REHABBING THE BRAIN

 Posted by on April 19, 2013
Apr 192013
 

It amazes me how little attention is paid to the organ damaged during a stroke – the brain. CAT scanned, MRI’d and every test known to medicine is given after one of these events. The test results are studied and a prognosis developed. Then off you go to rehab and your journey back to normalcy begins.

My recovery from three strokes didn’t jump into high gear until I realized that my brain was damaged. However, rehab efforts focused mainly on functions and my appendages. It’s much the same as rotating the tires on your car when it fails to start, so I started to rehab my brain. Be mindful, my prognosis was so grim, I hadn’t any measure of recovery.

I started with diet. My research led me to believe that your brain is made of fat, so recommended fat is healthy omega 3 ‘s, flax seed, walnuts, avocados, salmon and fish oil were my primary source of healthy fats.

Following my strokes I had bouts with depression and anxiety. I started to change my thoughts from the negative side to the positive, I faced the worst a Stroke could throw at me, I couldn’t walk, talk, swallow, and my left side was without movement. But I was alive, in a nursing facility, with family and friends caring for me. I started to meditate, trying to refocus my thoughts into a neutral place.

My disposition began to improve and I was able to focus on what I was trying to do. It began with walking, with a walker I began to focus my mind like watching a video, it was dramatic and my morale skyrocketed, and so did my progress, soon I had the ability to walk the halls in the nursing home at will.

The improvements in my physical shape were amazing, and to this day I rehearse most new activities in my mind before starting, and now some actions are automatic after hundreds of repetitions.

Six years have passed since my stroke episodes and I do most anything physical – from perfect, but by far cry from the shape I was left post stroke.

The reality is I continue to develop new actions and improve old ones and always start with nurturing my brain.

REFUSE TO BE HELPLESS

STROKE PREVENTION

 Posted by on March 21, 2013
Mar 212013
 

STROKES In the USA

It is hard to imagine what my life was like before I suffered a series of three strokes in nine weeks. Sure I remember what life was like before stroke. My recovery has been unusual when you consider the damage and the doctors’ prognoses of my future. It was bleak.

There are 800,000 strokes a year in the United States, and there are 7,000,0000 stroke survivors alive today. This is a staggering number when compared to 15,000,000 cancer survivors. The tragedy in this number is that 80% of these strokes are preventable! My strokes cost $962,000 in medical costs and that’s only one person. Add lost earnings for six years and the overall cost to the economy is difficult to comprehend. I can assure you for every stoke there is a large number of people affected, including spouses, children, siblings, friends and co-workers.

When you consider those numbers, it makes you wonder why so little is done in the way of stroke education and prevention. The return on investing in such a cause would have to be significant, when you think about the amount of money spent on political campaigns and half of them have no return.

Strokes affect men, women, old, young, children from every background and culture. About one out every 149 people experience a stroke.

A lot of questions come to mind. First off, why? What’s the cause of these strokes?. I believe it to be lifestyle, specifically, the failure to monitor factors key to stroke prevention: monitoring and controling blood pressure, blood sugar (diabetes), cholesterol and smoking.

I was no saint when it came to these key factors. Through my informal research, one of these factors can and does cause strokes, but the probability skyrockets when you have two or more factors in the abnormal range. I am not a doctor, this is just what I observe when meeting with other stroke survivors. Something I do often, not for research, but to show them that with hard work I regained most functions and so might they.

The best outcome for stroke is prevention. It’s faster, cheaper and infinitely easier. If your not sure of your risk factors see a doctor find out what your risks are. It will be the best investment you have ever made.

REFUSE TO BE HELPLESS

Water Therapy

 Posted by on February 24, 2013
Feb 242013
 

Several times during my outpatient therapy sessions I inquired about water therapy. I was told my stroke was too severe for such therapies. I was walking with a walker or a cane and walking in water appealed to me. I figured the boency would allow me to work on my stride without the mechanical aids.

My local community center has a pool with a circular design with flowing current as an added challange. The water level was 3 1/2 feet deep so I acquired a belt with floats that would allow me a measure of safety.

I began walking and it was quite a challange the first few months. I found walking with the current would test my balance and walking against the current developed strength. I would use the pool two to three times a week and my balance and walking stride improved dramatically. I soon stopped using the walker, and relied soley on the cane for balance.

