Understanding Your Recovery: What to Expect After a Stroke

According to the American Stroke Association, strokes — also known as a cerebrovascular accident or CVA — affect more than 795,000 Americans a year and a leading cause of long-term disability in adults. However, rehabilitation rates are encouraging. The sooner you begin your post stroke rehabilitation, the more likely you are to regain lost abilities and skills.  

Rehabilitation will typically start within 24 to 48 hours post stroke. In some cases, brain cell damage due to a stroke can be temporary and may resume functioning over time. In other cases, the brain can reorganize its own functioning and a different region will take over for the stroke-damaged region. 

What is a Stroke?

A stroke is a medical emergency that can cause lasting brain damage, long-term disability or even death. Signs of a stroke can range from mild weakness to paralysis or numbness on one side of the face or body. Other signs may include a sudden and severe headache, sudden weakness, trouble seeing and difficulty speaking or understanding speech. 

There are two types of strokes. A stroke that occurs because blood flow to the brain is blocked is called an ischemic stroke. (Just under 90% of all strokes are ischemic.) The brain cannot get oxygen and nutrients from the blood and within minutes brain cells begin to die. A stroke that occurs because of sudden bleeding in the brain is called a hemorrhagic stroke where leaked blood results in pressure on brain cells, damaging them.  

The Importance of Post Stroke Rehabilitation

Post stroke treatment can make a big difference in helping stroke survivors achieve the best long-term outcome. Researchers have found that people who participate in a focused short-term rehabilitation program recover better than most people who don’t. That’s why rehabilitation is recommended for all people affected by stroke.  

What’s Involved in Post Stroke Rehabilitation?

No two strokes are alike, so the time you spend rehabbing depends on the severity of your stroke and related complications. Some people recover quickly, but most need some form of long-term rehabilitation lasting for possibly months or even years. However, as you relearn skills and your needs change, your plan will change right along with you. Here are some common types of stroke rehabilitation therapies you can expect: 

Physical therapy:

The goal of physical therapy is to help you relearn simple motor activities such as walking, sitting, standing, lying down, and the process of switching from one type of movement to another. For most people who have a stroke, this is the main form of rehabilitation. Physical therapists use training and exercises to restore movement, balance and coordination. Your physical activities could include: 

• Motor-skill exercises — These are exercises designed to help improve muscle strength and coordination throughout the body including, muscles used for balance, walking and even swallowing. 

• Mobility training — This training is to help you learn to use mobility aids, such as a walker, cane, wheelchair or ankle brace. The ankle brace can stabilize and strengthen your ankle to help support your body’s weight while you relearn to walk. 

• Constraint-induced therapy — This therapy is also sometimes called forced-use therapy which is when an unaffected limb is restrained while you practice moving the affected limb to help improve its function.  

• Range-of-motion therapy — Certain exercises and treatments can ease muscle tension and help you regain range of motion. 

Occupational therapy:

This type of therapy involves exercise and training, and even home and workplace modifications, to better help you resume living an independent or semi-independent lifestyle. That’s because a stroke can affect many everyday activities like eating, drinking and swallowing, dressing, bathing, cooking, reading and writing, and using the bathroom.  

Speech therapy:

This type of therapy is for people who have no issues with cognition or thinking but have problems understanding speech, written words or forming speech. Speech therapy also helps people develop coping skills to deal with the frustration of not being able to communicate fully. With time and patience, speech therapy can help a stroke survivor regain some, and sometimes all, language and speaking abilities.  

We Can Help Get You Back to Doing What You Love

If you’ve recently had a stroke, our health services was recently awarded Best Nursing Home award for Short-Term Rehabilitation by US News and World Report. To learn more about how our award winning care — including skilled nursing and rehabilitation — can get you back on the road to recovery, use our Community Assistant chat feature or contact us here.