges are a normal part of life. On 18 October, 2012,…
  • Ranjana on the right with her stroke survivor mother Vaidehi on the left
    Stroke Takes Emotional And Financial Toll On Family!
    Ranjana Rajan had a difficult time when her mother Vaidehi suddenly got a stroke and returned home with her left limbs paralysed. Here, she narrates her experiences and challenges as a caregiver of a stroke patient and suggests some measures to reduce the burden. April 6, 2014, 9 pm: While eating her dinner, my 80-year old mom’s eyes became blurry, her left jaw dropped and she fell to one side of the chair; we immediately called a nearby hospital emergency service and moved her there. Her BP on…
  • A man in a black t-shirt and blue yoga pants sitting in padmasana or lotus pose
    The Biggest Fear I had to Battle was my Loss of Speech
    Sharad Tekalkote, 44, had no idea what was happening to him when he got a severe haemorrhagic stroke. It left him paralysed on his right side and completely took away his ability to speak. Here, he recounts his traumatic story and perseverance to get back to normal. That Thursday morning lacked the usual workday frenzy as my boss was on holiday. I left home at 10 am for the Expo Centre at Whitefield in Bengaluru to visit some dignitaries. My boss called me at 12:30 pm and I spoke to him for…
  • Payal in a brown dress holding her mother in a yellow kurta and white dupatta from behind
    How Our Entire Family Rallies Around My Mother, My Dad's Primary Caregiver
    Payal talks about how she has seen her father deteriorate physically and mentally over the years due to stroke. She and her mother play an active role in his daily care which has become tougher over time. Payal, tell us about your father’s condition? My father had a brain stroke 15 years back and he has been slowly deteriorating day by day. He has lost most of his memory and struggles to even remember his children’s names. He often wanders off if left alone, so he needs to be monitored 24 hours…
  • Stroke Is One Of The Leading Disabling Conditions In The World
    On World Stroke Day, Prof Dr Dipes Kumar Mandal, Founder-President - Stroke Foundation of Bengal talks about how a condition like Stroke, which has far reaching consequences, needs to be taken more seriously. Do you think stroke is one of the most debilitating conditions? Why? Stroke is one of the leading causes of death and disabilities globally. While in USA, heart disease is the leading cause of death, in China, Stroke (Brain Attack) is the leading cause of death as well as disabilities…
  • Stroke Rehabiliation and Recovery Tips
    Stroke Rehabilitation and Recovery is a long drawn out process which can be exhausting and de-motivating for both the survivors and their family members. We have compiled some of the best tips from patients, family caregivers and professionals. Stroke survivor Javed Ameer's 3 most important tips for rehabilitation for a cerebral stroke patient are: Be ‘physical’. Cycle, walk, jog, run, exercise……… Accept your fate and state. Mentally. Faster you do it, better for your peace of mind! Reading…
  • Mausumi, a dark haired woman on the right with her mother, a person with dementia on the left. Mother is wearing specs and a bindi on her forehead and you can see the blue and white sari draped around her shoulders
    Patience And Innovation Are The Most Important Attributes Of A Caregiver For Persons With Dementia
    Mausumi Ghosh from Mumbai talks about the travails of taking care of her mother, 77 who suffers from dementia in addition to other conditions like osteosporosis. My mother is an osteoporosis patient from 2003 when she underwent hip replacement operation in Mumbai. She recovered from the same very well and was mobile and independent till she met with a ‘fall’ at home in 2010 and broke her ‘femur bone’ (left leg). She got herself operated twice in Kolkata in AMRI hospital and both the times the ‘…
  • Image Description: An elderly person with a walker and supported by a caregiver
    12 Confusing and Overlapping Symptoms in the Elderly
    Symptoms like weight loss, memory loss, weakness, and fatigue should not be mistaken as a sign of the"normal aging" process. Dr. Shital Patel explains 12 common but misleading symptoms in the elderly and why you should seek a doctor's opinion instead of ignoring them.  Symptoms in the elderly can have very different causes than they may have in a young person. Many symptoms in the geriatric population may be masked by concurrent chronic ailments, injuries, age-related physiological…
  • Image: Stock pic of a woman wearing a grey jacket, light blue pants staring in front with nooks lined up behind her
    A Tumour In The Heart And a Cerebral Stroke!
    And she still counts her blessings! Bhairavi (not her real name) fainted and lost her vision, speech all at once. Read more to find out how she came to understood the cause and how she resumed painting.  The beginning It all started in summer of 2004, when my husband had just lost his mother and we went to Calcutta for her last rites. The evening of the shraadh or memorial gathering, I was looking for a mouth freshener since I hadn’t eaten all day. My relative offered me some supari (…