My workouts expanded to include hand floats and paddles increasing the work load, I also started doing yoga poses and stretching.

I grew up in a home that had a pool in the backyard and learned to swim at a very young age, so it was seamed natural to me that my next step would be swimming. The first time I put my face in the water the panic was overwhelming! I fought the panic and tried to make what I hoped would be a swimming stoke, neither side of my body did anything resembling anything I remembered as swimming – this was going to take time.

I held onto the ladder railing as I lay down in the water kicking my legs. It took months and a pair of swim fins until I could lay on my back and do the backstroke. The left side had strength and range of motion limitations, but I stuck with it and I was swimming the backstroke.

It was natural to start freestyle swimming, my arms had become strong moving backwards. Moving forward was a new ball game and it was almost like starting over, except my legs were working and my kick was strong.

I was proud of my efforts and my confidence exploded into all areas of my stroke recovery. It’s been three years since I began my water therapy and I now swim one mile five days a week. I typically start my workouts with the swim.

Often I am asked If I learned to swim as a child, my answer is yes, but I can honestly say I learned to swim at 60 years of age.

REFUSE TO BE HELPLESS.

The Weak Side

 Posted by on February 13, 2013
Feb 132013
 

USING THE WEAK SIDE

As a triple Stroke survivor I learned first hand the challanges and frustrations that face every aspect of your life. For those who doubt that statement, try to put on your socks and shoes one handed. The world around us was built by and for people with 2 working arms and legs, we can either adapt are lives to incorporate are short comings or Refuse to be helpless.

I started early on to rehab my left hand and arm, once I regained hand movement using sponge balls,hand weights and stretch bands, I lacked coordination, hand speed and strength. My challange was ways to use the hand in a way that would develop these capacities, I tried everything imaginable, and focused on a few.

When I was in Rehab they would give us modeling clay to work the weak side, the reality is clay is very stiff till your body heat warms it up, and in my case my left I hand had very little heat, it was frustrating . When I returnrd to my home after 10 months of institutional living I very simply put 3 cups of flour and 1 cup of water in a bowl and mixed it with both hand making sure the weak side duplicated the strong side, after a doe ball is formed move it to a floured surface,cutting board or counter top and I kneaded the doe ( Video) doe is unique in that the longer you knead it the stiffer it gets, so you get the benefit of ever increasingly increase in resistance and you stop when tired.

To develop dexterity I used a simpler approach, I started washing dishes by hand, we shut down are dish washer,every knife, fork and spoon, plate, bowl and cup got massaged with a sponge and rinsed. It was awkward at first and after a while it became natural and second nature.

I am sure they you can find many opportunity’s in your daily life to incorporate your weak side into your activities, combing your hair, shaving, eating, ect. It takes time, my progress was slow but I stayed with it, and today my left hand is capable and 90% as strong as the right.

The primary goal of recovering lost functions is to teach your brain how use the affected appendages, all to often we treat rehab as a physical process, its actually a learning process. Changing your approach to recovery may be the path to the recovery your looking for.

If you find these blogs helpful or you have a challange that I may have faced or maybe a helpfull tip, use the comments section of this website. Your information is strickly confidential.

VISUALIZATION

 VISUALIZATION  Blog  No Responses »
Feb 052013
 

THE FOUNDATION OF MY RECOVERY

It is very difficult to relate the impact that visualization has had on my journey back to normalcy. After my third stroke I was lying in a bed in intensive care with only some movement in my right hand, my left side was described as flacid by the doctors. It was also noted that my left hand would eventually close and become rigid.

I spent the time available worrying about my future and what life would be like if the doctors were correct in the prognosis. It wasn’t a pleasant future, I started looking at the index finger on my left hand trying to move it, I worked on it for hours with no result. Late one afternoon I was tired I dozed off and was in the middle of a dream about looking at my right index finger land then moving the left one, the dream was vivid and in color. Some time later when I woke up I looked at the right hand in my mind I saw my left finger move and the finger moved, the movement was slight – barely visible – but it moved…

I was elated. I kept working on it until the entire hand had near normal movement but very little strength. With lots of time and a smart phone, I began researching my discovery. I found some information about professional athletes. The way some approach a golf swing or a baseball batters swing, visualizing the swing from start to finish – even seeing the ball stop where they planned it.

