First a statement form SAEBO: (stroke rehab)
Following a stroke, one of the most important factors to a successful recovery is sleep. Quality sleep has many benefits, especially for stroke survivors. Getting a good night’s sleep supports neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to restructure and create new neural connections in healthy parts of the brain, allowing stroke survivors to re-learn movements and functions.
Disrupted sleep, on the other hand, can have a negative impact on post-stroke recovery. Insomnia, restless leg syndrome, and interrupted sleep have frequently been associated with an overall slower and less effective recovery.
I was in hospital for a week and then in-patient rehab for another two weeks. The in-patient rehab was just like hospital but we got PT and OT every day. I had two roommates in both facilities and we constantly complained about trying to sleep. All night long, the noise in the hallways was constant, every so often nurses would come in and give meds, take blood pressure, check sugar levels and such into the wee hours of the morning. My blood pressure was taken twice each night sometimes at 3 in the morning. I would say I got about 3 hours of sleep each night. Not the nurses’ fault. Those are of course, the rules.
One morning, I asked my nurse what the most important factor in stroke recovery. She said…Sleep.
I hear what you are saying here. I have been in hospital for general medical issues and the disruption to sleep at night time is intrusive. I was longing to be discharged then I could get home and have a good night’s sleep in my own bed. As we are all aware, good sleep is essential for stroke recovery.
According to my daughter (nursery nurse) infants and the young sleep lots includes a forgetting old strategies to make way for improved and weave them into use.
I wonder if Neuroplasticity includes a similar. I know that there are suppression mechanisms between the two hemispheres to differentiate selection of left or right in some otherwise bilateral processes. Maybe this is part of learned non use which we need to fight to gain reuse
I think it’s accepted that good sleep in hospital is unlikely. When i was I every time i dropped to sleep I got woken for obs. All becessary of course.
I pleaded with the staff to discharge me as I couldn’t cope with no sleep any more.
At a&e at 7am on Monday am I was offered a choice - 6 hours on a ‘bed in a&e’ and the tests in 6 hours time or go home and book me in for the fibroscan and CT on thursday…
Sleeping in hospital has never bothered me, when you grow up in a family of 10 you learn from an early age to sleep anytime, anywhere when you needed it. The only problem I had with sleeping in hospital after my stroke was that I couldn’t sleep anyway so it didn’t matter.
The nurses are just following rules.
Nobody is accountable for anything these days.
Try and stay out of hospital, if at all possible, is my recommendation
My stroke is pretty recent and I was in hospital for almost a month. in that time I had a total of 21 hours sleep at night (no, you can’t spend your day in bed - up, washed & dressed by 8am, & sitting in your chair for the day). I also spent a night in the cardiac ward. You could almost hear a pin drop in cardiac. Beautiful… Back in the stroke ward, ‘welcome to the circus!’ There was a guy who’s stroke had not affected him physically, but had serious mental issues. He spent the nights wandering around the beds, shaking awake anyone he found asleep, and generally raising chaos. On one occasion ha was discovered trying to pull the drip-lines from a comatose patient! He had been ready for release for some time but his wife wouldn’t have him home as she couldn’t cope. So much for care in the community.
There are lots of people on here with similar stories @BobQ1 !
I know they are serious and sad but I like to think there is a funny side and I tell myself that that guy might get better and laugh about what he did himself!
I thonk it is often difficult for carers to cope if they don’t have the support so I hope that his wife did get some local authority / other government support and he was able to go home and continue his recovery.
@BobQ1 i wasn’t in hospital as long as you but there was a delirious lady on my ward who spent all night shouting & another distressed lady who used to sort of respond. I felt so sorry for the delirious lady but it was awful not getting any sleep. Some of what she said was funny though. I was begging the staff to let me home in the end.
I love how you often mention how distressing strokes can be for caregivers. That is so beautiful and so selfless of you.
When mother was in rehab, she was so mentally ill. No one came to help us to tell us that everything was okay. It is normal for her to be acting like this to some degree. It was just nothing from anyone. Dad and I were left all alone.
My heart goes out to his wife. I had to cope with him for a relatively short time - she has to for the rest of her life. It’s a shame that carers have such a tough time of it, and it’s only their love for the patient that drives them, most of the time.
I don’t think there’s going to be any amusement to his outcome. All the nurses seemed to agree that there would be very little ‘getting better’ in his case, sadly.
Bob.
What is staggering is that the wards don’t seem able to put these individuals elsewhere, no matter how disruptive, aggressive or violent they may be.
On the ward I was on, it was one individual at a time but each time it was the person in the same bed location.
It was a bit like watching a horror film unfolding in front of you, being unable to move.
On one occasion, I seemed to be the only patient awake and only one nurse was on the ward. The patient had managed to pull out the arm of a shower chair and was swinging the metal bar at anyone near him. The nurse was in real danger. Fortunately the alarm button was in reach and I managed to attract help. She thanked me for the next 3 or 4 days.
The staff described the violence as a “perk” of the job that never gets mentioned. I have huge respect for them. Something is wrong when a nurse dealing with this is paid a fraction of a managers salary
That’s horrifying!
I’ve since found out that the ‘rant’ I had at one of the consultants has paid dividends. This guy now has 2 ‘personal attendants’ built like concrete wossernames that keep him company 2X12 hour shifts each day.
Thanks for the contact.
Keep well,
Bob.
