5 Important Steps You Can Take to Recover From a Stroke
Having a stroke is both devastating and frightening.
Each year, more than 795,000 Americans have a stroke, according to information from the Centers for Disease Control. Of those, 1 in 4 occur in people who have had a stroke before.
Depending upon the extent of the stroke, stroke rehab recovery can be a long and challenging journey.
But there is hope. With proper occupational and physical therapy rehab for stroke patients, you can regain a lot of function that you had before the stroke.
In fact, we’d like to outline 5 steps to recover from a stroke, and they are centered around something called neuroplasticity.
What Is Neuroplasticity?
This refers to the brain’s ability to form new connections—particularly in response to a stroke or injury. Helping the brain make these new connections enhances stroke rehab.
5 Steps to Recover From a Stroke
1. Continue physical activity
Many studies show that this can help change connections in your brain to help you regain some function. Remember to do some type of activity every day. Good options include walking, biking or even gardening.
2. Practice communication skills
We encourage you to be patient—improvement takes time. It’s often difficult to come up with the right words. You might find it useful to draw pictures or write down important words to help you communicate with others.
Stroke patients may demonstrate the following speech disorders:
- Aphasia, which limits your ability to speak and communicate with others. It can also affect your ability to write and read. This is a common issue among stroke survivors.
- Dysarthria, which means you’re not able to control facial muscles or your throat muscles. This is one reason that stroke survivors often have slurred or slow speech that is difficult to understand.
- Apraxia, which means you’re unable to move the muscles you need when speaking.
Our speech therapists work closely with stroke rehab patients to help them regain their communication skills.
3. Lean on your support systems
Your friends, family and loved ones are here to help you. To recover from a stroke is a long and challenging process, and it can be tempting to withdraw from social interactions. However, speaking with those you love—and seeking out stroke support groups—can go a long way toward helping you psychologically persevere through your recovery.
4. Live a healthy lifestyle
If you already had healthy habits before your stroke, it is important that you continue them. If your skills need improvement, it’s important to dedicate yourself to living a healthier lifestyle. This means to lower your cholesterol, stop smoking, eat healthier foods and limit your caffeine and alcohol intake.
5. Work closely with your stroke rehab team
Our dedicated, compassionate, professional therapists have extensive experience in helping residents regain their function after a stroke. We offer physical therapy, speech therapy and occupational therapy.
Through these three disciplines, we created a care plan that will help you on your journey.
How Long Do Stroke Patients Stay in Stroke Rehab?
This is a question we’re asked a lot, and it’s difficult to provide one simple answer.
The truth is, a lot of your recovery depends upon the type of stroke you’ve had, how much brain damage occurred, and your level of function after a stroke.
In general, however, many stroke patients see some type of improvement 2 to 3 weeks after they have been discharged from the hospital, but stroke rehabilitation may take 3 months.
East Carolina Rehabilitation and Wellness: The Premier Choice for Rehab for Stroke Patients
We consider our residents members of our community. We rejoice with them during their victories and provide unwavering support as they face their numerous challenges.
As a family owned and operated facility, we have a vested interest in Greenville, NC and the surrounding areas. With us, there’s none of the frustrating red tape that many experience when facing a corporate-owned franchise facility.
In fact, don’t be surprised if you see us in the local grocery store or volunteering in the community.
Our goal is for survivors in stroke rehab to return home as soon as it is safely possible to do so. Want more information? You can take a virtual tour of our community by contacting us.