Common misconceptions about stroke home rehabilitation

  Stroke, commonly known as “stroke”, is a general term for a group of acute cerebrovascular diseases. The disease has “five high” clinical performance, namely high incidence, high prevalence, high mortality, high disability and high recurrence rate. Many patients suffer from hemiplegia, numbness of hands and feet, incontinence, unclear speech or even inability to speak, swallowing disorder, memory loss, inability to understand others’ speech, and change in temperament.  However, due to economic reasons and lack of knowledge about rehabilitation, many stroke patients are discharged after spending the acute phase in the hospital, without being able to receive regular and systematic rehabilitation treatment and guidance. After returning home, these patients often follow their own ideas of so-called “rehabilitation”, which does not help them recover, but rather aggravates the disease. The following are some common misconceptions about home rehabilitation.  If a paralyzed patient is bedridden for a long time, muscle atrophy, osteoporosis, cardiopulmonary decompensation, deep vein thrombosis, lung infection and other complications will occur, which will not only be detrimental to the patient’s recovery, but also aggravate the disease and even endanger life. Some family members think that taking good care of the patient means doing everything for him, including feeding, washing, dressing and undressing. In fact, most stroke patients are paralyzed on one side of the body, and the other side is fine, so after simple training, they can complete these simple actions. If the family all underwrites, it is tantamount to depriving the patient of the opportunity to recover.  Some patients’ families may have seen the medical staff rehabilitating other stroke patients in the hospital and thought it would be enough to move their hands and feet according to the gourd. In fact, there is a lot to learn from this seemingly simple exercise, which involves not only knowledge of human kinesiology and anatomy, but also complex neurophysiology, and can only be done well by professionally trained personnel. Of course, it is still beneficial for patients to have their families help them move the joints of their limbs, as long as they are careful not to use too much force and cause damage to the joints. Some patients think that rehabilitation exercises mean more walking, so they start to walk with the help of others as soon as they have a little movement in their lower limbs. In fact, it is very important to know when and how stroke patients start to practice walking. If the timing of walking is too early or the method is not right, it will only aggravate the patient’s abnormal way of walking, which is not conducive to a good walk.  3, speak badly, slowly over time will be able to speak Some stroke patients will appear to speak with difficulty, vague voice, or want to speak out, or even can not understand the meaning of what the next person said. This is often due to dysarthria or aphasia caused by the stroke. Some patients’ families are very concerned about whether they can move their arms and legs, but not about whether they can speak. This is why the rate of depression is much higher in aphasic patients than in stroke patients. If a stroke patient has a combination of dysarthria or aphasia, only early formal language training can provide a good recovery.  4.Choking on eating and drinking, just take it slow Some stroke patients may choke on eating and drinking, and their families tend to think that they will be fine as long as they take it slow. For lighter choking patients, it is true that slowing down the speed of eating and drinking can be avoided. However, many patients with severe choking cough, if not examined and trained early, may suffer from malnutrition due to poor eating, but also from swallowing disorders leading to aspiration or mispharynx, which can lead to aspiration pneumonia, complications such as lung infections, and even life-threatening conditions.