It took time and a lot of effort, but I incorporated the concept of visualization into every aspect of my recovery. There are times when people watching me assume I must be napping! In actuality, I am visulizing a movement or series of movements.

When I meet with stroke survivors that suffer from aphasia, I relate how I learned to speak by visulizing childhood songs and then singing them. Happy Birthday, Mary had a Little Lamb, as long as the song was in your mind before your stroke, you probably could sing it. It’s only a start, but it was my spring board to near normal speach and I have had some success teaching this technique.

Think of it this way. Your brain is where the damage occurred and very often little is done to rehab your mind. Stroke survivors start out with mental baggage; guilt, anger, depression, etc., and before much happens physically, the mind has to reconcile and that’s as big a challenge as the physical side of recovery.

I have used meditation, yoga, reading, crossword puzzles, card games, computer games, anything to engage the mind, the more you exercise and challenge your brain, the faster and better your recovery will be.

IMPROVISING

 Posted by on January 31, 2013
Jan 312013
 

THERE ARE TIMES TO IMPROVISE

Every stroke survivor is unique, no two strokes are the same and the same can be said about recoveries, as I meet more survivors, I find similarities. First they overcome the depression that is apparent, the next thing that’s common is a burning desire to overcome their disabilities, with therapy, mechanical aids, or through inventive soulutions.

My right arm was one of the last physical distresses to overcome, and I had five different occupational therapists. I made progress, but I wasn’t satisfied. My arm had movement and was functional, but it was weak and not very stable.

I was discouraged by my therapist’s request to implement weight training for fear of injuring my shoulder…so I improvised.

I tied a stretch band around my wrist, hoisted my arm up in front of a window put the other end out the top of the window closed the window and then pulled down, the band would pull my arm up, I would repeat this actions for minutes at first, then extended periods and then several times a day…

After strengthening my arm with my inventive solution, I now tell everybody who’s frustrated with their rehabilitation to take matters into their own hands and improvise…visualize positive changes and they will happen…

Mental States…

 Posted by on January 14, 2013
Jan 142013
 

The mental state of a stroke survivor is tenuous at best.  At first I went through a period of denial. It’s hard to accept what is happening to yourself, and the feeling that you will wake up and find it was a dream or that there will be a miracle cure,  was overwhelming.

Following denial came depression. That is best described as if I was in a dark hole with no way out. In my case,  I was almost completely paralyzed without the ability to speak.  Depression, anger,  frustration and the overall feeling of helplessness, surrounded me.

This was my darkest period.  As my mind started to lighten, I entered a period of discovery.  As my abilities began to return, the cloud that inhibited my mental state and my recovery, began to lift. I found myself planning a future incorporating my disabilities.

In my case,  I dug in my heels and hurried myself to therapies where I got stronger both physically and mentally.

Refuse to be Helpless for Your Family…

 Blog  No Responses »
Dec 192012
 

I had my strokes in 2007, and when I was in the early phases of recovery, my daughter, Jackie, announced she was expecting her second child. Stryker was born in 2008, here’s a photo of us taken on Halloween this year. A big motivator for me is my grandchildren, I knew I had to get better for them. Now that I am able to travel again, I love to swim, golf, walk and even visit amusement parks with the kids. To me, all the pain and strain of rehabilitation was well worth it, I doubt Stryker even remembers that I was in such tough shape when he was a toddler.

Me and my grandson, Stryker, on Halloween 2012

Me and my grandson, Stryker, on Halloween 2012

Welcome to My New Website

 Posted by on December 19, 2012
Dec 192012
 
Gene_Plaska_2

It’s taken a few years, but I have finally gained the knowledge and resources to develop this website as a place to share my personal story of stroke survival, as well as post various resources that may be helpful to diabetics and stroke survivors.  As always, I am available to talk, email or text with other stroke survivors who need encouragement, and I hope those of you out there who use Facebook and Twitter will friend me or follow me and stay involved.  It’s always good to keep your mind active and to socialize with others who have had similar situations.  Several stroke survivors who reached out to me in the early days of my rehabilitation were invaluable as I attempted to regain my abilities.  Part of Refusing to be Helpless in this process is connecting with other survivors for inspiration, and knowing that you are not alone.  Please bookmark my site and come back to often to read about my life, watch my videos, try new healthy recipes or share your insights.  It’s all about wellness, hope and discovering a new life after a stroke.

Happy Holidays!

Gene

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