The months following your loved one experiencing a stroke are frequently difficult. The transformation will necessitate an entirely new perspective on care, routine, and priorities. Not to mention the distress you’ll be feeling watching your loved one suffering from physical and emotional changes. However, with the large body of data around effective stroke therapy, there is optimism to be had for the road ahead.
The stages of recovery provide stroke survivors and their families with a road map of predicted stages that can help to assist them in formulating an appropriate rehabilitation and recovery strategy. Patients will initially be unable to move the afflicted muscles during flaccidity and hypotonia, which represent muscular weakness. Even when the muscles are in good condition, shortly after a stroke the neurological link will be severed, making them difficult to use properly or effectively. This can cause the muscles to go underused, which will cause them to lose tone and strength without early help and training.
Rehabilitation after a stroke aims to restore as much physical and cognitive function as possible for your loved one. For most patients, the amount of time needed for recovery after a stroke can take six to twelve months of intense rehabilitation. However, even years after beginning rehabilitation, stroke patients can still continue to improve the recovery of their cognitive, emotional, and physical functions.
After a stroke, rehabilitation may involve speech, occupational, and physical therapy. Rehabilitation can assist stroke patients with relearning the basic activities of daily living, such as walking, using the bathroom, attending to hygiene, cooking, and all the other life skills that will enable them to live as independently and safely as possible. In cases where a full recovery to pre-stroke abilities is not feasible, rehabilitation can provide a path to assisting your loved one to find workarounds that will still allow them to maintain some amount of independence. For example, if the stroke has left their arm paralyzed, a therapist may work with them to teach them how to perform their basic activities without using it, finding ways to help them use the parts of their body that still work.
The nature and the severity of the stroke will determine how much rehabilitation your loved one will need, and if inpatient or outpatient care is necessary. If they require round the clock care and extensive treatment, receiving inpatient care at a skilled nursing home or rehabilitation hospital may be the ideal alternative, with daily therapy sessions allowing them to focus only on their recovery.
With home health care, some rehabilitation therapies can be performed at home. THese services will be provided by qualified medical experts that will travel to your loved one’s residence and perform their therapies in the comfort of your loved one’s own home. Home health aides help to carry out doctor-prescribed duties, such as strength training and medication administration. Stroke rehabilitation with home health care will allow for a certain degree of freedom, while also providing services such as medication management, cooking, and laundry duties.