Happy Anniversary… to my Stroke?! By Catherine Lewallen

Murphys, CA...I am writing this on January 8th, 2012, the one-year anniversary of my stroke. What a terrifying day that was! I was alone. I was at my business, though it wasn’t open, getting some work done. Going up a stepladder I got really light-headed, as if I stood up too fast. As I tried to get down the ladder, I realized I was not in control of my legs and was going to fall. I laid there on my side, struggling to get my phone out of my pocket, with the one arm that was working. It took several tries to successfully dial for help, only to be unintelligible in my pleas.... Next

NEWSMAN, STRANDED BY STROKE, FINALLY GOING HOME

January 10, 2012
WASHINGTON D.C. After more than 2 years, veteran newsman Diosdado Beltran will finally get the chance to go home to the Philippines.
Beltran, 67 and former news editor of the Philippine News Agency (PNA), was visiting family members in Fairfax, Virginia in 2009 when he suffered a stroke.
He survived but doctors at the Commonwealth Health and Rehab Center refused to allow him to fly back to Manila as he wanted. The trip, they warned, could be fatal.
He now reportedly speaks with a slur and has trouble sitting up, forcing him to spend the day mostly lying on the bed.
Beltran was an officer of the Samahang Plaridel, an association of veteran journalists and communicators named in honor of the pseudonym famously used by Filipino patriot Marcelo H. del Pilar who helped publish the La Solidaridad.
His doctors would only give Beltran the green light to fly back to the Philippines if a certified nurse would accompany him on the trip...Next

Treating Stress, Speech Disorders With Music

December 16, 2011

More and more hospitals and clinics now offer music therapy as a supplementary treatment for everything from anxiety to Alzheimer's, but its efficacy varies for different conditions. Neurologist Oliver Sacks and several music therapists discuss the science and practice of music therapy.....
Next 

Survey to find out about the daily life of stroke victims

STROKE survivors in Wales will be asked detailed questions about their daily life as part of the first survey of its kind.
The Stroke Association has developed the survey in a bid to find out what life is like for people who have had a stroke across Britain.
It is the biggest survey of its kind and will also ask detailed questions about what services stroke survivors are able to access and about their finances.

The Daily Life survey will be officially launched on Wednesday and will run until December 1. The Stroke Association is urging everyone affected by stroke in Wales to take part.
Ana Palazon, director for the Stroke Association in Wales said: “More people are surviving their stroke, this means that more of us are living with the effects of stroke in our daily lives. The Daily Life Survey will be an important tool in helping the Stroke Association to better understand the challenges stroke survivors face.”

Read More http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2011/09/12/survey-to-find-out-about-the-daily-life-of-stroke-victims-91466-29403030/#ixzz1ZBBlNXA0

Stroke centers no worse at weekend treatment

(Reuters Health) - Hospitals that have been designated as "stroke centers" may provide just as good care on the weekend as on weekdays, new findings suggest.
That's important because previous studies have hinted that people who come to the hospital after having a stroke don't do as well if they're admitted over the weekend, when nurses and specialists might be stretched extra thin.
"This is a big concern among the physician community because we all know that not every hospital has the capacity to treat those patients on the weekend," said Dr. Ying Xian, who studies stroke care at the Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, North Carolina and wasn't involved in the new study...... 

http://reut.rs/o91hYa

Season of Hope

By BOB TEES

Posted 1 month ago

The seasons are changing. This week we feel it in bright days and cool nights, plus a few spectacularly stormy moments. The sadness of seeing summer slip away is balanced by the welcome relief of a return to routine that September soon will bring.

This time last year, as the seasons changed, I was preparing a presentation for Aphasia Camp at the Tim Horton's Onandaga Camp. Aphasia is partial or total loss of the ability to speak due to a brain injury, usually stroke. At the Camp, people with aphasia and their significant others spent the weekend fishing, cycling, learning, enjoying campfires, and generally relaxing in all manner of ways. The theme for the presentation was A Season of Hope, and this song was written for the Camp.
SEASON OF HOPE
There is a season to fall in love a s....... http://bit.ly/nglPLq

Fresh attack on stroke unit plan

AFTER handing over a petition against the closure of a North-East stroke unit to NHS officials, critics of the plans launched a fresh broadside.
The 780-name petition from Darlington Stroke Club opposing the proposed closure of Darlington Memorial Hospital stroke unit, was handed in to officials from NHS County Durham and Darlington yesterday.
Earlier in the day, a copy of the petition was also presented to the leader of Darlington Borough Council, Councillor Bill Dixon.
The petition was launched in response to NHS County Durham and Darlington’s proposals to back plans to centralise stroke services at the University Hospital of North Durham and close the stroke unit at Darlington Memorial Hospital.
Because of medical staffing problems, the 24-hour acute stroke service for County Durham and Darlington currently alternates between the two hospitals.
NHS County Durham and Darlington has been running a public consultation exercise on the future of acute stroke services which ends tomorrow.
The PCT’s preferred option is to centralise acute stroke services on the Durham City hospital site on the grounds that it offers better all round facilities.
Coun Dixon said he thought the petition, put together in just three weeks, was “a magnificent response”
to the proposals.
The council leader claimed some of the statistics used by the primary care trust to justify centralising at Durham City were flawed and “shoddy” and Darlington would make a better location because of the greater density of population.
He said if Darlington was not chosen as the preferred site, he would want the consultation process repeated.
Darlington MP Jenny Chapman said some of her constituents wondered whether Durham City was being favoured because consultants preferred to live in that area rather than in Darlington.
“The NHS should be run for the benefit of patients not for the convenience of consultants,” she added.
Gillian Peel, chief executive officer of Age UK Darlington, which hosts the Darlington Stroke Club, said: “I believe the consultation process is deeply flawed and very skewed in favour of Durham.”
Stroke survivor Sheila Adams, 76, from Darlington, who signed the petition, said: “I think it is a foregone conclusion – but it shouldn’t be.”
In accepting the petitition, PCT director David Gallagher said he was grateful for people taking the time to express their views.
“The consultation is about getting the views of as many people as possible. We take every view very seriously,” he added.
He stressed that where staff lived was not an issue.
A decision is expected to be taken at a PCT board meeting later in the autumn.

Comments(2)

Jolly Roger says...
5:26pm Sat 10 Sep 11

But why oh why cannot Darlington accept there are at the southern end of Durham and there are places further North than Durham where patients must travel to Darlington if the stroke unit goes there.

So in my opinion the Trust has got it right and Durham is more central for this unit.

So will those in charge listen to us as well, they should do.

CAMPAIGNERS: Darlington Borough Council leader Bill Dixon, right, receives a copy of the petition