Update 6 months since my stroke

So it’s now (feb 15) been 6 months since my stroke on August 15, on my way in to a dog show in Norrköping. After the initial CT-scan at the local hospital i Norrköping it was confirmed that I’d suffered an Ischemic stroke and my treatment was initiated with a blood thinning medicine, thrombolysis. I was put back in the ambulance and driven on to the University Hospital in Linköping where I was examined by a neurologist who confirmed a Cerebral Infarction from the CT-images and by physical examination.

I was more or less paralysed in my left side, unable to move my arm and leg, but luckily my somatic sensation was unaffected, I could feel every touch that he tried.

I spent the weekend (Saturday – Monday evening) at Linköping before being transported home to Södertälje hospital, again in an ambulance, where I spent 10 days doing initial tries to learn to walk again initially using a support walker while otherwise being confined to either my bed or a wheelchair. I also started to do some basic hand exercises.

After my 10 days in Södertälje I was transferred on to Danderyds Sjukhus and their specialised rehab department for patients with brain injuries, stroke, tumors, encephalitis, trauma and EP.

I was at Danderyd from Aug 28 until Oct 13, with the last weekends spent at home on leave.

During the time at Danderyd I got to meet with doctors, physiotherapists, psychologist and speech-language pathologist. Initially I was completely unable to use my left hand and had very limited use of my left leg (I could use my leg but was not allowed due to the risk of falling). On my first day at Danderyd I met with a physiotherapist for an initial evaluation. He did some balance tests and let me try walking with a sort of a cane, and he also had me try walking up and down a flat of stairs holding on to the railing. I was surprised as to how well it went. I was also evaluated of my arm/hand usage which was a lot worse than my leg. I trained a lot with my leg with the goal of being able to walk and move around with as little help of “tools” (wheelchair, walker, crutches, cane) as possible. One of my main problems with my arm/hand was that I was unable to lift my hand using the wrist, I had no strength at all. This was, almost magically, partially solved using electricity, something called NMES (NeuroMuscular Electrical Stimulation), daily for my last 3 weeks at Danderyd.

When I finally left Danderyd I walked with a crutch, but was still unable to use my left hand and arm. I had to learn a “workaround” solution to be able to lift my 2,5 yr old daughter. I bent down and wrapped my right arm around her waist and was able to lift her with a little help from her holding me around the neck. I had pain in my left shoulder when I tried to move it. I was told that the only thing that holds the shoulder joint in place is the muscles in the shoulder, which in my case was  more or less unused for 4 months – i.e. they were very weak causing the shoulder joint to have problem to stay aligned which caused most of the pain.

I was admitted to continued rehab at Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge where I was examined by both doctors and a physiotherapist and together they decided that the PT was to tape my shoulder to keep it “in place” to help me move it with as little pain as possible and thereby starting to strengthen the muscles to eventually get rid of the pain completely.

Instead of starting full time rehab at Huddinge just before christmas I was called to a specialist PT doing something called CI-therapy, which I started mid january, working 6 hours/day for 10 days. First with main focus on arm/hand, and then another 10 days of leg/balance/walk training. Hard work, initially painful when working with arm/hand, but with unbelievably positive results, especially for my shoulder. After finishing the CI with my arm I’m now able to lift my little girl like most other parents (my hands under her arms).

My own estimation is that I went from having 30% usage of my left arm/hand to having about 80% use of it in those 10 days of intensive training. The outcome of the leg training was less. I probably finished there with about 80% usage of the leg as well but that was probably only up from 70% mainly because I had come much farther with my leg before the CI.

So beginning of february I was back to about 80% usage of both arm/hand and leg.

Since mid february I’m now in daily therapy at Huddinge Neuro rehab. I’m doing physiotherapy in a gym (including running on a treadmill and rowing in a rowingmachine) and in water in the rehab-pool. I’m also doing work-related therapy at a computer (including writing this) where I’m still having a bit of a struggle due to my weak left hand and its fingers.

I’m scheduled to start on-the-job training at the office in the beginning of april.