Post-Stroke Therapy: What Your Therapists Want You to Know

In the United States, about 800 thousand people each year suffer a stroke and approximately two-thirds of these individuals survive and require rehabilitation, according to National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Beginning as soon as 24 hours after experiencing a stroke, the post-stroke therapy team will walk with their patients (literally and figuratively) throughout the stroke rehabilitation journey; making them the best source for understanding what to expect during every stage of stroke recovery.

Below are a few things your post-stroke therapy team wants you to know while working through your recovery process:

1. You CANNOT Rush It!

So many families and stroke survivors are in a rush to leave the hospital, to see progress, and to get back to their pre-stroke lives that there is often a desire to progress through each recovery phase too quickly. Pressure from insurance companies also tend to promote a rushed recovery, but healing from a stroke is a multi-faceted process that affects all parts of a stroke-survivor’s life. When so many aspects of a life are interrupted, rushing through recovery is not the wisest choice. Instead, trust the process and your post-stroke therapy team with whom you’ll spend hours with, and celebrate the smallest signs of recovery!

2. Good Sleep Is Imperative!

The greatest complaint and concern therapist hear from stroke survivors is their level of fatigue. Honestly, fatigue is to be expected. The brain has undergone a huge trauma and requires a lot of rest to heal. Overtime, however, the amount of sleep needed should be reduce and monitored appropriately. If a stroke survivor requires 18 hours of sleep 5-months post-stroke, there is cause for concern and a visit to the doctor’s office should be considered.

Using smart rings and watches can be a helpful tool for monitoring sleep quality and for providing insight into the amount of deep sleep occurring, which helps therapists support good sleep hygiene.

3. Eating Healthy Promotes Healing.

The brain has experienced a major infarct with some death of brain tissue. To support the greatest amount of healing possible, nutrition is key. In general, the brain thrives on carbohydrates, so focusing on healthy carbohydrates is imperative. We all love junk carbs such as candy, soda, and chips, but eating fruits, veggies, whole wheat breads, and other dense carbs is the smarter way to go. Good nutrition provides the greatest opportunity to improve healing and increase energy for recovery needs.

4. Exercise is Essential!

When the body is exposed to exercise after a stroke the MOST amazing thing happens! The body releases a protein called, “Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF).” This protein gets the body ready to learn, which supports faster healing and mobility. Essentially, exercise helps the brain to rewire with greater ease. But don’t forget, without adequate sleep or adequate nutrition you won’t have what it takes to sustain exercise!

5. Recovery Times Vary & Continues Pass Discharge.

The work you put in as a stroke survivor definitely supports the process of recovery, but at the end of the day every stroke is different. Some survivors experience very few deficits while others have debilitating loss. A factor that affects recovery time is the type of stroke that occurred (hemorrhagic vs. ischemic). The most important thing to remember is that at discharge from any setting, but especially from the outpatient setting, is that just because discharge has occurred, it does not mean recovery has ended. Recovery only ends when the stroke survivor stops working toward recovery! Your post-stroke therapy team will assure you have all the exercises and activities in place so that you can continue the recovery journey at home, at work, and in your community.

6. The Stroke Survivor Must Do the Work.

As mentioned, stroke therapists spend, perhaps, the most amount of time with stroke survivors than any other medical professional. While that is true, there is a lot of time stroke survivors spend alone or with family. During that alone time, survivors have the choice to eat well or poorly, sleep well or stay up later than they should, and choose whether or not to perform the exercise(s) recommended by their post-stroke recovery team. The point is, there is work involved in recovery, and no one, other the survivor can put in the work it requires to recover. Recovery is a full-time job!

“Therapists are like Home Depot.
We provide all the parts you need to improve,
but at the end of the day, the survivor still has to work the project.”

– Jennica Colvin, Occupational Therapists at Trio Rehab.

7. Having The Right Post-Stroke Recovery Team is Key.

Another factor that affects recovery is having the right doctors on board. There are doctors who are specifically trained to support the science behind stroke recovery. They are called, “physiatrists” or “Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) doctors.” Having these doctors as part of your medical team assure the amount of rehabilitation that is safe and productive. Believe it or not, too much work too soon can actually be a setback in recovery.

Here at Trio Rehabilitation & Wellness Solutions, we have two PM&R Specialists: Jennica Colvin, Occupational Therapist and Suzanne McCrum, Physical Therapist.

Additionally, Karen Ross provides Speech-Language Pathology services for stroke survivors having difficulty with swallowing food and liquids, as we well as for those having trouble articulating words or expressing thoughts.

We’ll leave you with these parting words from the book, “Stronger After Stroke: Your Roadmap to Recovery” by Peter Levine. “Many survivors are reluctant to put considerable amounts of time into recovery without the guarantee of full recovery, but there are NO guarantees. You may work very hard and recover very little. Efforts toward recovery are leaps of faith. Keeping the faith is essential to recovery.”  Keep the faith and keep working hard to recover stronger and better!

Trio Rehab’s talented therapists are here to help!

If you or someone you care for is recovering from a stroke, we can help. Give us a call today to make an appointment to see one of our Certified Stroke Rehabilitation Therapists.

Jennica Colvin, Owner & Occupational Therapist
Trio Rehabilitation & Wellness Solutions
Boerne, Texas