Rehabilitation

On August 11 Dom had his first appointment at the Rehabilitation Centre at our local hospital.  This first appointment was an assessment interview and he did some physical tests with the physio.  Dom was really looking forward to the rehabilitation sessions as he was finding the exercise program he brought home from hospital too easy now that he'd been doing them everyday for three weeks.

Happy to be back in the garden, and a very happy dog too!

Dom and his physio found that his back pain was preventing him from fully undertaking the physical therapy program and asked him to have an x-ray done to see if that showed anything.  It showed something alright!  His has a compression fracture of his L1 vertebrae and after a bone density test has now been diagnosed with mild osteoporosis - a result of prolonged use of prednisolone.   And so now he is also taking Vitamin D and Calcium tablets each day until we find out more from yet another specialist on October 9.


The news of the compression fracture affected Dom more then the stroke diagnosis.  I don't know if this is because he is more alert than when he was diagnosed as having had a stroke or if it was just because he was told of the fracture in the middle of a rehab session where he was feeling really positive...he doesn't know why.  What I do know is that for a period of about 24 hours after being told of the compression fracture Dom seemed to sink into a depression.  He couldn't see anything that could be positive and for this brief amount of time he lost his motivation, strength and determination.  I found this hard to watch as he'd been so determined to get better from the get go, I didn't know how to help him.  I kept reinforcing the positives about his situation, and he finally began to see them and recognise these for himself again.  For this brief moment, a day and night, I was worried about how he was going to keep going, I was worried about how I was going to keep going.  It was tough being so positive in the hospital when I could see others weren't as positive as me, but once Dom was on the mend and interacting he was just as positive as me.  But this news knocked him for six, and for a little while I was being positive all on my own again.  But Dom snapped out of it, not to say he isn't still pissed off, and we both think occasionally "why me?" but, that isn't going to get Dom better, so we never think that for too long, or expect an answer!

An afternoon at the beach to cheer us up!

This moment of negativity led us to the National Stroke Foundation website : strokefoundation.com.au where we both found comfort in the inspirational stories available and the information easily accessed through the site.  It opened our eyes to a community of STROKE SURVIVORS (not victims!) and has helped us in Dom's recovery.  It led me to wanting to write this blog to possibly help others - to continue to community.  We are both now passionate supporters of the National Stroke Foundation and are using our work contacts and social media pages to help the National Stroke Foundation raise awareness of stroke.




Today is the first day of National Stroke Week and we have already helped to raise over $500 for the National Stroke Foundation through https://challengestroke.everydayhero.com/au/jessanddom We hope to be able to raise even more money throughout stroke week.

We are both taking the National Stroke Foundation's 'Challenge Stroke' seriously and are working at achieving it's goal of "Be Healthy. Be Aware. Be Your Best".  Please join us and share our fundraising link: https://challengestroke.everydayhero.com/au/jessanddom, the link to this blog: strokeat30.blogspot.com.au and take up the Stroke Challenge!

I'm wearing my Stroke Solidarity String to support this amazing charity!

Now that my blog is up to date with our present day activities, I will post again after the weekend as Dom has a pre-admission appointment with RMH Neurosurgery and a follow up appointment with RMH Neurology this week so hopefully we will have some positive news to enjoy and share with you.

Home Sweet Home

Dom walked out of the Sunshine Hospital at 11am on July 17; 23 days after having a stroke, 25 days after having emergency surgery.  23 days prior I worried about how I would get him home from RMH (thinking he’d hurt his back – nothing else).  25 days prior I thought I’d lose him forever…but here he was, sitting on the couch with me in our lounge room!  This was strange.  It was the first time in just over 3 weeks that I was able to sit and not have to worry about what traffic would be like getting to the hospital, did I have everything packed that Dom needed and requested, did I feed the dog and would he be ok being left alone again.  But Dom was home…more tears – happy ones this time! 

