Deans' stroke musings: depression and stroke rehab

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Monday, October 18, 2010

depression and stroke rehab

If it occurs to you seek medical help, it is not easily overcome on your own and untreated really slows down your recovery.
Depression was not really present during the 5-week hospital stay, mainly because I was not told anything about how severe my stroke was or what the likelihood of recovery was. I was thinking that I would be back to normal in 9 months. The psychiatrist I saw in the hospital tried to get me to admit that I was mad at my body for failing me, I refused to believe it because I was still under the impression I would recover fully and soon. After release from the hospital and research started on the internet did it finally dawn on me that I was totally screwed considering the physical deficits I had that barely seemed to get better. Anyway depression did set in around 6 months, I saw a social worker a couple of times. Persistence and never giving up are key to keeping going, I figure I have 40 more years of living to do yet and if I work hard on recovery they will be much more enjoyable that moaning about my sad lot in life.
Currently am seeing a therapist and taking Zoloft. It has provided a better attitude, but a lot of that is because I have figured out what needs to occur to recover, not easy but possible.
And anti-depressant drugs have been shown to help motor recovery. Although I'm not sure that I'm within the necessary timeframe. Probably by increasing the level of serotonin in the central nervous system.
Prozac May Speed Physical Rehabilitation After Stroke