Recovering from a mini-stroke

There are many people that suffer from strokes but before a large stroke you may have a mini-stroke and may not realize it. Typically a mini-stroke just impacts a few things such as short-term memory but you should recover soon after it occurs, usually within 30 days. With a mini-stroke, recovery will depend mostly on how your attitude is. You need to be able to accept it and be willing to go through all of the recovery procedures in order to help your body and brain to heal. Recovery from a mini-stroke is also dependent upon your medical team that is helping you along with how much brain damage you have suffered from.

One thing you may need to work on is called rehabilitation therapy. This will teach you new ways to learn new skills and replace some of your old skills that your brain may be unable to perform. In order for rehabilitation to work correctly the patient needs to be willing to learn and you need to start working soon after the mini-stroke occurs.

The rehabilitation programs can help the person that has had the stroke to recover as soon as possible so they can go home and function without needing help. Most of these programs start in the hospital soon after the patient has been diagnosed with a mini-stroke. Here are the different ways in which you can recover from a stroke:

• Hospital program - this will begin once the patient is in the hospital and medications are administered. The doctor may ask that the patient remains in the hospital for a couple of nights in order to have the rehabilitation program work with them. The patient will be expected to have a good attitude and to be really committed to the program in order to get results. If the patient is unable to motivate themselves, they may be sent home in the care of others.


• Rehabilitation in Nursing homes - if the patient is doing well but still not able to go home the doctor may send you to a nursing home where you can work on rehabilitation. The length of stay depends on your condition and how well you are healing.


• Office programs - for a person that is showing excellent motor skills, the doctor may prescribe an office program where you will continue to work on recovering after a stroke. These programs may come to your home for a consultation to help you get your home safe and to make it functional but for most patients you will end up going to an outpatient facility where you work on your skills daily or at least 1-2 days a week.


• Home-based programs - if you are unable to drive, the program will come to your home and help you work on your motor skills and provide you with the therapy you need to move forward with your life after a stroke.

Rehabilitation will allow you to get some of your motor skills back but you may not have all of it back and you may struggle with memory loss as well. However the patients that do work with the rehabilitation services are more likely to be sent back home where they can continue caring for themselves.

In addition to rehabilitation where you will sit with specialists and work on retraining your brain to perform your motor skills you may also need to meet with a physical therapist and focus on rebuilding your muscles. For many stroke suffers their muscles become paralyzed. Since brain cells are damaged you will need to focus on physical exercise that will aid in strengthening the muscles and repairing them. This includes becoming physically active so the muscles can get strong but combining physical therapy with other therapy your brain may actually be able to repair the synapses and can fix the muscles again.