More physio

Hello I had a stroke in October 2024.my physio stopped just before Christmas, but ow I am getting pain on the inner side of my right shoulder and my right arm elbow and wrist ache when ever I use them I did not have any of these before my stroke or after but started new years , just trying to find out how I can get some more physio for these. Thank you

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@Tracy58 ,

In our experience, the NHS physio is rationed - we got only 6 weeks and that was 1 day a week. So in total we only had 6 days worth.

The way it worked for us was the physio came and did a session with my Mum and then they said the family could do the exercises as demonstrated. Then the following week the physio came and checked the progress and either suggested to carry on for a further week or made minor tweaks and again asked us to do it for a week until the next weekly review.

It was quite poor and not really helpful. Whilst the physio was keen to carry on after the 6 weeks, their manager or the GP would not sign off an extension.

So essentially, we kept doing these sessions ourselves and then 6 months later we suggested that there was an improvement, and we would like further help. It took a few repeated requests before a further 6 weeks were [reluctantly] granted :frowning:

Sadly these did not lead to any significant improvement and in the end we ended up going private and paying for some sessions ourselves.

This is just our experience, and the care and services vary across the country and all I can suggest is
a) You request more physio explaining a new problem has occurred - ask your GP to do a physio referral
b) If are able to carry on the exercises you were given before the physio stopped and they help try doing them
c) There may be exercises on this forum (I haven’t checked and perhaps some of our experienced members or the moderators can help)
d) YouTube and the NHS website also has videos that may help.

Wishing you all the best.

Namaste|
:pray:

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This is not neccessarily stroke related so you should contact your gp for advice . At my surgery you can self refer for physio.

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In my experience the NHS physio was useless. I went private in the end. My only regret was not going sooner.
The NHS physio said ‘nothing you do will speed up the recovery process’ ?!

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Ah but there’s a huge difference between speed and aiding recovery.

Physio’s right, you can’t speed up recovery!

But you can aid further recovery. As opposed to doing nothing at all; because that can be detrimental to your recovery.

Don’t ever settle for less just because NHS have spent their allotted on you.

So, go to gp, with this new issue you are having, which may not even be stroke related, and have them investigate and refer you for physio if need be🙂

Lorraine
Stroke Improvement Group

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Agree to disagree on that one!

Why do any rehab at all, not just stroke related? We’re all trying to get better faster. I did thousands of reps of various exercises my neuro physio gave me. I don’t think I’d be where I am today without it.
If I didn’t do them, would I have got better naturally? Possibly. But not in the time that it happened for me.

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If I may, I’d like to say that as far as I can tell the key here is “neuro”.

We also had problems with the NHS physios and it was because they were NOT neuro physios. Unfortunately, my Mum’s condition and age meant that it was “always” going to be difficult to get the type of rehab that would likely have benefitted her most.

One of the physios (locum) did mention that a neuro physio was what we needed and that whilst had the knowledge/background, as a locum he did not have access the equipment and that within our locale, that type of equipment was in short supply.

I went on the web and found a neuro physio and we had a phone consultation. She was really very helpful and a wonderful person, but she could not help as she needed us to go to her clinic for treatment and Mum at that time was effectively bedbound with limited mobility and required double up carer support.

So it seems to me, that neuro physios are probably what would benefit stroke survivors but they are in short supply within the NHS.

@matt_d13, I was going to write a little piece on neuro physios, but came across your wonderful post from last November and so I have just brought it into this thread as a) reminder and b) excellent contribution/response.

Namaste|
:pray:

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I suppose it depends upon what you mean by speeding, because I agree with all that you say! But all that you’ve been doing has nothing to do with speed. Its retraining your brain, connecting the neurons, setting/resetting from and to them to refire the the nerves, muscles and tendons to manipulate the stroke limbs again…regain the use of your limbs.

But that’s not really got anything to do with speeding up recovery, that is the recovery process. The more you put in the more you get out. Neglect that and you could actually revert back, you’d be stunting progress.

It’s the same for anyone with joint replacements. Those who don’t put in the time and effort with daily rehab excercise, for at least a year, usually end up suffering more with their new hip or knee joints, along with sciatica, knee and foot pain and lower back issues.

A baby learning to walk is not speeding up their ability to walk when theyre crawling or cruising the furniture, they just learning how to walk same as we are relearning. What we are doing to achieve that goal is not speeding up the process, same as with the babies, it is process. It can’t be done without it.

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I like the analogy with a baby learning to walk :slight_smile:

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@Tracy58 This could be a new issue so I’d suggest you speak to the GP & they can do the relevant referral. In the meantime you could look up any exercises that might help online but just be careful until you know what the exact issue is.

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Thank you. Matt_d13 I didn’t think it would speed up the recovery I just wanted to make sure the exercises I am doing is not making it worsethanks

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