Most of us are somewhat familiar with therapy. Professional athletes seem to go to therapy quite often. We know friends and family who have therapy after a hip or knee surgery. It’s just that it was not something we thought or spoke of very often in our household. Few of us probably never had any idea how important therapy would become in our lives. After stroke, we talk about therapy and rehab as often as we would sleeping, eating, playing, or any other normal activity.

After a stroke you find out that therapy begins in earnest. As soon as you get home from the rehab hospital you will be contacted by speech therapists, occupational therapists and physical therapists. Who are these people, and why so many, and what is it that they do? Needs will be evaluated, appointments will be made, and you will have therapists in your home three times a week for about three months. Therapists have great patience and will soon become a great help, and also great companions and good friends. They are very remarkable people with their knowledge and patience. When it is time to move on they leave you with lots of homework. This can be very difficult and you meet with a lot of resistance as YOU are not a therapist. It is sometimes necessary to use a little bribery or blackmail to get results!

By now, you notice some improvements. Speech is better, it is easier to write your name. Walking with a cane has become possible. You have also learned how to dress yourself, brush your teeth and even answer the telephone. Things are looking up!

After the first three months, it is time to go outside the home for therapy. Again, it is not easy to find a place you all feel comfortable. This sometimes entails riding a bus to and from the therapist’s office, and doing that by yourself is a challenge, but also more therapy. All sorts of new things are now relearned. Walking up and down steps, not so hard, getting around in the house with just a cane is a great step forward. Where it once took three people to get you into the car, you can now do it all by yourself. There is now a light at the end of this very long tunnel!

We have cardiac rehab, swimming rehab, physical rehab, hyppa therapy. The days turn into weeks, the weeks turn into months and the months into years.

Recently, at a support group, another caregiver said, “We have no fun in our life.” I thought to myself, “We have no fun in our life, either.” This was certainly a wake-up call.

So, we decided that we would set aside one day each week for no therapy and call it our Fun Day. Wednesday seemed like a good day. That would break up the week of therapy. So, what can you do? Well, we can go to the movies, go to a Rockies’ baseball game, take a ride in the mountains. We visit friends, pack a lunch and go to the park to feed the ducks. That is not a bad way to spend a lazy afternoon. We tried bingo but that proved to be a little too fast for us! We have gone out to a horse boarding farm to feed the horses and just watch the riders.

So far, this has been working very well for us and we both look forward to our Fun Day.

Well, gotta go, time for therapy.

Submitted by Barbara Stroup
Her husband, Harold had a stroke in December 2002. He is progressing well.

Next month we will revisit our first caregiver…stay tuned…and write in if you wish.