Very little physio or other therapy

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After 3 weeks in hospital my husband is now in a rehab stroke unit since Friday. He only had tiny bit of physio and speech therapy in hospital as he was very poorly. We are both really keen for him to get going again but nothing happened over weekend as therapists don’t work weekends.

Can’t understand that as nurses do but anyway, today he saw a physio who was really nice and said he did very well working on the bed and then hoisted him out to sit in a big chair for an hour or so. Then she said due to xmas hols she won’t see him again until Fri. Just bad timing I guess but it is frustrating.

I plan to help him as much as I can when I go in but I do feel rather disappointed as I expected Stroke unit to be staffed by therapists all the time. It will be a month on Xmas Day since he had his stroke.

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@Trisha2 and whoever feels alone at this time.

My own experience tells me that recovery, to any sort of visible degree, is largely governed by one’s own efforts.

The hospital and the subsequent attention I received kept me alive and functioning at a basic level but any advance or improvement came only as a result of my own efforts.
That is not to say that there is no support, but it is limited and does need to be sought out.

My present state, which I would still like to see improved further, has changed from being bed bound and totally reliant on others to a small amount of independence which I would like to see grow.

I am old, 77 years, retired and do not as a result find myself a priority on any lists. I only get attention if I make a lot of noise.

I still want to live but also would like to be useful in some way. I have lost much of what used to be my life but I make an effort to be engaged as best as I am able. I have made some progress since stroke about three years ago but feel I haven’t reached the end of the road yet.

If I was a younger man of working age with dependants then far more support would be available. As it is what I get I must push for.

Best wishes at this time of celebration and may you find that somehow life does have something to offer to you both.

keep on keepin’ on
:writing_hand: :smiley: :+1:

:christmas_tree: :heartbeat: :santa: :christmas_tree:

Addition

Talk to physios abot something called a ‘transfer’ it was one of my very first steps and only appeared when I asked if there was a way I could independently move from bed to chair and back.
This comes with a caveat. Advances from the nice warm comfy bed are accompanied with bruises and discomfort, falls will occur but, as far as I was concerned, worth the ordeal.

One last word, if someone talks about a ‘plateau’ or implies that only so much recovery is possible, then please ignore them and continue with the struggle, the effort is worth making.

And a last, last word, remember rest is important for recovery too, so make sure to get plenty. That goes for carers and supporters too.

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Your husband is now in the best place for his recovery. Just things like being hoisted out of bed will be a huge boost. Your husband will get very tired as his brain is recovering from the initial shock.

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@Trisha2 great that your husband has been moved to somewhere where he will get more of the physio he needs. As you say it is probably a bad time to get the full amount of physio he needs / wants but it should improve once we get the holiday period out the way.

It’s encouraging to hear that the physio he did get went well and that should give you lots of hope moving forward.

Whilst he won’t get any professional physio for a few days that doesn’t stop you & him doing some work together. Even if thats just exercises on the bed. As @Bobbi says moat of the progress he’ll make will be the work he does himself around the formal physio.

Hope you have the best Christmas you can.

Best wishes

Ann

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I could cry today! :cry:. Husband is still getting hardly any therapy and I have rung the team today and expecting a call back later. He is fed up, very emotional and can’t understand why he is not getting more help. On Saturday he had the first shower since the stroke on 27 Nov apart from that nothing. He is either in bed or hoisted out to sit in a chair for 2 hrs then hoisted back.

I have politely expressed my disappointment to two members of staff about the lack of therapy of any kind and both ( separately) said “ the hospital he came from does tend to big us up with regard to this unfortunately.” Well, excuse me but this is supposed to be a STROKE REHAB UNIT!!!

I was told this is the best place for him to be and it would be much better than a little hospital just 5 miles away from here that does general rehab. This morning I honestly feel that instead of me doing a 50 mile round trip every other day and him hardly getting any help he might as well have gone there and I could spend much longer there and help him with exercises or pay privately for a physio to go in.

I’ve also had the local Stroke Association person on the phone telling me there will no longer be local support from them and the nearest SA group is closed for the winter and doesn’t open again until March.

Sorry if this is depressing to read.

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What they’re probably not telling you is that they’re short staffed because of the Christmas holidays. You’ll probably find a lttle more activity once they are all back come the new year.
Hospitals are always skeleton staffed this time of year.

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Sorry to hear you’re struggling. It is so hard to watch a loved one suffer and not get the support you feel they should be getting. I agree with @EmeraldEyes that they probably have less staff on at this time of year and this may improve in a few days. You could ask them whether this will be the case.

You could also try complaining to the hospital if you feel they’ve misled you about the level of therapy you expected. PALs can help you with this.

Have you spoken to others there? Are they getting more / less rehab? Are you able to speak with the unit about what is a realistic expectation and what you / your husband can do to help around the official rehab sessions. I imagine that there are likited resources to go around and that will probably be the same anywhere.

For a lot of us the level of rehab is far less than we need / want and we’ve had to do a lot of self help.

Hope things improve soon.

Look after yourself too.

Ann

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I had my stroke and went into hospital Christmas day 4 years ago. I was in 5 days and it didn’t start buzzing with staff and physio until the day before I went home. By this time next week things should have picked up :crossed_fingers::crossed_fingers:

Lorraine
Stroke Improvement Group

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The physio rang me back and we had a good chat. He said he had spent an hour with my husband and used various devices to get him to stand. He said my husband did really well and better than he expected. It is down to staff shortages as some on here said.

Then the occupational therapist caught me as I was leaving and has arranged a review meeting for next week after speaking to the physio. She said the hospital should not be telling families that their loved one will get loads of physio and ST etc but they say that to free up beds in the hospital. She says it does give a false impression. She says they are working flat out to help people but I must remember it is the NHS.

The speech therapist also popped in to see my husband while I was there and gave him a booklet of symbols to point at for when he is tired and can’t think of the right word.

So it was worth it having a few words.

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Sounds like things are moving in the right direction for you which is great to hear. Good to hear your husband did really well with the physio too.

Here’s to 2025 bringing many improvements. Best wishes.

Ann

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