The life of a person who has suffered a stroke is divided into “before” and “after”. The disease inflicts no less blow on the patient’s family: its members have to sacrifice work, cope with severe stress and direct all their efforts and money to treat a relative. How to make this period easier and more painless, says a rehabilitation massage therapist, a teacher of the Novosibirsk Medical College in the discipline “medical massage” Alexey Chuvyakov.
About the steps
The goal of home rehabilitation is to achieve an independent lifestyle. The problem is that a person who has suffered a stroke perceives his condition not as a disease, but as a short-term ailment that can be dealt with by drinking a couple of pills or visiting a rehabilitation center. But a day, a month, half a year, a year of intensive studies pass. And the person notices that more and more work is required of him. This is akin to working out in the gym: in order to achieve results, you need to do the same exercises every day, even if the efforts seem futile at first. This requires patience from a person. It will lead to the achievement of a specific goal. The same is in rehabilitation – there are programs and simulators, using which you can shorten the recovery period.
But often the patient lacks patience. He sets himself the task of walking, jumping over in his mind a dozen goals leading to this desire – to learn how to roll over, sit, get up on his own. It’s like trying to eat soup without buying the ingredients, preparing the dish, and grabbing a spoon. The wrong prioritization of rehabilitation leads to wasted time. But the “golden time” for recovery is only three months after a stroke. That is why it is so important to clearly, “car by car”, put in mind all the small goals on the way to the global one. And the main thing is not to rush, each task has its own time.
About relatives
Relatives of the person who suffered a stroke try to do everything for him, treating him like a three-year-old child. And this is a big mistake!
Despite the fact that the patient is not able to perform some of the actions usual for an adult, he remains a person and reacts sharply to any indulgence in his direction – even painfully. I am sure that in order to help a stroke patient recover, you need to give him a little freedom. And I know several stories to prove it.
After a stroke, one man lay almost all the time, he was fully serviced and he did not need anything. This was until he was discharged from the hospital. Since the patient has no family, there was no one to look after him: for three days he was left to himself. But the man managed to roll over on his own, roll out of bed, crawl to the refrigerator and eat. This case, no matter how exaggerated it may be, shows: the more you give a person to do something himself, the faster his recovery goes. As cruel as it sounds, it works!
Some relatives take a different path – they invest in the most expensive drugs and wait for them to take effect. And some immediately send their loved one for massages, which are so popular in treatment in domestic clinics. But in the West, they believe that these are secondary procedures, and put rehabilitation in the first place. I totally agree with that. Indeed, the priority for a person who has suffered a stroke is to restore the work of the brain, not muscles. And the brain is restored only when it is offered a system of movement and options for carrying out actions. Therefore, I recommend that the patient’s relatives invite a competent rehabilitation therapist for him. In addition, a psychologist and speech therapist-defectologist must work with the patient.
About psychology
Many relatives are sure that they act as psychologists for the patient. But sometimes they themselves need psychological help. Caring for a person after a stroke is a huge stress! Problems at work, the inability to leave somewhere, unusual responsibilities … It is devastating, confusing. And after long-term caring for their loved one, many relatives involuntarily begin to break down on him. But this can be avoided. Sometimes it is enough to resort to the services of a psychologist so that both the patient and his family have the potential to work together for a result.
About a miracle
There are cases of miraculous healing, when a person lies down, he himself recovers and returns to his usual life. There was an unusual case in my practice. After a stroke, the doctors told the man: “You have no more than two months left.” But now he runs and does not at all look like a person who has suffered a serious illness. Many people quickly recover from a microstroke: after watching training videos on the Internet, they do simple exercises and return to their usual life in a week. But such miracles are disastrously few – no more than 5%. In most cases, the completely immobilized person’s condition only worsens: blood circulation is impaired, and the pills only have a supporting effect, not contributing to healing.
About prevention
Preventing a stroke is much easier than treating it later. And here a great responsibility falls on the shoulders of relatives of elderly people or those who are at risk. Surely, many are familiar with the situation: one of the older members of the family, having measured the pressure and seeing high numbers, dismisses: “Yes, everything is in order, this is my work.” In fact, there is no such concept, and off-scale indicators are nothing more than pathology. And there is only one road – to the therapist. It is better to pay a few thousand rubles for an appointment with a primary care specialist, who will prescribe adequate treatment, than then – a lot of money for recovery from a stroke. And it is his family members who should take care of the timely admission of a person to the hospital. If this is not done, then an unpleasant scenario awaits the relatives: they will have to quit their job, get nervous, look for good specialists, raise money for rehabilitation, deny themselves everything – and this is only because they could not agree with their elderly parents.
If after reading the article you still have questions, you can ask me by phone: +7 (953) 877-12-39. Be healthy, take care of the health of your loved ones, get diagnosed in a timely manner and contact only competent specialists.
Veronica Levina.
Alex Chuvyakov — Сертифицированный массажист, инструктор ЛФК.
