It was my first day in outpatient rehab. This is where stroke survivors go after completing inpatient rehab. However the rehab place I was going to was a inpatient facility. I just happened to be their only outpatient client. That had its own challenges. For instance, I didn’t have a rehab doctor and had to go through my primary care doctor for everything. I essentially became the middleman having to fax and provide updates to my PCP and he in return had to complete and authorize prescriptions on behalf of me and the rehab. It was stressful. You would think my case worker would be on top of the situation but I had to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Thankfully I was cognitive enough to handle it and the stress thar came along with keeping it all together.

Day 1 In outpatient rehab. I was greeted my the local inpatient clients. They were all very nice. Most were in wheelchairs. Some could speak, some couldn’t. Most had more deficits than me but a few had recovered very well. Surprisingly I was not the youngest person there. There was a beautiful young lady in her 20s. She was in a terrible auto accident and ended up having a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and several broken bones. TBI and ABI (acquired brain injury) are not exactly the same but they do affect the brain the same way and treatments are performed the same. A stroke is considered to be an ABI. The brain injury acquired when the stroke happened. Recovery journey and treatments for both are similar but again no 2 injuries will ever be the same. The key is having to retrain the brain through repetition, repetition, repetition and rebuilding those neurons and new neural pathways.

My day was full a 9am – 4pm schedule with 1 hour lunch. It was similarly drawn out like a high school schedule with a class period every hour. It was physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, exercise, activities and time for speech tasks or speech group. That was the jam packed day, 5 days a week.

Physical therapy: day 1 was evaluation day. My therapist Becky did some strength testing and by the end of the hour, she told me to get rid of my hemi walker and put me on a single point cane. Keep in mind I showed up in my wheelchair too. I was cleared to walk (with supervision) with a cane. That was great news but I was petrified! The cane didn’t have enough support for me. But nonetheless she said I was not allowed to bring my hemi walker anymore. Little did I know about a month later I was cleared to walk without supervision and was no longer to bring my wheelchair to therapy. Praise God!

Speech therapy- again day 1 was testing. We did a lot of memory tests. Visual spatial testing and math testing. I scored decent. Cognition was fine but I knew my processing and reflex skills seemed to be a little slow. She said those were things that would improve over time. I was given sudoku and deduction puzzles to do during my free time. I was also given excel projects and planning projects to help with my executive function. They really do try to prepare you to be ready to go back to work.

Next up occupational therapy. Again it was an evaluation. First question, is there any movement in your arm? My answer, no movement. Lori asks, can you shrug your shoulders. I shrug my shoulders. See you do have movement. Movement in the arm starts with the shoulders and it goes down to the elbow, wrist, hand then fingers. It’s all very slow but that’s normally the order. I was super excited! I had no idea I actually had some movement. Praise God!

Next up Lunch. It was like school all over again. I sat by myself and luckily I brought my lunch. As I unpacked the lunch my daughter packed for me, I saw a note she had tucked inside wishing me a good first day. It was a sweet note even though the place was far from an asylum (lol). It made me cry. Remember little steps lead to big steps. She was witnessing to me when I needed it the most. It’s so hard to see the little steps when you’re living in it day to day. It’s almost similar to watching paint dry.