My father was diagnosed with ruptured brain aneurysm last July 13, 2012. He had undergone craniotomy and clipping of aneurysm. Now he's like having a stroke with right side weakness. He cannot talk as well.
My concern right now is his therapy. We live in a small town and therapist is not available here. Me and my friend will do the therapy at home. I just followed what the physical therapist at the hospital was doing. I hope i do it right. My another concern is that im not sure about how my father feels right now. He cannot talk and has flat affect. But sometimes response with moving his head up and down. I just hope he's not having depression. I hope i could get advises on what are the possible things that i can do to help the fast recovery. Thanks
I don't know that you can speed up recovery...I think the brain needs lots of rest and stimulation...and time to Heal...as far as the depression, can u ask him and have him raise one finger for yes and two fingers for no...?
Wishing you and your family the best ... ~ Colleen
Your Dad seems to need alot of care right now Is there noone you call call upon to help you? Is there nothing you can arrange like a visiting therapist? It must be hard on you not being sure what you are doing.
the nearest therapist lives in another town around 50 miles away and the charge is doubled. i just hired somebody who is undergrad of physical therapy course. she's not registered though. she lives in our place. i hope she's doing it right. it's really hard for us considering we live 70 miles away from the hospital and his doctors.
hi Maricar! i've had PT from the rehab hospital then a mobile one and finally a local hospital and they all do about the same basic exercises. At first they got me up and took a few steps then longer and longer walks,now i do the exercises at home because i "plateaued".i do step ups frontwards and sideways,marching,arching. leg raises,stretchband arm exercises etc etcetera, also i added dumbell curls & bench press using cane with ankle weights tied around-this is how local hospital taught me but they didn't put the curls & presses on my at home list so i added them myself hoping they would be benificial. they said they couldn't treat me anymore legally or morally,but i have great hope for your father since he's only 2 months post,early on they had me walk with a glass of water held by the affected left hand- of course i could not do it and still can't 3 yrs later. i'm glad your friend is helping you-also she will get on-hands training to work with your father,99% of my exercises done in the rehab hospital could easily be done at home-the only equipment i used was a bicycle exerciser a couple of times which i had a hard time cause my left foot kept falling out of the straps. i have no expertise in this area only my 3 year experience,i would guess your apprentice friend would be very helpful-good luck & may God bless-if you want list of exercises i do i'll be happy to send it to you-just friend me & i'll send it!i hope this helped a little
thank you so much ron for the tips! it's a great help for me to plan/manage my father's therapy.
right now we just do passive range of motion exercises since he cannot yet do it himself. hopefully soon if he can follow commands then i can apply those exercises to him. it's good though that he can raise his left hand and use it in eating food like oranges. i give him oranges for him to practice biting, chewing and swallowing. however sometimes i am hesitant in giving him food because he is asthmatic and from time to time he coughs. he might aspirate the food. how about you? were you able to eat right away?
by the way please send me the list of exercises. thanks!
Maricar...welcome, and expect the members here will give you much help...
My first suggestion is to call his doctor and be sure you have, if not already, the medical power of attorney, to asisst your dad. You are remarkable and wonderful to be giving the therapy at home. Depending on the circumstances, you may want to address w/the neurosurgeon on whether your dad may need to be placed in a Rehab center. Also ask the neuro which cranial nerves may be affected from the aneurysm and from the surgical access site...
To help the group here...are you able to provide the artery / segment of the aneurysm location.....to share experiences w/more similar circumstances...
Best wishes and prayers for the recovery of your dad;
hi Maricar! your very welome! wish i could help you more. no i was on a feeding tube since i was comatose for 5 days and they were extremely cautious when i first started eating-baby steps, first jello then soup and then a soft pretzel & a therapist taught me how to eat again and watched me the first few times- they were afraid i would choke-i'm not so sure about oranges unless they were segmented-the fibrous part that encapsulates the segments might be a choke hazard . i craved mango water ice early on-remember patience is the very important. Repitition will be required for everything probably. They must have told me 100 times not to bite on a tube in my throat-this set off a horrible alarm that sounded like a sick duck! they also told me over & over what happened to me-i didnt believe them untill one day he raised the window blinds and he said your in philadelphia @ 9th & market-i then saw a giant Wills eye hospital sign and then believed them,our thoughts & prayers are with you for strength & fortitude!
i appreciate your effort of writing all those exercises... i will soon apply that to my dad. thank you so much!
i let him eat ice at first that was his surgeon's advised then jello. sometimes poridge but i stopped. i dont have the courage to let him eat it. he might aspirate them and risk for pneumonia. i don't know when to let him start eating soft food. i probably ask the rehab doctor. our state doesn't have therapist who will teach him how to eat. only those physical therapist.
by the way we haven't told dad about what happened to him.. i guess we really need to tell him already.
hello pat! thanks for the advise. regarding rehab center, unfortunately we dont have it here in our place. we're like living a small town. however this site is helping me much in minimizing my apprehensions.
we'll have follow up check up this wednesday. i'll ask his doctor about the location of the aneurysm.