cord nater for the support group true life after stroke this group is affiliated with mercy hospital welcome carol hi i think thanks for being here carol how does your support group help post stroke individuals well this offers a nice safe environment where people that have had stroke and their caregivers can come in we offer support just from hearing how other individuals actually help their family members come you know help help them when they come home from the hospital also we have educational topics that are presented at these meetings for we have professionals in health care field of stroke stroke the come and speak on how to prevent post secondary stroke individual items like nutrition and even how to set goals to really you know have their move the recovery process along but i think most of it's just a really safe environment we kind of all take that oath of confidentiality there that's what this is that there  it is open to both the individuals and as well as the k caregivers yes and we encourage that and also it does not matter where you actually have your have had your care for the acute phase of stroke even though we located at the university of pittsburgh medical center mercy hospital we welcome individuals from all over the city ok and what are some of the other services available to assist stroke and individuals there is physical therapy occupational therapy and also speech is an important aspect of recovery of spur stroke and it really depends on what kind of stroke you have have in terms of which one of those levels of care that you want to take i say the stroke is like you remember baskin robins ice cream how it comes in many different flavors stroke is not like if you and i have a sinus infection and you can take one route and you will get a recovery for that each stroke individual that comes you know might have a different a different part of their brain was affected by the stroke what are some communication tips for caregivers of people living with with aphasia and that is people having difficulty with with their speech well one of the things that caregiver is probably the most important person in this and expressive is that you know they're incapable of having a conversation like you and i are right now so if that's the type of you know problem and they have as far as speaking then what they need to do is the caregiver needs to really speak very slowly and distinctly to them so they have time to actually comprehend what you are saying to them ok it should be in an atmosphere where there is not a lot of  noise if it's receptive and they're having trouble actually you know really understanding what you're saying a lot of times you can you know just have the individual write down what they're thinking or what they're trying to say ok carol do you have any practical tips for for the caregivers just to help to ease their day to day stress of caring for a loved one affected with with stroke well i think one of the things that you can do in this is something that we're all apprehensive about doing is asking for help when you go when the stroke survivor goes home to the hostel from the hospital it not only affects them but it infects the and the entire family so you know asked for help from your friends for loved ones from people in our stroke group we have a wonderful part of our stroke group and it's called peer visitation and we have brought professionals in the health care field to actually train our stroke survivors and or their loved ones who are interested in doing this to actually go out into the hospital into the home after an individual has had a stroke and give them support and give them some ideas because as you well know it's wonderful direct experience that makes the huge difference right now is that a free service or how  do people find out about that that you can actually call me or email me i'm actually the contact person for this and then based on what type of stroke i think that person has had and just the relationship between the caregiver and the stroke survivor then i will match them with the peer visitor that i think is best for that individual family but that's fantastic you know the other thing i want to just remind people is the meals on wheels program here in peter's time it's fantastic and when when someone has just been infected with a stroke in the caregiver they're overwhelmed and you know it the food is is prepared by chef and that's a soft fresh vegetables and it's delicious i mean i don't think i was very healthy and i i deliver meals on wheels every other thursday in the meals are they're beautiful they're delicious and i just want to remind people that that's that's out there because most people don't even have time to get out to shop and just instantly get overwhelmed and the best thing they can do is really to delegate responsibilities to to other family members too i think is important and i think that is really important because you know it seems like for the as individuals that have had strokes that are very young and have young children yes they've also called upon their church and you know there's  members in every church that are willing to you know just help out and get rides for the children and that is race to get rides to make a meal help out with laundry or yard workers or something that needs to be done disaster help them that's the real practical advice to get care that you can you can help the caregiver what are some trends in developments in stroke care in stroke recovery and is there anything that the patient can do to help speed recovery as far as helping to speed recovery i think it's important that they get into a physical therapy program right away now with our present health care plan unfortunately sometimes the number of visits that they have can actually you know run out but what is really well in what is really good is the physical therapist is able to give the caregiver a home plan and i think it's important that they stick to this plan and the wonderful thing is now now that we have thought that it it's just been in the first six months that recovery can be made that now it can go out as many as several years so you know it's i think it's that emotional support and motivation that you can give to the individual to just keep going so all these you know other things like the speech therapy the occupational therapy can all be combined and can be taught to the caregiver in