My husband of 46 years had a massive stroke on left side. He is now paralized on right side, aphasia and confused. He was in major hospital for 2 weeks then to a rehab hospital. At rehab he had a fall so they stopped blood thinners then he got a large clot in lung and legs. Back to intensive care. This is we the end of week 5. Waiting to go back to rehab. You feel so alone. What to expect? He knows peoples names, says hello, thank you etc. answers yes to everything. Can only focus on one thing. I know my husband is still in there. He is now eating small chopped meals. Watches cricket on the TV and can read names etc. I know speech therapy will help but will it help enough? They did not expect him to survive so he has come this far. He is moving his right leg a little but worry about him mentally. Sorry to be over the top. I am from Australia where I can’t find a website like this.
Hi Chris,
I’m sorry your husband has suffered a stroke; a frightening time for both of you. You will find emotional support on here and practical tips, though if course some will be UK specific.
When our friend had a stroke, we found stroke UK informative. They have lots of info on aphasia for example: Communication tools for stroke survivors | Stroke Association
There are other members on here, with experience of caring for someone following a stoke, I’m sure they’ll be along later.
Melly1
My husband had dysphasia because of a brain tumour and also later had a stroke. Speech therapy here (I am in the UK) covers communication in its broadest sense, not just speech. So they helped him focus on achieving independent communication as far as possible. They worked, for example, on ‘cheat’ tips for emailing, because he could hardly write but wanted to be in touch with family and friends who live a long way away. They gave him crib sheets which had pictures and words which he could show to medical staff to explain how he was feeling. To help with his actual speech, they assessed him to see how he could best relearn/retrieve speech; there are a lot of different ways that I had never thought of, even though I am a linguist.
I found the good thing about the Rehab ward was that everyone helped him work on everything so, for example, the Physios and OTs would also get him practising speech.
Best wishes to you both for the road ahead.
Hi Chris welcome
My husband too had strokes. I can’t help you very much because sadly he has other issues as well.
I do understand it’s very hard and emotional to see such a change in the person you love, and my heart goes out to you.
Take care.
Hello Chris
I saw your forum post this morning and wanted to let you know about carers organisations in Australia that may be able to help.
Carers Australia is the national carers’ org in Australia and advocates and runs national support programmes for carers
It also has a forum
https://carersaustralia.saneforums.org/t5/Carers-Forum/ct-p/carers-forum
Much of the specific practical support and information for carers is provided at state level. For example Carers Victoria: http://www.carersvictoria.org.au/
I hope this is helpful and wish you well with your caring situation.
Michael