A Typical Day in My Stroke Recovery Therapy

I thought I would share what a typical day looks like in my stroke recovery. Some of you likely aren’t aware what is involved in the ongoing therapy that is helping me get back to my “old self.”

On the days that I have speech therapy, I usually wake up around 7:30am and go for a 45 minute session. Otherwise, I usually awake between 7-8am, feeling a bit foggy and out of sorts mentally so I enjoy easing into the morning with a cup of French press dark roast coffee. I sip my coffee while I watch television for a little while and then sit outside on the deck, listening to the pond and watching the birds.

I then spend the next 30 – 60 minutes writing in a journal to help continue to improve my hand strength and cognitive processes while sharpening my mental focus on forming sentence structure and spelling.

I usually take a break for the next 30 minutes, just meditating as I allow my thoughts to wander while mindfully taking in the sights and sounds.

At this time, I eat a small snack, take medicine, and begin to drink a lot of water which will continue throughout the day.

Typically, I begin to do some yard work around 10 or 11am, working with my arms and hands to continue to rebuild my sensory re-education – stimulating sensory pathways through tactile input, such as touch, vibration, and pressure. This also contributes to the exercise I need for strength and coordination as well as helping my mood.

Next up I focus on various brain game apps on my phone such as Elevate, Luminosity, Brain HQ and NeuroNation. Each of theses steadily builds various areas of my cognitive function. I also play Wordle and Wordscapes to increase my speed recall and properly spelling words.

Around 12:30pm, I spend 20-30 minutes reading aloud to improve my articulation and fluency. I try to complete 2-3 of these 20-30 minute sessions in the afternoon, depending on my fatigue level.

I take 30-45 minutes to eat lunch and then spend the following hour working on various speech therapy worksheets.

Examples are:

·       Abstract thought: Quickly coming up with multiple words that describe various things that are cold, soft, tragic, mixed, little, crinkly, scary, sharp, etc. (Some of these really exercise the brain. Try to come up with five words that describe things that are “crinkly!”)

·       Stating the opposite: For example, Wide à Narrow. (Some of these make one pause as well. For instance, blind à sighted)

·       Rebuilding vocabulary and recall: Quickly listing various things that begin with specific letters. For example: One who earns a living driving cars for othersà Chauffeur (I have never been able to spell this word correctly. The stroke did not change that!)

·       Listing proper nouns in various categories that begin with each letter of the alphabet. (e.g., countries that begin with each letter of the alphabet.)

 Throughout these several hours, I sporadically respond to texts, emails and other messages which also continues to hone my written communication skills. I’ve come a long way from only being able to put together short text responses that take me 5-10 minutes to structure!

 This usually brings me to somewhere between 3-4pm and I find that I’m extremely fatigued and in need of a nap. I may, or may not, do some more reading of articles or a book, both silently and aloud but this will all depend on how much mental fatigue I am experiencing.

 So that pretty much describes a typical day for me these past several weeks. It may vary somewhat, especially based on my energy level and the need to combat the depression that is amplified by stroke through exercise and meditation. I’ll soon be posting to explain my experiences with each of these.

Until then, thank you for taking time to read my thoughts and as always, I wish peace and love to you all!