any experience of strokes ?

~daisy~_2

today hub has had a severe telling off and had wheelchairs banned from his room after he decided to get into one by himself and head off to the day room for his lunch !!! of course none of staff dreamt he could do it alone so assumed someone else helped and all replied to his cheery hellos as he wheeled past !!!

hes a !!!!!! !!

my main concern at mo seems to be his mental recovery or lack off - his short term memory seems to be shot to hell and word finding is very poor
i just pray it doesnt get over looked due to his great physical recovery as it cant be seen .....

beccam

~daisy~ wrote: »

today hub has had a severe telling off and had wheelchairs banned from his room after he decided to get into one by himself and head off to the day room for his lunch !!! of course none of staff dreamt he could do it alone so assumed someone else helped and all replied to his cheery hellos as he wheeled past !!!

hes a !!!!!! !!

my main concern at mo seems to be his mental recovery or lack off - his short term memory seems to be shot to hell and word finding is very poor
i just pray it doesnt get over looked due to his great physical recovery as it cant be seen .....

sorry but :rotfl: bless him he's desperate to get out eh?!?
I can just imagine the "near miss" paperwork the staff had to fill in after that one!

The mental recovery can take alot longer than the physical and can take alot more work aswell. Don't panic yet, he's making great physical progress and although it may seem like this all happened years ago it is still VERY early days.

You can ask for a bit of a get together with his team in a few days time to see where he is with everything, get consultant, nursing, physio and OT aswell as social work and discuss these concerns too.
He has probably had an initial speech and language assessment (they would assess his swallow and decide if he can have liquids/purees/solids etc), they will come back and the next thing they do is look at language recall, they may suggest using picture charts to help him point at things if he can't get the words out and they can also suggest things that may help with memory too.

It will have been hard as this happened just before a weekend so nothing much has been going on for a day or two but you will find they all reappear again tomorrow and start the torture!:)

Remember to take some time for you aswell to recharge the batteries, this can be a long, slow, frustrating process and you need to make sure you are looking after yourself as well as him and the kids. Take care.x

hethmar

Very best wishes to you and your husband. He certainly sounds like he isnt going to hang about getting fit again. God bless xxx

slummymummyof3

Just make sure you are taking care of yourself, particularly while he is in hospital and you have the chance to recharge your batteries (if you know what I mean??) as there will be fewer opportunities once he is discharged.

Do you have family nearby who can help at all?

merlin68

My old next door neighbour had 2 srokes at 41, she is now recovered and back at work, we found her collapsed half dressed outside the front door. She just has some slight weakness in her legs a year later.

Savvy_Sue

slummymummyof3 wrote: »

Do you have family nearby who can help at all?

If not, let the boys' friends mums help out if they offer! Anything from getting shopping in for you, delivering pizzas or doing your laundry ...

And, while you don't want to 'dump' on the children, this may be a good time to teach them new skills and practise old ones. I taught DS3 to use the washing machine before a planned admission to hospital, he was only 12 but he was doing watersports that week with school, and we talked about what would happen if he just left his wet clothes for me! :rotfl: He then carried on doing the washing for several weeks after I got home, which was a huge help to me and DH (who can't be trusted with laundry!)

~daisy~_2

thx so much for advice and experiences - it really does help

not having great day today - not to sure why just feeling quite overwhelmed
hubby was taken to the gym at the hospital and did really well apparently - walked a length of the bar thingy with just a little help - physio hopes to have him walking with a stick by next week

dr has told me to tell his work to plan for a minimum of 3 months initially then go from there and i am being paid for my first ten shifts and then have an inital 5 week leave of absence unpaid which will then be accessed on a week by week basis

OT have indicated they would prefer him to be sleeping downstairs to begin with so that means a bed a commode etc etc.....i think thats whats overwhelming me or rather the thought of it
although i woke up tired this morning and have felt tired all day
im used to hubby being away for 1 or 2 nights at a time for work but since hes been in hospital i am freezing cold in bed so having to go to sleep in so many layers that i then spend the rest of the night stripping of layer by layer....

dr has also said that stroke hasnt affected any area of the brain that is used for memory etc so why he cant remember things i have no idea - didnt know the words for fingers and toes today couldnt tell me what hed had for breakfast - so hoping now its some kind of trauma that will ease in time but these things he did struggle to a degree with so who knows ........

early days early days

Savvy_Sue

daisy, hope you get more sleep soon.

I recommend warming your pjs before putting them on: before we got our electric blanket I used to put them on the radiator, and now I put them in bed for a few minutes before I put them on. Or wrap them round a hot water bottle or a wheat bag and pop that into the bed to warm it.

And if there's still a teddy bear in the house, use that too! a big one makes a great draft excluder.

slummymummyof3

You want to speak to your local gp surgery about where to borrow a commode and other specialist equipment from - if OT is unable to help.

Have you thought about checking in to caring for carer's allowance etc if you are going to have unpaid leave. Don't know how it works/whether you'd be entitled etc but surely worth a shot?

~daisy~_2

hey guys - having an initial house assessment done on thurs am to see our house and what may or may not be possible
cliff still going great guns - had 2 physio sessions today as they are quiet so all the better for him if not tiring
also had cognitive assessments done which tell us he is normal - there are memory problems but he still has a working thought process - didnt totally get all that if im honest but the OT seemed pleased

re. carers allowance - i checked cliffs private health care and we can claim a NHS cash benefit for every day he is in hospital under NHS care - this is £100 a day which will more than cover my wages
however cliffs company are swappping health care providers on 01.02.2010 so the first one will pay the claim based on admittance on 20.01.2010 till 01.02.2010 but my concern is if the new p;olicy will include this benefit and then will the new company -bupa- say that his stroke is now a pre exsisitng condition ?
his boss seems to think because its nothing to do with us that the cover will stop and re start that they shouldnt class it as a pre exsisting condition but hope to find out for definite in next few days - this could be as much as another £1000 so really hope we can make the claim - he pays tax on this benefit after all !!