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Stroke Recovery Successes and Setbacks
Now that Steve only has therapy twice a week at the CP Aquatic Center, the responsibility lies on me to help him with physical and occupational therapy at home. The therapists at the hospital gave us a therapy program to follow, but it takes a lot of diligence, and it’s very strenuous on my hands. But I do the best I can. Steve is usually cooperative but he tires easily. He’s not sleeping well at night and is still struggling with sleep apnea and shortness of breath. He just can’t get used to the CPAP mask, and all options for other masks have been exhausted, so we will be returning the CPAP machine.
The exercises would be easier for him if he could feel the left side of his body. His leg, foot, toes, arm, hand and fingers are still tingling and numb, along with the side of his face, ear, mouth, and neck. Another setback has been with his big toe, which has become painful because of an ingrown toenail and tone in the toe. Tone is stiffness in the muscle. His toe becomes spastic and stiff and it just sticks up pushing it against the shoe making it painful to walk. His physical therapist noticed the tone about 3 months ago and told us that it may make the toe so stiff that it will stay that way, so we need to be diligent to flex it and force it down.
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My husband Kurt age 49 suffered a large r mca stroke in April of this year. He is at out pt therapy 2 times a week, albe to walk with min assist, just starting to do stairs. I want him to be more excited about doing his home program with me, he was a runner before this 3-4 times at the gym. How did youo keep your husband motivated without getting him mad at you? Thanks, Kati
December 15th, 2010 at 10:39 pmKati, One thing I learned was that I couldn’t force my husband to do therapy against his will. For the first couple of years after his stroke, I tried so hard to get him going and felt responsible to keep him motivated, and when he didn’t want to do the exercises I would get frustrated with him. Well, that didn’t work. First of all, men don’t like to be told what to do, so I changed my attitude. I offered my help, but refused to get upset when he didn’t want to do it. I learned that sweetness of speech increases persuasiveness. With my long forbearance and calmness of spirit he would be persuaded, and my soft speech broke down his hardened resistance. Not every time though, and it took much of my patience, but it worked better than nagging him. Your patience, praise, encouragement, understanding and love will go a long way, but the determination must come from within him. My husband struggles with much pain, so he doesn’t want to do exercises unless I do most of the work for him. So I offer a reward for him doing even the simplest things…such as a back rub, leg massage, etc. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
December 16th, 2010 at 10:15 pm