their family members great thing do you have meetings where do you meet we have meetings once a month and it's always the second saturday of the month ok it's  mercy hospital in the clark auditorium we also provide free parking we'll give them a pass on that commission and you know it's a wonderful time because that way since we're doing encourage all family up on saturday june eighth from tended noon and we're going to talk about nature pathic support just to help speed post stroke recovery that there are some things nutritional supplements i mean i think remedies that can help aid  recovery and speed the process they do have to be careful of drug interactions and we're going to review all of that and at the next meeting and i think that will be wonderful because not only you always add that component of nutrition along with that tradition is so important because it isn't the vitamins that you'll be talking about it is just because really and even a poor diet leads to higher inflammation in the body inflammation causes constriction of of the arteries and that increases your for a recurring stroke so anything they can do to help decrease information is going to improve improve your overall health i've heard doctors say time lost is brain lost and the most important thing that patients can do is to recognize the warning signs of a stroke and call nine one one the earlier a patient asked for help that the earlier the process begins and i think there's an acronym called fast and as you say you learn to be fast to save a life can you can you outline that and this is a this is a very easy simple way to learn and recognize the symptoms of stroke and fast the first word that stands for face because if you want to notice if a person is smiling even lean on one side of their face or if they have like a facial droop and the next part of that acronym would be  arms so you want to see if somebody is having numbness or weakness in their arms and usually for stroke it will occur in one side of the arm and go out in both for the us part of speech and you want to see if someone speech is slurred if you're on able to understand them if they have difficulty speaking and then the last one which i think is most important after you recognize the first three is time  you should never drive a stroke individual to the hospital you want to call nine one one what you said heidi about time losses brain loss as soon as you can get them to the hospital there is can only be administered the four and a half hours from the onset of the of the symptoms actually that is true but now there are beings there are studies done that they can go as far as six  hours but we actually we recommend that the patient try to get there within three hours and it's really important to a member of the family be you with the person that has had the stroke because they have to know when the onset of that stroke is going to the time the patient have the symptoms that begins that three hour process ok and it also when you talk about the symptoms of the arms is a true even to ask them if they can raise raise their arms yes to see if they can be even you know bend them out in front of you and say oftentimes it will be able to raise raise one arm just just the other correct ok ok carol we are i'm someone who cares about smile i like to cook sunny side up and i live and work in your community i'm the one who puts a smile on your child's face i'm an orthodontist a dental specialist who corrects crooked teeth misaligned jaws and dental regularities to become an orthodontist i received an additional two to three years of specialized education beyond on a school where the wants to entrust with your press a smile my i'm the maker of healthy beautiful smiles for more information visit braces dot org welcome viewers i'm your host dr heidi weinhold in you were watching asked the nature of i'm here today with my guest carol glock who is a cordon nadir for the support group true life after stroke in this group is affiliated with the university of pittsburgh medical center's mercy hospital welcome carol thanks thanks for being on her story carol but what else do you recommend as far as any reading materials for f stroke survivors you know what i think it's really important to go online to the american heart in american stroke association website and you can just that's a dog or ok but they have a wealth of information on there and they they update that constantly in fact just for your viewers to know that's the number one most reliable site in the united states to find information out about heart and stroke the other website that you can go on is the national stroke association website ok that's a wonderful site it's geared towards a lot of research but also towards you know the caregiver and stroke survivor also there is a national stage asia association you can just go online that's another place also as our group we'd like to give back so we will look at ourselves as being an advocate for advocates for other stroke survivors and their family and we had a stroke survivor that just recently passed away and what his wish we we're young gathered some money for him in t he would like to see a book made for stroke survivors in their families to be given out when they leave the hospital that's a great idea so we're in the process actually it's been for the last two years that we have gathered information and all of the health care professionals some physicians doctors individuals like myself we've had caregivers  in their stroke survivor member on this board and they have reviewed all this information so we have a site which one of our caregivers has developed that's called true life after stroke dot org that's the developmental stages but if you go on that that will list the times and the places where we have our stroke be the most every month and also when this book is developed while here it's also going to be on that website that's fantastic we're looking forward to it carol and discern types of medical conditions increase stroke risk and also it is there a genetic component yes first of all there is a genetic component if there has been heart disease in your family or any individual that has a prior stroke that is a genetic factor also age sometimes even your race or your sex that can be obvious so obvious that as we get older you know age contributes but anyone can have a stroke at any age you know there are