Brain stem bleed recovery advice

[jmsmith1616]

           Any helpful information about brain stem bleeds in the context of recovery would be great. I am looking for anything that will help, even controversial surgery options. I don't need simple information about what she has gone through and the effects. I need specific answers and suggestions like recovery routines, surgery options, therapy options, and other related information. I don't need empathetic comments.
           My mother suffered a brain stem bleed almost four years ago during my Senior year of high school. She was 43 at the time. Her recovery seems to have hit a plateau and I want nothing more than for her to totally recover, or at the very least gain back her ability to walk and function on her own again.
          Here is some background information about her condition. When my mom first suffered her bleed she was unable to feed herself, talk, let alone walk. Now she is able to walk with a walker, though she must followed by a family member or stay at home nurse. Her balance when she is walking is not very good. She can eat by her self, but still has some difficulty with her motor skills and needs her food to be cut up at times. She can talk very well but she still struggles with long conversations due to some difficulty breathing. Likewise, her voice has changed and in many instances struggles to find the words she wants to use. She has a great deal of trouble with her vision. These problems range from double vision, depth perception misjudgments, to watery eyes. Her left side is very sensitive and she experiences a lot of pain over the entire left side of her body. That is all I can think of at this time.

[utkarsh_nayak1988]

my father got an stem stroke in November 2013.
his left eye vision is gone, facial paralysis and right limbs are also paralyes.
he cant eat and speak, feeding is going on by peg.
he is also tracheastomised.
plz tell me what should I do so that my father will get well.
Thank you..

[tre3]

Hi My name is Theresa O'Connor.  I  was and still is somewhat in the same boat as your mother.  I has my brain aneurism when I was 14.  I'm 38 now and I still have trouble walking,  I walk with a walker.  My balance isn't very good.  I have trouble breathing.  I have a very soft voice.  etc.  But, throughout the years it has been very hard road to get where I am today. At one point, I wasn't getting any better at all a few years later after this occurred. But I realized, I am not going to give up on myself and this is what you mother has to do. Plus you,  as her son and the rest of her-your  family needs to encourage her to the fullest.  . Just like my family did for me.   You need to show her the guidance and the confidents to be proud of who she is.  It doesn't matter if you have a disability or not.  There is going to be a lot of negativity towards people with disabilities.  Your mother probably experience somewhat already..  I hope she hasn't but I have.  People were so shocked I was married,  I have a beautiful daughter.  I was in the Mrs. New Jersey Pageant  I made 4th runner up out of 300 girls.  The only reason I entered the pageant because one of my teachers said to me, I should enter a handicap pageant and I said to myself , Why should I enter a handicap pageant I'm just like anybody else.  I shouldn't be labeled or judged just because I have a disability.  So, I enter the Mrs. NJ pageant and surprising enough I made 4th runner up.  People are so shocked I drive, I work at A.I. Dupont Children's Hospital in Delaware.  I go to College. I even got kicked out of a gym because the manager felt like a person that is handicapped shouldn't be there.  He actually told me to get off the machine while I was working out.  He said,  I don't have no right to be here and if anything happens to me it was their resposibility.  I said, I signed a contract.  It doesn't matter,  get off the machine.  He said,  How did you get here?  I said, I drove here myself.  He was so shocked a disable person drives.  While all this was going on.  It all felt like a horrible dream to me.  I  said, the girl next to me has the right to be here doing the star machine because she is not disabled and I don't have the right because I am disabled.  He said yes, you don't belong here.  Right then I cryed my heart out and I felt so mortified and so belittled. But I realized a few days later I can't give up on myself.  I  worked hard to get where I am today and I not going to have anyone put me down.  I'm proud of who I am and so blessed and thankful.   So I joined another Gym.  Matter of fact, I joined 3 gyms.      I really don't get  able- bodied people.  Not all of them.  The one's that aren't educated about disabilities.  That is why I've done seminars at different hospitals about disability awareness.   They really think people with limitations don't have lives. That we should feel sorry for ourselves.  They really don't get it.  My life your mother's life and people with disabilities can be just as fulfilling happy and successful.  Your mother needs to find the clarity within her heart never to up on herself!!!  Find her inner spirit and inner strength.  No matter what obstacle lies ahead for her way.   Strive to the fullest each and every single day.  Focus on the positive energy.  Not the negative energy.  Even though it makes you strive even harder sometimes.  Believe have faith and to be proud of who you are.  Your dreams will come true !!!

[skydnsr]

As you are doubtless aware, most doctors would say your mother has reached maximum recovery and that further physical/occupational therapy will not benefit her significantly.  

There is something new on the scene within the past few years, and that is constraint-induced movement therapy, devised by Dr. EdwardTaub of the U. of Alabama at Birmingham.  Some people call it Taub Therapy.  Here is a link to a page from the American Stroke Association's site that mentions it.  http://www.strokeassociation.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3029931   I believe Dr. Taub's clinic has a website also, but I do not have the link handy.  This therapy has helped people who have been disabled for many years.  The length of time since the brain injury does not matter.  

Taub therapy is a stressful treatment, and patients at the Taub clinic are very carefully screened for their ability to tolerate it and cooperate.  It does take a certain amount of mental acuity to be able to understand the purpose of what is done; otherwise, the patient experiences it as being made to suffer for no reason.  Patients who do understand it have to be willing to go through it and work hard to get the benefit. So, both cognitive understanding and gut-level motivation are required.

The only other thing I can think of for someone whose stroke occurred several years ago would be some kind of cutting-edge stem cell therapy, and I wouldn't know where to refer you for that.  I'm pretty sure your mother would have to get into a clinical trial somewhere -- if there even is a study of that nature going on in the US.  I think that some other countries are ahead of us in stem cell therapy.  

Let me recommend a book to you:  The Brain that Changes Itself, by Norman Doidge.

Good luck on finding some help for your mother.  I'm sorry for her  troubles.