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Relearning life's tasks By JOHN DARLING A stroke is one of the most feared of medical emergencies: sudden, painful and often catastrophic, not just to victims, but to family members. There's good news, however. New clot-busting drugs can reduce damage if used in the first few hours. And hospitals locally offer intense, long-term therapy for relearning life's tasks, from buttoning your buttons to learning how to walk again. "This (rehab) is the hardest thing I ever tried to do," said Jim Cooper, 59, a former Timber Products employee who suffered a catastrophic stroke a year ago. "One day I could go golfing, I had a good job, I had everything. The next day I could do nothing. I went from taking care of people to being completely taken care of. It totally changed my life." Like most stroke patients, Cooper started at the bottom rung of the rehabilitation center, working with therapists to develop new nerve pathways around the damaged area of the brain. This means hours a day of relearning such basics as rolling over, sitting up and swallowing. "You can't believe how hard these therapists work," he said. "I know for a fact I could not have done this myself." Cooper had to work through the cognitive jungle known as aphasia, where he could hear what was being said to him, but it "got lost in his brain, like hearing a foreign language," said his wife, Clyda. "It was frustrating. We couldn't understand each other. So we spoke slowly and waited for the reply. Gradually, it's been coming back." Both Rogue Valley Medical Center and Providence Medford Medical Center offer rehabilitation centers for occupational, physical and speech therapy. RVMC's is outpatient and Providence's is both outpatient and inpatient, the only such unit between Eugene and Redding, Calif. RVMC often sends patients to the Providence inpatient unit after they pass the critical phase, said RVMC therapy supervisor Mike Mehl. In occupational therapy, patients learn upper body skills, such as dressing, cooking, hand-eye coordination and doing things in sequence, said Barbara Sexton, Providence rehabilitation program manager. They play sorting and manipulation games, including the time-honored round pegs and square holes. In physical therapy, they use slow-motion treadmills, standing frames and parallel bars to work on mobility, balance and gait. They practice transferring their bodies to chairs, toilets and cars. In speech therapy, they learn to talk and eat. Relearning use of the tongue is difficult, often requiring adding thickeners to food and water, Sexton said. Strokes, now sometimes called "brain attacks," result either when high blood pressure causes a brain hemorrhage or when a clot or plaque comes loose in the bloodstream and becomes lodged in the brain, cutting off oxygen to a major part of the gray matter and bringing paralysis to the part of the body it controlled. Tendencies to high cholesterol and hypertension can be indicators of coming strokes, she said. It's critical to know the signs of a stroke - headache, dizziness, blurred vision, slurred speech, impaired understanding - and to get the victim to an emergency room as quickly as possible to take advantage of clot-busting drugs. At Providence, inpatients don't lie in bed watching television. It's more like a stroke boot camp, with patients going at therapy as hard as they can, sometimes up to six hours a day. The goal is to help them out of the acute phase and teach them enough independence to go home, usually in about 15 days. Then they start outpatient therapy. As strokes bring havoc to the brain, they do the same with one's emotional and spiritual life. So spiritual counseling, available at hospitals, is often a big part of recovery. Patients often say they find new appreciation for God - and for everyday things. "It's been hard," said Russell Engle, 64, Medford, who was president of Assurance Transport, Inc., a long-haul carrier, before his massive stroke three years ago. "I was active. I played city league basketball. This made me an invalid, like a 3-year-old kid. I couldn't even talk or sit up when I started at Providence. But when they got me to taking my first step, I was so elated, like I went to paradise. All in all, this has really given me an appreciation of other people and of life." Family members get help from staff social workers and usually join loved ones in therapy, learning to help them - but not too much - get around and master the countless tasks we all take for granted. And they develop the most important recovery skill: hope. "He was depressed and angry at first," said Clyda Cooper. "The therapist got him on his feet and one day, he saw he could move his right foot. That was the start. I don't know how he's done it, having everything taken away like it was, but he works very hard." Jim Cooper now walks like he talks, slow but steady. He leans on his cane. He pulls his arm up limply to shake hands. Sometimes he stops and searches his mind for a word. He usually finds it. "You can do anything you want to do," he said. "I know I can walk myself. I know I can speak good. It'll be a while, but I know it's going to be good. I know it." John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland. Ideas for Prime Time stories are welcome at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.