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.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

My transformation from victim to survivor

It started quite slowly, I was waiting for my medical staff to give me some concrete information on rehabilitation and then I could follow that and recover. That never occurred, I don't think my doctors in 30+ years of practice had ever figured out anything about stroke rehab. Since my cognitive abilities were spared, as soon as I got access to a computer I found a number of stroke forums and everyone on them was looking for information that no-one had gotten from their doctors. It became painfully obvious that all stroke survivors are on their own, they need to figure out their own therapy protocols. Of the 5 stages of grief:
Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance
I am still in denial that I won't recover, I refuse to accept that compensation is the best I can do. Anger still exists against the medical establishment that has not set forward a strategy for stroke rehabilitation for all survivors. Bargaining I never did. Depression was from the total lack of communication about what recovery looks like. My vision was that in 6 months I would be canoeing again. With no discussion from any medical staff that this was impossible or even any information at all, depression was inevitable. I haven't accepted my physical limitations because I know I will eventually get them back. I have enough drive ,persistence, pugnacity and smarts to move my brain functions around. In any event I set myself a goal to change stroke rehab worldwide, this is probably an insane belief. And the way to do that is to research and plan what needs to be done. This blog is my starting point and from some of the responses its doing a good job.

3 comments:

  1. From what I have been told, a stroke is a very individual thing. That because each brain is a little different, each stroke is too.

    However, I do agree that there should be some norms in place for rehab. I wish you luck in your quest and I will continue to read.

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  2. Glynis, that is from the quote ' All strokes are different, all stroke recoveries are different'. The first can be true because 1 ml. difference in area can make the stroke damage different. The second part I absolutely do not believe, its just used as an excuse for the medical profession to not have to expend brain power in researching what is really true.

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    1. Hi Dean, I so agree with you about the "professionals" not wanting to wast their valuable golfing and socialising time, in attempting to help someone who is disabled by a stroke, to recover. that is why the first line of treatment seems to always be "Acceptance"

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