Hi Lynne,
Sorry to hear about your father's stroke, I certainly pray he will improve with time, That however depends on how bad and what area the brain was damaged. I trust that I can give you some hope. I suffered my stroke at the end of Aug '99. It was an arterial clot that affected both sides of my brain at the cerebellum, this was complicated with a haemorage between the cerebellum and brain stem. My recovery has been nothing short of amazing. I was in a coma for 5 days, quadruplegic 4 weeks, learnt to walk in 5 weeks. I have regained my drivers license and returned to work part time. The past 12 months I have worked up from three 3 hour days a week to four 8 hour days a week.(old technical job plus a company willing to work with me)
In the early days I was being fed via a nose tube. My swallow test was 4 weeks post stroke before I was placed on thickened fluids and pureed food. It was another couple of weeks before graduating onto solids. The period where I learnt to walk again was in a rehabilitation hospital. I also underwent speech therapy, occupational therapy, neuro tests for long and short term memory along with physiotherapy.
My progress was relatively fast for the type of stroke that I suffered, though it still seemed frustratingly slow to me. You have to be patient and caring. If you never give up there is always a chance for improvement.
Peter
My Dad can't swallow...
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