individuals that i've met with in their twenty's they're also been even babies that have had their mothers had a stroke or they've had a stroke in utero when it's when you say sex which which sex is that at a higher risk men or women  actually men are in a higher risk for having strokes as far as a thing yes from but the risk factor yes high blood pressure is the number one cause of stroke when you consider that the silent killer it would be considered one for you or nine right another risk factor would be died be this ok if you're diabetic that is a big contributor to having your stroke also high cholesterol  that as a mini stroke we don't look at that as a mini stroke in the morning that is definitely considered a stroke and sometimes the symptoms that i've gone over can only last for one to five minutes and then it's a blockage that actually can you know might come back forty eight hours later it's a small blockage that has actually passed but you need to get into the hospital because the usually keep you in for twenty three hours for observation also if you've had heart disease that also you know sets up because you can obviously cause squats to move in from the heart  that's also another one that is the way if your heart beats irregular so these are all risk factors that are precursors to stroke ok and you know i want to stress to the the importance of  relating to high blood pressure i mean there are people that they have periodic spikes and they don't even realize that their blood pressure is increasing seventy thing related to stress management will allow and as well as there are some natural things to delp with blood pressure even things like like glycine is very calming can help lower and lower blood pressure when under periods of stress fish oils how does the american heart association feel about using for fish oils for fish oils is definitely recommended because as you well know that will help to lower the cholesterol and there's been a number of studies that have been done to prove that right of the major things is is and i'm sort of reiterating what i said before but to really look at coming to the support group initially when a family member has an acute it's so overwhelming with all the things that they have to address our caregivers call it the new normal you know because you know basically your life is completely different your loved one is on able to do you know we hope that they can get back to doing the same things that they can but you know i can't recommend enough the importance of you know having a peer visitor come in to visit the feel really calming to our  group because they're giving all these educational opportunities for example you come in you know when janae right to talk about vitamins and vitamins and diet and in really with with diabetes especially is that also being a risk factor when you think about it your sugar levels are armont regulated your blood actually becomes thicker become sticky because there's extra glucose and in the blood and then that stickiness and it causes cholesterol and other factors to add here more easily to to the lining of those those artery walls and that and that definitely increases your risk for stroke subpoena people make light of that having diabetes or being borderline and not really monitoring their their their blood sugar levels but it's serious in people need to to be more in exercise stuff only in his eye steak sauce even though you know individuals that have had strokes will have difficulty walking  or there have paralysis on one side of the bar there are so many different you know i've done chair exercises with individuals and when you get the whole family really involved in the recovery process it's amazing  in even some of the other centers with water aerobics or just getting them into the pool and into help strengthen them that way because if their balance is affected in it provides recent resistance you can improve your strength quicker in the water  big believer in that and we have an individual the other thing we have once a year we actually just have this last saturday's we have a stroke symposium for caregivers and stroke survivors and we bring in professionals in the health kill care field to speak so you know we give them like the update on stroke we talk about prevention of secondary strokes we had a doctor of occupational therapy who works with our stroke survivors come in and talk about goal setting and that was just absolutely wonderful because she spoke about actually chunking and what are your goals for example so many of particularly our male stroke survivors want to get back to driving well you know you just they just can't go out on the road right away so that will give them realistic cognitive goal was to really stimulate the brain to see if they're able to be able to do this and then they can eventually work their way up to you know calling places and there's many of them around the rehabilitation harville rehabilitation center offers a program where they can learn to drive again so it's really setting realistic goals were them that would really help with the nether another thing that that effects people after a stroke  city where they get extremely muscle tightness and with it where they may have difficulty buttoning a shirt or what are some things that they can help help with that well there are  and as some of our stroke survivors go to them in the area and they will give them specific exercises to help in this past history but they also can give botox injections kind of course this has to be you know all proved in a value in five position but i've noticed you know great improvement in that and another recommendation i have there's a whole crowd it's called direct brain and it talks about the emotional link between the brain and how can you can get parts of your body stimulated to begin to work it's the neuroplasticity concept so what do you do they incorporate biofeedback with that with that as well yes yes they there's actually another technique called micro current facial stimulation which is just it's similar to acupuncture but without the needles and it's a very very gentle micro current but it was developed for post stroke and bell but you know i think the one good thing like you said hyde news we're open to all different mode our teams of helping our stroke survivors so that's why we bring people in we look at it as an integrator type of medicine