Days 169 & 170 Therapy, Therapy, Therapy

There are many kinds of therapy involved in the rehabilitation of patients from stroke: there is occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech therapy, language therapy and many others provided by the healthcare professionals. All these have a greater or lesser effect on the recovery from the stroke depending on the person involved and the severity and kind of stroke which occurred.

In cleo's case there are other kinds of therapy too; the most significant of those being retail therapy. We love shopping. Today we organised a trip to a shopping centre to meet our friend Alan, and we spent an exhausting but enjoyable day going from shop to shop getting some things we needed for the handfasting in June, including my suit and various other bits and pieces. Now, of course, Alan is in a wheelchair, and so is cleo, so there we were, 3 of us, 2 chairs, and me pushing cleo. It is a measure of how we (cleo and I) have adapted to the problems inherent with wheelchairs and shopping trips that we still manage to get things done. Alan of course is used to it all and just takes it all in his stride (or his wheels I guess).

The final therapy for the day might be termed a kind of "shock therapy". Driving up the motorway to Essex to meet Alan we pass some major electricity distribution plants and the overhead cables always seem to affect the car radio. Now I drive this route to work and so am used to the extremely loud and sudden crackle that this causes on the car stereo, but cleo is not.

Several times on the journey both ways we passed under one of these cables and the radio suddenly emits a massive crackle of static which if you don't know it's coming is enough to make you jump. The first time cleo nearly left the seat, and two or three more times she actually winced as the noise of the static jumped out of the car speakers. Some form of electro-stimulation therapy that was !

Still all that said, we had a good day, and although tiring it was well worth it.

Prior to that we had physio this morning with James and he is still working on cleo's arm. I am convinced that he sees potential for improvement or he would not continue down this route. These things all take time, although I have to say that in the timescale of stroke rehabilitation which can often take years, cleo has made remarkable progress this last 5 and a half months, and I see no reason why that should not continue.

We also had an e-mail from the Different Strokes website who have seen this blog. They asked us to write a synopsis of the Road to Recovery for their survivors section and to include a link to this site. I shall write that in the next few days and submit it to them as soon as possible.

Fame at Last!.