Family: 'A win-win situation'

The most important people for stroke patients: family. Now, there's some researching finding that stroke patients benefit from family involvement in exercise therapy:

Researchers found that adding family-assisted exercise therapy to routine physical therapy after stroke improved motor function, balance, distance walked and ability to perform daily living activities. It also lowered the strain on the family member, who said participation lowered stress and was empowering.

“It’s a win-win situation for everyone,” said Emma Stokes, Ph.D., the study’s principal investigator and Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. “People with stroke, their families and healthcare providers share in the benefit.”

My own recovery was from language deficits, not physical problems, but family was incredibly important in my recovery as well. The results from this study was not a surprise, but it's good to hear: family is key.

Internet Stroke Center at Washington University

Yesterday's post mentioned the Internet Stroke Center at Washington University in St. Louis. It's also connected with Barnes-Jewish Hospital, which is next door to the university's medical school.

The Internet Stroke Center offers resources for patients and families, including basics on recognizing stroke symptoms, caring for stroke survivors and reducing stroke risk. There's a link to the latest stroke news. It's a good Web site to note during Stroke Awareness Month.

One of the more disappointed stories, from MedWire News, starts this way: "Only a fifth of people who suffer a stroke recognize the event as an emergency and go urgently to hospital, research reveals." That means, of course, four out of five people who suffer a stroke do not recognize the event as an emergency and go urgently to a hospital. We need to do better. Much better.

Here are the symptoms:

• Sudden numbness of the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding speech
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause

Even if you suspect that's going on - to you or someone else - get to some help fast. As stated before, a false alarm is better than a funeral.

Being several days out of my effort to post to this blog almost every day and keep it active, I've found it gets easier every day and discovered some fascinating people and additional resources. And on that note, thanks be to God.

Stroke Awareness and Recovery blog

My Google alert for news and blogs found a Web site devoted to "Sharing ideas on caring and independence for stroke survivors and their families." The site, Stroke Awareness and Recovery, has a good entry about Stroke Awareness Month.

Lots of good resources from another blogger who is a stroke survivor.

A beginning ...

This blog has come about after a long period of soul-searching – more that seven years. My own stroke came on May 8, 1998. A colleague and I, both newspaper reporters, were digging through documents in a semi-hostile government office in Arkansas. I suddenly lost the ability to speak and movement on the right side of my body. My right hand fell limp. I could not stand. A strange dazed feeling came over me.

That day, I nearly died. Thanks to my colleague, an ambulance came. Thanks to the ambulance crew, the hospital was ready. Thanks to the doctors and nurses, a drug called tissue plasminogen activator cleared the clot. Thanks to my wife, colleagues, fellow believers, and a speech therapist, I regained my ability to speak and, eventually, write.

And most importantly, thank God. He gave me all those people and the strength to get through some struggling recovery times. God returned my ability to speak and write. He returned my body to me. As this is being written, I ran five miles this morning, will run 10 miles this coming Saturday and am seriously considering a marathon next spring.

It’s been a long time since May 8, 1998. And please understand that this blog is not about my personal history or struggle. It is about faith. It’s about a very specific task of sharing experience and faith with stroke survivors and their families, to help them if possible.

How?

Honest answer: Uncertain. This is a start. Where this leads, at the moment, isn’t obvious. All I can say is that I’m led to do this.

Stroke survivors and families are invited to share comments or stories with me and, by extension, others.

Comments will be moderated, and all I ask is that you respect the purpose of this blog. It’s not about politics or general religion topics. It is about and for stroke victims and their loved ones, and the faith we can share.