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Carers - 40 Things A Stroke Survivor May Need

EmeraldEyes

It took me a while to find this, but I thought it would be a good one particularly for carers, as well as stroke thrivers to pass around.

40 Things A Stroke Survivor May Need
We would highly recommend Jill Bolte Taylor’s My Stroke of Insight, the story of the author’s experience with her own stroke and recovery. We particularly like the appendix section titled “Forty Things I Needed Most.” In fact, immediately after a parent’s stroke, it may be difficult to find time to read any more than that. But it is well worth it: It tells you how you can be most helpful to your parent. Below are Taylor’s 40 things she needed most.

I am not stupid, I am wounded. Please respect me.
Come close, speak slowly, and enunciate clearly.
Repeat yourself - assume I know nothing and start from the beginning, over and over.
Be as patient with me the twentieth time you teach me something as you were the first.
Approach me with an open heart and slow your energy down. Take your time.
Be aware of what your body language and facial expressions are communicating to me.
Make eye contact with me. I am in here - come find me. Encourage me.
Please don’t raise your voice - I’m not deaf, I’m wounded.
Touch me appropriately and connect with me.
Honor the healing power of sleep.
Protect my energy. No talk radio, TV, or nervous visitors! Keep visitation brief (five minutes).
Stimulate my brain when I have any energy to learn something new, but know that a small amount may wear me out quickly.
Use age-appropriate (toddler) educational toys and books to teach me.
Introduce me to the world kinaesthetically. Let me feel everything. (I am an infant again.)
Teach me with monkey-see, monkey-do behaviour.
Trust that I am trying - just not with your skill level or on your schedule.
Ask me multiple-choice questions. Avoid Yes/No questions.
Ask me questions with specific answers. Allow me time to hunt for an answer.
Do not assess my cognitive ability by how fast I can think.
Handle me gently, as you would handle a newborn.
Speak to me directly, not about me to others.
Cheer me on. Expect me to recover completely, even if it takes twenty years!
Trust that my brain can always continue to learn.
Break all actions down into smaller steps of action.
Look for what obstacles prevent me from succeeding on a task.
Clarify for me what the next level or step is so I know what I am working toward.
Remember that I have to be proficient at one level of function before I can move on to the next level.
Celebrate all of my little successes. They inspire me.
Please don’t finish my sentences for me or fill in words I can’t find. I need to work my brain.
If I can’t find an old file, make it a point to create a new one.
I may want you to think I understand more than I really do.
Focus on what I can do rather than bemoan what I cannot do.
Introduce me to my old life. Don’t assume that because I cannot play like I used to play that I won’t continue to enjoy music or an instrument, etc.
Remember that in the absence of some functions, I have gained other abilities.
Keep me familiar with my family, friends, and loving support. Build a collage wall of cards and photos that I can see. Label them so I can review them.
Call in the troops! Create a healing team for me. Send word out to everyone so they can send me love. Keep them abreast of my condition and ask them to do specific things to support me - like visualize me being able to swallow with ease or rocking my body up into a sitting position.
Love me for who I am today. Don’t hold me to being the person I was before. I have a different brain now.
Be protective of me but do not stand in the way of my progress.
Show me old video footage of me doing things to remind me about how I spoke, walked, and gestured.
Remember that my medications probably make me feel tired, as well as mask my ability to know what it feels like to be me.

Simon

EmeraldEyes
This was on my to-do list after the Joke Forum ’Admin/'Moderators/Brand Police deleted my 40 things post on their site.

I think it would be good to put them in a bulleted or numbered list - a little formatting tweak 🙂

Thanks for posting - I keep remembering other posts that I did over the last couple years that have now gone like one on using zoom, jit.si whereby.com, Google-meets, Neuroplasticity as the enemy….

½ an hours warning wouldn’t have cost them anything - means bastards 🙁 I’m co-chairing an NHS steering committee on Friday to which they have been invited 🤣

Andrew

EmeraldEyes Everyone who deals with a stroke survivor needs to know this.

EmeraldEyes

Simon Oh bugger, they were formatted when I copied them, but got lost somehow in the pasting 😅
I’ll do it now 😁

Ah…that’s better 😊

Simon

Andrew
yep.
We’ve shared these 40pts a lot of times in the past

And now we can again 🙂

Scroll-Me :)\<-&->


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