Stroke Recovery

[rave04]

I just suffered a cerebral stroke and am now recovering and was discharged yesterday. My left side is weak and there is light-headedness occasionally and imbalance whenever I try to take steps. What is your best recommendation (specific please) to accelerate my recovery? I am only 40. Thank you.

[gg123]

Hi Tressa

Just checked out the site, thanks for the link.

Are you referring to this treatment?  
....

[Tressa999]

What an interesting list of treatments you've complied, gg.  I can think of one treatment that you left off that I just heard about.  I started a thread a while back trying to dig up someone who was familiar with it.  Only person responding was someone who lives in DC and has never heard of it.  It still makes sense to me, and if I lacked movement on one side I would sure have at least one magnesium IV to see if it helps.  Here's what I wrote before:

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Anyone here from near Washington, D.C.? If I were, I'd give this simple treatment a try. www.drrind.com Has anyone tried this therapy? Any results to share with us?

I'm not at all impressed by his statistics, bcs he doesn't separate his patients into recent and old strokes, so possibly the excellent results are due only to spontaneous recovery. Hoever, I once had a magnesium IV for restless leg syndrome and I remember following the feeling of warmth as the mag coursed through my body in my veins. It seem plausible to me that having that sensation from INSIDE the affected side might be stimulating to the brain in a different way from sensation from outside the body. At any rate, it's cheap and safe.
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[gg123]

Find out what rehabilitation is available to you through the hospital first

And learn from the experience of others but remember no two stroke patients are the same so individualise your recovery program to suit you and your needs
so start reading and researching right NOW

Some therapies that i am looking into that 'may' assist include :
hyperbaric oxygen therapy
acupuncture
dietary supplementation
feldenkrais
constraint induced therapy
vasa home therapy
mirror box therapy
nuerofeedback/ neurotherapy
bowen therapy
rhythmic therapy
physiotherapy
brain gym

best of luck
gg

[ramaananth]

I would like to informthat I have recovered from stroke almost completely that is 98%. The 2% is only known or visible to me and no one else.
I got stroke 1 day without any rhyme or reason . I have been an Aerobics Instrutor for the last 12 years. Suddenly 6 yrs bk i got stroke. I have no complaints of BP, Cholestrol,Migrane or Diabetes. In fact al my results showed that i was perfectly alright. But i did get a stroke .I believe I had a clot  somwhere in my leg which had travelled to my brain and had finally come and settled in my left throat. That is why i had a stroke in my entire right side.Right from my right side chin to all my movement in th right side was paralised. I had even lost my speech.
But it was my determination and and my constant exercises that helped me get bk to normalwithin 1 year. I had to really work hard , i used to do all the pyshiotherapy for 3- 4 hours daily ,which included weight training and other basic exersises. My doctor had told me that i had to get bk to doing everything i was doining before the stroke , within 1 year or else after that my progress will stop , that I should concentrate on my muscles and get them to be strong. So i had to race angainst time and finally every little thing like my drooping chin to getting bk to doing aerobics i got bk.I even got bk my speech within a few days and only had to work on speacking more and more till I became perfect.So  i am bk to normal and i am bk to conducting  Aerobics again. If i can make it so can others, that is my message to the world.I was also only 42 at that time and now i am 48.No one can make out that i have had  a stroke.

[Tressa999]

You didn't say how long ago the stroke occurred.  A week ago?  A month ago?Because you are so young, and apparently self-motivated (I'm assuming that you, not your spouse, wrote this message) I suggest you look into the home program offered at www.brainstrokes.com      You can work on your own at home.  Don't just settle for letting nature take its course.  There's a lot you can do to establish new connections in your brain, if you're willing to spend several hours a day doing the exercises Dr. Vasa recommends.  Of course, if you're offered rehab locally that may be good too, depending on how good the therapists are.  Some people aren't even offered rehab after discharge, or they're offered much too little (like 2 half hour sessions a week instead of several hours a day).  Good luck to you in your recovery.