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Recovery from Stroke

Her Consultant requested extra Physiotherapy, but there is a shortage. Private ones do exist, we they/we are a bit Harry Skinters.

Add to that the recent issue of lack of carers (also provided on the directions of the Occupational Therapists and Nurses whilst she was in hospital).

Arrgh! I just feel useless and guilty.....
 
Mum was being seen as an outpatient (not RD&E - another Devon hospital, with awards for Stroke care) but was discharged earlier this year. There was little they could do- other than ask for more Physiotherapy which was not available.

Nether she or Dad (or me - I probably count as a carer) have any support, no carer provision, apart from visiting nurses dealing with a leg wound, at the moment.
 
There are signs of progress with respect to getting some care for Mum, but getting more Physiotherapy still seems very hard. Perhaps being out in the sticks is part of the problem?

I have heard private ones do exist.
 
Mum has not had any physiotherapy since before Christmas - simply not good enough. although I suspect the cold/flu thing that has been going around has not helped.

The RBL are paying an initial visit tomorrow.
 
Well...... The RBL lady came, and said she would first contact the local hospital who had been dealing with Mum's therapy. Today, a senior Physiotherapist phoned and said post discharge patients normally have a goal, and when that is achieved it stops.

Fair enough - but Mum did not achieve her goal(s):

1. To be able to stand mostly on her own.

2. To be able to walk with the aid of a 'quad stick' at least well enough family member like me can help her practice.

3. To be able to get in a car, and with the aid of a wheelchair, go places.

Arrrgh!
 
I feel your pain Yokel.

Probably not quite as bad as your frustration what with it being you mum, but my step-dad is going through a similar thing.

A few months back, in a dark car park, he fell as he bumped in to his car. He broke his hip. He's a big man - 6'5". What should have been a routine operation (well, for a man with late stage heart failure anyway) turned in to a living nightmare that is still unfolding, day by day.

He contracted MRSA. He has had 2/3 operations (who's counting?) each one with a significant risk of mortality. He did in fact nearly die twice. They messed up his DNR as well, as you do...

He then had a few small strokes, nothing major, but still.

My mother has been spending half her life in hospital to be with him. Only months after a very protracted death of her youngest son (yeah, my little brother) to a very nasty form of bowel cancer. He had a tumour the size of a basketball on his arrse/back when he died. As if that wasn't enough.

She also had to have a life saving operation for a crippling bout of gall stones/pancreas stuff.

Life comes at you quick.

But death and disease comes at you faster.

I was looking at having my entire living family wiped out all within a few months of each other not so long back. This happened as well at a time when I only started grieving for my brother. BAM BAM SLAP.

My mum is in good shape now. I kind of moved in with her for a bit while she has been looking after my step-dad. A bit of hoovering, a bit of cooking, washing a few dishes. A bit of moving furniture. My life is on hold. I'm ok with that. It fills me with a sense of purpose that I did not have before, just doing my duty.

The other day my step-dad got moved to a rehabilitation hospital. Well, that was the start of the real fun and games if you want to talk about physiotherapy. He was going to get rehabilitated whether he liked it or not. In short, they crippled him for life. He will never walk again.

They took it too fast (you had one ******* job) and accused him of having anxiety and 'not helping himself'. He's in absolute shit state. It's a form of torture what he's been through. And he is a very stalwart and stoic man - I can say this as he is the polar opposite to my personality type. Even the surgeons said he was a very resilient man. You know.

But it's not the surgeons he has to worry about. They are absolutely top-notch. I swear those ******* could bring just about anyone back from the dead. They are an absolute credit to the NHS. And then they starve you. He's lost a massive amount of weight. It is severely distressing for me to see. Even though we didn't get along like best buddies - he's my step-dad - I would not want to watch any man go through what he has.

They came the other day to put a hospital bed for him in my mum's little cottage. Big FO hoist to move him about. Bed rails. They didn't see that one coming.

He's getting 2 carers 4 times a day, so we should be thankful for that. They have also been short-listed for sheltered housing as well. Thankful for that as well.

