My Remote Rehab Assistants-The Women’s Weekly and Wassily Kandinsky
A strange group of bedfellows and yet they have been assisting me in my ongoing remote rehab that I have been doing for the last 3 months as part of a tele rehab project being conducted by the internationally respected Dr.Simone Dorsch, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Sydney\}.
When doing my exercises at my home I did not have the benefits of purpose-built devices[ that were available in Bankstown Stroke Ward] to assist with my stepping and walking exercises, so this is where a Russian art theorist and a long-established magazine publisher came to the rescue!
The Kandinsky art book together with the Weekly’s Cookbook formed a perfect step for my stepping exercise!!-Go Figure! If I wanted to make the step bigger, I simply added another one of the many cook \{or gardening] books that are in my newly created bookshelf.
What is my point?- 2 to be precise?
1.A Stroke Survivors rehab is not finite- in many instances it is ongoing after the discharge from hospital- so don’t waste the benefit of the rehab your got from those wonderful stroke clinicans.Talk to your physio and develop a remote rehab program. I am saddened when I hear about stroke survivors that go home and ‘wallow’. Don’t let the fact that you are at home [ or the current Corona restrictions] stop you from deriving the benefits of ongoing rehab.
2.Get creative and utilise objects in your home to aid your rehab- book piles are a good example, stairs can be used, I found gardening[ digging soil] a wonderful exercise for my arm/hand. Talk to your physio first BUT MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE AT ALL TIMES.
I am not an expert, but I do know what worked/works for me and I want to share it with other stakeholders who have been touched by stroke.
Another reason why I wrote this blog is that I saw an entry on Concentric Rehabilitation Centre’s Face Book Page by Doctor Kate Scrivener, Lecturer, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney also a respected clinician in which she outlined this topic far more eloquently than I ever could.
Take s few minutes to hear what she has to say, and I strongly recommend Concentric Rehabilitation Centre if you are considering on going rehab.
https://www.facebook.com/Concentricrehab/videos/665991894015642
I have attached several pictures of me inaction getting by with a little help from my friends[Apologies to Lennon and McCartney\}