Delayed Physical therapy: What are the effect?

Hi Rhinehart
My personal experience is that it is never too late. I didn't start physitherapy until nearly 2 months after my stroke and I definitely saw improvements. Five years later and I still see benefits when starting soemthing new and this is for both cognitive and physical activities. It may not be ovibsous straight away but when I do a comparioson months later I can see an improvement from when I firts started. 

Toni

Hi Toni

Thank you so much. That encouraged us. 

God Bless :) 

Hi Rhinehart, just had a thought...
With my phsiotherapy I was given exercises to do at home. I got my husband to observe what I was supposed to do so that he could then check I was doing them correctly at home. It also helped becasue my stroke impacted my memory and the written instructions and the diagrams I was given ddin;t always make sense to me. When your aunt starts her therapy and if it's suitable for her, and she's agreeable to it, ask if someone can observe  what she is supposed to do. 
Best wishes with your aunt's recovery. 

Toni

Hi Rhinehart,

Thank you for contacting the Stroke Foundation. We are sorry to hear about your aunt’s stroke.

Thank you Toni for those encouraging insights.

A stroke survivor’s recovery is unique to the individual. A lot of attention is given to rehabilitation in the weeks and months after a stroke, but recovery doesn't stop there. Many stroke survivors continue to work on their recovery and see improvement for many years. It may be possible for your aunt to make ongoing improvements despite the delay in her therapy. So contacting a physiotherapist, is a good place to start. Together with the physiotherapist you can discuss short and long-term goals and ask for their assistance to devise a rehab plan.

Here is a blog about repetitions needed to reach rehabilitation goals, which you may find helpful.

Balance is very complex and involves many different parts of the body, including ears, eyes, and the muscles, including the sensors within them. As a result there are a number of different reasons why your aunt may be having difficulty with her balance, including muscle weakness on one side of the body, loss of sensation, injury to the area of the brain that controls balance (cerebellum or brainstem), dizziness or vertigo, perceptual problems, ataxia (clumsy, uncoordinated movements), medication side effects or other medical conditions. The physiotherapist should consider this as part of the assessment. They can then create a plan in relation to treating it. See here for more information about balance after stroke.

You might also like to take a look at our fact sheet about mobility and exercise after stroke, as well as our rehabilitation page to learn more about stroke recovery. Our My Stroke Journey booklet is also a great resource for stroke survivors to learn about recovery and what to do when leaving hospital and returning home.

Remember, everyone’s stroke is different, while stroke survivors can improve for many years, it’s hard to predict how much your aunt will recover.

We hope you find this information helpful and wish your aunt all the best in her recovery.

Kind regards,

Meredith

StrokeLine