Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: stroke survivors + stroke + survivors  Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/5/2008)

When should exercise be introduced into a stroke survivor's recovery? Globe and Mail, Canada - Toronto Rehab is working with other community centres across Canada to enable stroke survivors to use its facilities. Family members or caregivers can go ... Banner Baywood Medical Center certified as a Primary Stroke Center EVLiving - Stroke is a leading cause of serious, long-term disability in the United States, with about 4.7 million stroke survivors alive today. ... University of Central Florida Intensive Aphasia Program at UCF Helps Stroke Survivors Take Back ... University of Central Florida, FL - Jul 31, 2008 Stroke survivors receive individual and group therapy Monday through Thursday, three hours a day, for an entire month. Goals are based on assessed needs and ... Scheme to help stroke survivors set for UK roll-out Nursing in Practice, UK - Jul 30, 2008 A new self-management programme to help stroke survivors back on the road to greater independence is starting to be rolled out across the UK. ... New Book Helps Stroke Survivors and Families Mass Media Distribution LLC (press release), FL - Jul 29, 2008 Ron Gardner, survivor of a severe stroke, understands what it feels like to have his life changed forever. He has made it his personal mission to better the ... St. John's Telegram Don't count him Out St. John's Telegram, Canada - Aug 4, 2008 "There are times where you really get down as the family of a stroke survivor, especially at the beginning," she says. "You can't believe how much your life ... Seattle Symphony violinist Ralph Heino dead at 91 Seattle Post Intelligencer - Other survivors include a grandson, granddaughter and four great-grandchildren. A memorial services is planned Saturday at Lakeview Cemetery and Providence ... UCF clinic assists in stroke therapy Central Florida Future, FL - Jul 30, 2008 That is how Uriah Nelson, a recent stroke survivor in ongoing rehabilitative care, described his stroke. Nelson is one of the three stroke survivors taking ... PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung) New Functional Magnetic Resonance Images Demonstrates Brain ... PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung), Austria - Aug 4, 2008 For stroke and brain injury survivors with impaired vision, these data further show that VRT may help them regain lost sight - and ultimately help them ... Formation of stroke survivors group studied The Post-Standard - Syracuse.com, NY - Jul 23, 2008 The Manor at Seneca Hill is looking into organizing a group for new stroke survivors and their caregivers. The group could meet monthly and have speakers ...

Stroke Survivors: Their Stories

It was probably one of the scariest things that could ever happen to somebody. I had just turned 30 years old. Out of nowhere -- it happened! I wound up laying on a gurney inside an emergency room of a hospital. Then I woke up finally, and I realized that I can’t use my left side, I couldn’t communicate so that somebody could understand me, and I just thought my life is over. It’s the most frightening thing in the world. Especially if you are a broadcaster who has been working in the business for over 15 years and that’s all you know, and now you can’t even talk. It’s absolutely petrifying! After the initial feelings of not wanting to go on, you realize that there are people who care about you and there are things that you can still do and be the person that you want to be, IF you have the determination. Once that determination is made, then you go to work and do it. And, it took me a long time---almost two years of solid, constant therapy. During that time, my therapy was twelve hours a day, six-to-seven days a week for my hand, my arm, and my leg. Now, we do one or two hours a day, two or three times a week.

I think that everybody has a button. Everybody has a button that somebody can push. My button just happens to be golf. That was my passion all my life. I grew up, from the time I was three years old, playing golf. When I had my stroke, I was a scratch player. The rehabilitation doctor walked into my hospital room about three weeks after I had my first stroke. He said, "You’ll never play golf again the way you did before, if at all. You’ll never bowl again. You’ll probably not really work again in the broadcasting business." But, when he said that I’d never play golf again, he really pushed my button. And when that button was pushed, I knew that I WOULD do it; I knew that I would work again. I knew that I would be able to do right for my family. But that button was the one thing that put me over the edge.

Ken Carter (Stroke Survivor, Professional Jazz Saxophonist)

After I went through rehabilitation, people asked me, "You’re a musician…what are you going to do now?" After all, the saxophone is a two-handed instrument. I went to the music store and I was going to buy a trumpet to play with my left hand, if I could learn how to do it. That’s where my luck and my life changed. The proprietor of the store knew of a person that had converted a saxophone at one time to a one-handed instrument. But he told me that this person just did this once because it was so difficult. So they tracked down this saxophone and it’s the one I use today.

Well, I put in eight hours of practice each day. I had to just re-learn the whole instrument to play from one hand. I had to learn how to go from lower scale to upper scale. People showed me a lot of patience. Every time I learned a new song, I would go with the horn to every show club in Connecticut and I would play it for them. I don’t know what I sounded like but everyone gave me a lot of encouragement. I find that we will always have encouragement in our lives if we just do as much as we can for ourselves. That’s what I would advise any stroke survivor or anyone with a disability. Do as much as you can for yourself, and there are people out there that will support you in a positive way.

Shirley Wallace (Stroke Survivor)

As related by Gail Wallace, RN, BSN (A Stroke Center Nurse Clinician)

They say there aren’t enough heroes anymore. I guess it depends on your perspective or where you look.

I’d like to introduce you to one of my heroes. Oddly enough, it’s my mother-in-law, Shirley Wallace.

Shirley is one of those exemplary moms. She worked with both girl and boy scouts. She volunteered at church doings, attended every baseball or football game her boys were in.

When she became a grandmother, she busied herself with making every grandchild a homemade cabbage patch doll, a home made quilt and multiple crocheted sweaters and such.

At the age of 54, Shirley had a heart attack. Her kids were caught unawares. Shirley did not smoke; she did not have high blood pressure, or diabetes. The only "risk factors" they could identify were high cholesterol and a tendency to carry the weight of everyone’s burdens (stress).

After her heart attack, things changed. My father-in-law and a couple of the kids quit smoking. Shirley got out of some of her commitments. We all "mother-henned" her not to do so much. Everyone was afraid of another heart attack. No one thought of stroke. As I look back I am surprised I didn’t. After all, the same things that lead to heart attacks certainly can lead to stroke. Just having a heart attack puts a person at a higher risk for stroke.

Shirley had a stroke when she was 64. It paralyzed the whole right side of her body and wiped out normal sensation on that side. It left her with unusual pain sensations that have plagued her since. She went through extensive rehabilitation and is able to walk with a leg brace and a quad cane. (4 pointed cane) She detests the wheelchair and it is reserved for long shopping expeditions.

Here is a little of her story:

"What I miss most is losing my handwriting."

Shirley still writes, now it’s with a computer. She writes to her kids by E-mail. As you may have gathered, she keeps her own home, cooks and does laundry, all with the help of a great teammate, her husband. Sometimes her busyness makes the family nervous. We worry about her getting hurt or over-doing. Her right arm still hangs as she pops thing in the oven. She bends over in half to pick up a piece of lint on the carpet. She falls sometimes. In many ways it would be less worrisome if she would give in and use the wheelchair…but that’s not Shirley and that’s not in the nature of the person who keeps plugging away, accomplishing more than the doctors or therapist ever expected.

I know Shirley grieves over the loss of the person she was or at least some of the things that person could do. But we all celebrate the beautiful person she is and marvel over the many things she can do. She is an inspiration to everyone around her and is indeed, one of my heroes.