Hi there, i am Jo (Joanne ) i found this group by a search of google. i was searching as on 21st Jan 24 i suffered a spinal stroke. I am still in hospital receiving treatment but doing well. How my spinal stroke affected me is i am currently numb and paralysed from the waist down obviously my bowl and bladder are also currently affected. Rehab has been mentioned to me already 3 weeks down the line and cant wait for next steps and to move forward. Even though i am currently bed bound i also find myself feeling i am also very lucky, and it could have been worse. Mentally i need to stay strong and i guess this is why i searched this group out. So say hi, and wish you all recovery for future.
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Hello Jo, Welcome to you. This is a good place for help and advice.
I hope the rehab will get you going again very soon and you get to a really stage where it’s safe to go home with a good care package (carers and physio). Your physio team should discuss that with you.
Keep up your positive attitude.
I’m six months on from a brain bleed type stroke and getting home physio for my left side. I can walk (stick for outside) and better arm, wrist, hand and shoulder movement. I was in hospital for 10 weeks, with physio 3 x week. They were trying to send me home after 2 weeks but I said no.
Anyway, I wish you well, lots of rest and good recovery. Not being able to go to the toilet on my own or without help was a big motivator for me to get better at leg movement.
Take care.
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Hi Jo, hope it goes well for you.
Over the last 4 weeks I have been imagining movement on my stroke side. The idea being that it hopefully will go some way to repairing those pathways. Watching people walk on you tube might help as well. I wish someone had told me about this much earlier.
When my feeling and movement started to come back, it was always proceeded by an itch in that area. Some days I would have two or three itches and then perhaps 2 or 3 days later there was a bit of feeling or movement.
I used to love those itches and I felt like a real life science experiment.
All the best
Cheers
Nigel
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@JoJoBee Hi & welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear of your stroke & the deficits it has left you with. You sound very positive though & that will help you loads moving forward. I hope they get some rehab sorted for you quickly so you can start the next stage of your journey. Determination goes a long way on the recovery journey & it sounds like you’ve got loads.
If you’ve got any questions please just ask & someone will be along to help.
Look forward to hearing more from you.
Best wishes.
Ann xx
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Hi @JoJoBee and welcome to the forum. Sorry you’ve had to join us. Hopefully you’ll see some good improvement with the rehab. Stay strong.
Steve
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Hello. It has been 2.5 years since my strokes. It took me over a year to find this site. I visited many. I still look for research and advisement online elsewhere, but for supportive attitudes, discussion, advice you may not have been aware of, and even for some fun, this is the right place in my opinion. I am not in the UK, but have found this group of people to be the most interested in helping one another, and in keeping a good attitude to get the best recovery possible. It doesn’t mean we don’t have complaints, or bad days or weeks, but the caring nature here can’t be beat.
Best wishes in your recovery. We would all be interested to hear how it is going, and to hear advice you might have to share, as well as answer questions about what might have been helpful to us.
Things we are not: Physicians, Pharmacists, etc… AND although most of us have had a stroke, and all of us have had someone we love have a stroke, ALL strokes are different, even though they have many similarities. We all try to be careful to make note of that only to remind you to use good judgement and to speak with your advisors about things you may see here and hope to try. So far, I haven’t come across anyone actually using poor judgement in a response, but it could happen.
Hope to ‘see’ you soon.
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Hi JoJoBee-- So glad you can look forwards to rehab coming up soon. Rehab can do wonders for most of us. Don’t be surprised to find it’s hard work and very tiring, but of course, so worth the effort. Keep your spirits up, and be patient with yourself, as healing takes some time. This site is a great way to make some friends as you heal. If you get bored visit our Just for Fun posts. There are Forum Games and Our New Funnies Thread (where we read and post cartoons, jokes, etc. All the Best, Jeanne
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Hi @JoJoBee
I’ll add my welcome 
I’m sorry you have had reason to join us 
As far as I am aware you and @DeAnn may be the only folk in the community to have had strokes outside of the brain. There is a great deal of lived experience here about the effects of a stroke in the brain - I for one could not say anything about how much neurology there is in a spinal stroke. I’m not even sure if the spine qualifies as central nervous system or peripheral nervous system.
There will be some general parallels. For example muscles and tendons start to adjust to non-use after about 2 weeks so some stimulation such as electrical stimulation and massage and stretching would be helpful to maintaining suppleness while no signals are getting through. If you have preserved the physical it makes It’s easier to detect as the control systems start to recover otherwise you have the double whammy of both controls and the muscles being dodgy.
I’m going to guess there’s another parallel is the amount of information you’re given will be small. Deanne has already made the point of what we are not. What we are is ignorant at the beginning and those of us who have a little more knowledge have gone out and found it for ourselves I’m looking at YouTube, reading Google scholar etc
One thing you can be sure of here is a willingness to help and a sympathetic ear.
Ciao
Simon
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Thank you all for your replies they all meant a lot. Well as at today i have been discharged from Hospital and now 2 days into a specialist spinal rehab. After initial assessments the legs are scoring fine however i believe my bottom mussles (sorry cant remember the name) are the one i need to work on. Still early days.for me and prepared for the hard work before me. Now i am more settled i will be able to read and update my story more often x
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Good to hear your progressing
Look forward to hearing more
Join us on Thursdays if yr up to it tap blue text for details
You might find the Welcome - what we wish we'd heard at the start useful too?
Ciao
Simon
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Good to hear of your progress & sounds like youre up for the journey ahead. That is half thr battle.
Good luck and look forward to hearing how you are going.
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