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.