I'm writing this more in a response to your comments on physio - whilst letting off a bit of steam myself -- hope you don't mind - but they seemed to have only two modes of action: DEAD SLOW and FULL STEAM AHEAD.

The nurses and the doctors were saying get out of bed, no, stay in bed, no get out of bed - no, stay in bed - no get out of bed!

The physiotherapist was hardly about and just going through the motions. There is not the resources for them to take the requisite time to heal patients, so they process them instead, and cripple them for life in to the bargain.

In short, they did not have a ******* clue what they were doing. No one taking charge and overseeing his general case. It was a fight to bring in the Cardiology team too - you would think they would consider late stage heart failure a complication. No one has taken responsibility.

I don't wan to slag the NHS - best doctors, nurses in the world. But they have some right ones too. He was even assaulted by one nurse who hit his legs with a board. On top of that our next door neighbour has been caught illegaly accessing our medical records - she's a nurse and she wanted to know when the old codger was going to croak it so she could move her alchie buddies in.

That's the short version!

When sorrows come they come not single spies but whole battalions.

Brace yourself lad, because the storm is near, not past.

Poems - The Storm Cone

THIS is the midnight—let no star
Delude us—dawn is very far.
This is the tempest long foretold—
Slow to make head but sure to hold.

Stand by! The lull ’twixt blast and blast
Signals the storm is near, not past;
And worse than present jeopardy
May our forlorn to-morrow be.




Poetry Lovers' Page - Rudyard Kipling: A Song In Storm

Be well assured that on our side
The abiding oceans fight,
Though headlong wind and heaping tide
Make us their sport to-night.
By force of weather, not of war,
In jeopardy we steer.
Then welcome Fate's discourtesy
Whereby it shall appear
How in all time of our distress,
And our deliverance too,
The game is more than the player of the game,
And the ship is more than the crew!


...

Be well assured, though in our power
Is nothing left to give
But chance and place to meet the hour,
And leave to strive to live.
Till these dissolve our Order holds,
Our Service binds us here.
Then welcome Fate's discourtesy
Whereby it is made clear
How in all time of our distress,
As in our triumph too,
The game is more than the player of the game
And the ship is more than the crew!
 
Well...... The RBL lady came, and said she would first contact the local hospital who had been dealing with Mum's therapy. Today, a senior Physiotherapist phoned and said post discharge patients normally have a goal, and when that is achieved it stops.

Fair enough - but Mum did not achieve her goal(s):

1. To be able to stand mostly on her own.

2. To be able to walk with the aid of a 'quad stick' at least well enough family member like me can help her practice.

3. To be able to get in a car, and with the aid of a wheelchair, go places.

Arrrgh!

been there with my mum- at least she'snow in a care home and the staff encourage the residents to exercise, there's chair yoga, hip hop dancing, keep fit and she walks up and down the corridor with her zimmer every day- she's stubborn and determined not to end up bed bound (Parkinsons) .I'm sure the physios mean well but with the arguments about which team would deal (they live in one local authority and their GP is in another) and lack of time nothing got done after 2 weeks of exercises. They left her a printed sheet and told her to get on with it.Not really their fault - there aren't enough of them
 
A Physiotherapist is visiting Mum tomorrow - hopefully this will be the start of getting back into it. Additionally a representative of RBL (or it might be SSAFA?) is visiting on Friday.

The problem Mum never had therapy regularly enough to consolidate her improvements so she can stand mostly on her own, take a few steps unaided and using a quad stick, and go places via car and wheelchair.

God willing.
 
A Physiotherapist is visiting Mum tomorrow - hopefully this will be the start of getting back into it. Additionally a representative of RBL (or it might be SSAFA?) is visiting on Friday.

The problem Mum never had therapy regularly enough to consolidate her improvements so she can stand mostly on her own, take a few steps unaided and using a quad stick, and go places via car and wheelchair.

God willing.

good luck
 
Mum has had her physiotherapy - however the Physio cannot see her again for another two weeks. This has been the problem all along. So frustrating, as Mum could do so much more - if only she had the chance to consolidate. She walked quite well after getting her balance - not having had any therapy since December.

Also the tome in her left arm has improved - whatever that means ????
 
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