Predicting the future after stroke
Andy MacKellar • April 28, 2019
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My Mum Has Had a Stroke...
The doctors said that her recovery would continue for six months. It's well past that now, is there still hope?
It's true to say that a lot of spontaneous recovery comes in the early months. Many people have a great deal of difficulty really taking part in their programme during that time. First it's the whole shock of it. Most are in hospital in the early days and for some that adds to the difficulty. Back at home in more familiar surroundings, with help from family and friends, many people with stroke are more able to put the most into their programme. In some areas in Britain it's also the point where the amount of professional help starts to diminish.
The doctors said that her recovery would continue for six months. It's well past that now, is there still hope?
It's true to say that a lot of spontaneous recovery comes in the early months. Many people have a great deal of difficulty really taking part in their programme during that time. First it's the whole shock of it. Most are in hospital in the early days and for some that adds to the difficulty. Back at home in more familiar surroundings, with help from family and friends, many people with stroke are more able to put the most into their programme. In some areas in Britain it's also the point where the amount of professional help starts to diminish.
Physio for Stroke, Head Injury, Parkinson's Disease, Spinal Cord Injury
Being afraid of falling so much or so frequently can dominate after Stroke
The Neuro Trac Rehab muscle stimulator is very straightforward to use regularly
There aren't Seven, they're not very secret and don't all start with an S. Read on...
How to help navigate after a stroke. Do people get lost ? In their own home ?
I have reviewed lots of other peoples CVs in the past, and always found it hard to get a real idea of the person behind it. Here is my own first attempt at an improvement.
There are Seven main elements to any exercise programme. Whether you are a top flight sports person, or someone recovering from major illness or injury, your exercise plan needs to include exercises that do all of these things. It's going to vary according to the level that you are already at, and of course what the aim is. For some, your aim might be to walk ten metres, for others it might be to run a four minute mile. The advice works for everyone. The seven points to ponder are: 1. Stamina. 2. Strength 3. Speed 4. Suppleness ( stretch ) 5. Surge ( plyometrics ) 6. Skill 7. pSychology ( meditation, cognitive therapies etc.) 8. Sustenance ( nutrition ) 9. Sleep ! That's right Nine. And if anyone can suggest more I would be happy to listen. I still call it the Seven Secret S's though, as only 7 of them include exercise forms.
A simple home treatment method for sore necks and shoulders. If you want to try this kind of self treatment you will need guidance with this, so drop us a line and we can meet by video link. Our video link is totally secure, but needs no knowledge of adding software to your computer, phone or tablet.
If you learn a bit about how you are built, we think it will be easier to follow home exercises and self treatment procedures that we teach people to use at home. We'd love to improve these as always, so do share your criticisms and ideas. We won't take it personally. We'll just make it better.
We've been working with video exercise "handouts" for the last 12 years, so it was a relatively straight forward adjustment to maximise this element when the Corona virus lockdown started. We still visit some of our patients, but many are benefitting from Skype, What's App and Zoom calls. We also have our own system built into our notes system that requires no knowledge of programmes to download or other hurdles with the famous systems mentioned. The software company that runs the system has even featured us in a case study about using this kind of working. It's helping us now, as we all live with the lockdown situation, but we think it will become part of the future anyway. That's because it's better in some ways. By that I mean that we can easily add in a 10 minute consultation by video link on a day when we wouldn't plan a full visit, which takes an hour in your home, and probably adds at least half an hour travel time to our day. It can just help to check that a home exercise is being done accurately, and encouraging enough to help people really get stuck in to their rehabilitation at home. And in a more independent way than if we are there with you. So we think that it will change our working practices for the better in future.
Who knew there was so much to say about your big toe ? The joint that attaches your toe to the main part of the foot is key to walking. So it needs to be flexible enough to provide the propulsion stage of walking. This clip shows how you can have a go at improving the range of movement in the big toe joint, and the effects ought to be two fold. One is improvement in any pain that you experience and the other is to have better gait or style when walking. Do send your comments and share your experience if you try this at home.
