The stroke was complicated so it wasn’t going to be simple to get home. The doctors wanted to see that I could travel home before I was released.
There were three main things they were watching for: my physical ability, my competence in completing normal everyday tasks and lastly trying to communicate. Everyone is different, but for me the physical therapy (PT) was the easiest for me and speech therapy was very hard. The Occupational Therapy (OT) was in the middle.
When I was a kid I played hockey for about 10 years. In college, I was a Powerlifter. When I had the stroke, I was so grateful that my body was still intact. I firmly believe my physical condition helped a lot. You only have one body, so use it! Strength is a good thing because you honestly don’t know when it will come in handy.
Over the course of the next month the majority of my day was spent with different therapists. The PT helped me walk normally again. At first it was like I was just dragging half of my body along, and I wasn’t very stable. We did chair squats and wall squats and other mobility exercises.
I was cleared to travel back to Fairbanks to continue my recovery. I still needed more OT. My left side was fine, but I couldn’t hold a glass of water on the right side.
Stay tuned for Seattle Part 5
Dave Keller 