Home is where the heart is :-)

Now our focus turned to more extensive rehabilitation.  We didn’t want to lose what he had achieved at Sunshine, we wanted to build on it.  The first week of Dom being home were fairly quiet and it was nice to settle into a new kind of routine.  We were worried Dom would get bored, frustrated and without having external things to contribute to that he would become depressed.  So we came up with a list of ‘things’ for him to do when he was sick of watching TV.  He could play his guitar again, play his PlayStation, watch YouTube…we only came up with a small list and were thankful we had Foxtel. 

There were lots of things to organise now Dom was home….GP appointments, filling prescriptions, blood tests, finance management and decisions to be made.  I changed my work schedule to only going in to teach my classes, so I could come home to Dom during my free sessions. He was still getting used to the amount of concentration he needed to pay to simple everyday tasks, like getting his breakfast.  But he faced it one day at a time and set himself small goals to work towards each day. 

Dom threw himself into physical therapy.  He did two sessions a day in our home gym working on building his core strength and gaining back the muscle mass he lost during his hospital stay.  He still had weakness in the right side of his body compared to the left.  He had full movement but not the strength so he worked on increasing it while on the waiting list for outpatient rehab at our local hospital. 

Dom had lots of visitors during his first couple of weeks home and this motivated him to continue to improve, it was uplifting to have people come and visit and remark how much they couldn’t believe Dom had had a stroke a month ago…he looked so good and was so much like his old self, it was remarkable. 

Dom was so positive about his rehabilitation – he couldn’t wait to get into the outpatient program to further the progress he was making.

Recovery: Stage 2

On the morning of July 7 I arrived to see a big grin on Dom’s face…he told me he stood up to get into the wheelchair – he didn’t need to be hoisted!  He was ecstatic!  I was so proud of him! I spoke with Rosy (physio) later that afternoon, she asked me what I had fed Dom over the weekend because she couldn't believe the change in his mobility compared to her visit with Dom on Friday.  She said it was amazing and they would see if he would be able to walk tomorrow!

On July 8 Rosy came with another physio and they got Dom up and walking!  It was amazing!  He needed assistance but he could walk!  I was so proud of him and happy for him I had to take a photo! 

The smiles say it all!

July 10: Dom said farewell to RMH Stroke Ward and was transferred by ambulance to the Rehabilitation Ward at the Sunshine Hospital.  Dom settled in and was looking forward to the next part of his rehabilitation – we started talking about the next stage as rehab, not recovery.  Recovery made us think he was sick…we wanted to be more positive so we focused on rehab to get him home!  We were talking about the best-case scenario being one week in rehab, but didn’t want to get our hopes up, so we kept talking like it would be one month. 

Dom was assessed by the Occupational Therapist, Speech Therapist, Physio and Neuropsychologist on July 11.  They all put a timetable in place for the following week and Dom had the weekend to settle in.  He persisted with his own exercises that he could do while lying in bed and walked around the ward on the weekend with me assisting him.  I returned to work for the start of Term 3 on July 14 and arrived at rehab to visit Dom at 1pm.  We went down stairs to the cafeteria and when we returned to the rehab ward we were told Dom would be coming home on Thursday!  Exactly one week after arriving in rehab!  We couldn’t believe it!  It was the best news we could have hoped for. Dom now had something more immediate to aim for and work towards.  He put so much energy into all of the different sessions while he was in rehab so he could be in the best possible shape when he got to come home.

Stroke Ward Milestones!

Stroke Ward Milestones!

The weekend of July 5 & 6 was full of amazing progress!  By the evening of July 5 Dom had movement in his right foot and leg and slight movement in his right hand.  We were able to take him out and about in the wheelchair…well out and about to the cafeteria; still it was out of his room and the ward! 

On July 6 Dom had gained movement in his right arm from his fingertips to his elbow!  This was excellent news and put Dom in a more positive frame of mind, especially after his tough day on Friday with the rehab staff.  The nurses were impressed and astounded by the progress Dom was making.  He couldn’t wait to see the physio on Monday to see what else he would be able to do and what exercises he could do while he waited to go to rehab. 

Selfie in the cafeteria!

Dom spent Sunday afternoon in the cafeteria with all of his visitors – he had an iced coffee and was able to see everyone at once instead of only the two at a time when on the Stroke Ward. 

Things were now looking positive for a move to rehabilitation.