-Priscilla

-priscilla(kranky_gurl1992@hotmail.com)

This video was originally uploaded by Priscilla, but it disappeared. So here it is again, uploaded. Enjoy!

Posted by ZHIYI

http://www.health24.com/tools/Quizzes/1891-1892,67.asp

Anyway, I am also here to talk about the myths of stroke.

The truth about stroke is that ignorance kills. Many people have incorrect perceptions about stroke.

Would you say the following statements are true?

1. Stroke is something that happens to the heart.
2. Stroke cannot really be treated.
3. Stroke recovery only takes place for a few months after a stroke
4. Stroke is something that only happens to elderly people.
5. There is nothing one can do to prevent stroke.
6. Once somebody loses the ability to speak, they cannot regain it.

Well,

All these statements are FALSE.

1. Stroke is actually something that happens in the brain, not the heart.
2. Immediate emergency treatment can change a stroke victim’s chances of recovery.
3. Stroke recovery takes place for the rest of the stroke victim’s life.
4. Anyone, at any age can have a stroke.
5. Stroke is largely preventable.
6. Most stroke victims can learn to speak again

In fact, a recent study showed that robots can help in the recovery of stroke!

Below is an article which reports about it:

The Boston-based company said it would start marketing the e100 Neurorobotic System to medical specialists and rehabilitation clinics, the Associated Press reported. It’s expected that the device will cost $5,000 to $10,000.The brace slides onto the arm and sensors in the brace detect muscle contractions. This triggers a motor that allows patients to control their arm movement. The motor is located in a backpack worn by the patient.

The brace does require invasive procedures and does not use electrical stimulation. It’s meant to help stroke patients use their own biological signals to regain muscle control and movement, the AP reported. (HealthDayNews)

Indeed, technology has helped us in medical science! If you guys are interested to find out more, visit the following sites for more information:

Facts and Figures of stroke- http://stroke.about.com/od/strokestatistics/a/StrokeStats.htm

                                                   -http://www.health24.com/

P.S. Do you know that statistics show that left-handers recover from stroke faster that right-handers? Isn’t it weird but cool? The reason is unknown. Is it because the right brain is more active hence speeding up the recovery? Anyone knows? I would love to know more about this!

Hope to know your thoughts on this soon!

Done by Priscilla

I did some research and unfortunately, the answer is “yes”.

These children are usually referred to their general paediatricians.
Up to 50% of strokes in children are caused by a bleed (haemorrhage) in the brain.
Reasons for a bleed happening include the formation of blood vessels in the brain from birth, which may burst and bleed into the brain; a brain infection; severe dehydration; and prolonged low blood pressure or a head injury. The one common to teenagers like us would be severe dehydration. Many of us here are often out in the sun, without taking in sufficient water, be it uniformed groups or sports CCAs. The consequences of our negligence may lead to sever dehydration, causing STROKE!

The most common causes of stroke in children are infection-related (tuberculosis, meningitis or HIV/Aids), trauma-related (car accidents or gunshot wounds), dehydration (caused by severe gastroenteritis) and post-infectious causes (e.g. post-chicken pox).

The signs and symptoms of stroke in children are very much similar to those in adults, eg. difficulty in movement. If the stroke occurs in the frontal area of the brain (forebrain), the child may have a change in behaviour or concentration, a more typical weakness down one side of the body and loss of vision in both eyes.

Similarly, be sure to look out for these symptoms if you suspect a child is suffering from stroke. Give him/her medical aid within the shortest time possible.

So, I hope this will clear your misconception that stroke only happens when we are old! Take really good care of yourself because you are at risk too!

Done by Priscilla

Have you ever known a stroke patient, one who has suffered from stroke? Have you ever asked yourself how these stroke patients manage with daily life, the setbacks they experience?

Well, I do. The person whom I knew of who had stroke was my grandfather.

My grandfather was an exceptionally strong, exceptionally quiet and exceptionally stubborn man, a man so stubborn he refused to take the medication meant for his high blood pressure condition. It was high blood pressure that caused him to have a stroke.

Like all other stroke patients, the beginning of my grandfather’s stroke condition showed the common symptoms of stroke. However, he did not inform his family. Soon, he had difficulty moving around and doing simple everyday activities such as boarding the taxi, getting into bed and even eating. He could not lift the spoon to his mouth to eat. He remained with this condition for more than a day without seeking medical attention. In those days, families were not so well-informed about medical conditions and symptoms, and his family was no different. As his situation worsened, they continually urged him to go to the hospital for a checkup, and finally, an ambulance came and sent him to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

My grandfather was promptly diagnosed with stroke. Because of the huge time lapse between his symptoms of stroke and medical attention, he became partially paralysed. Half of his body, including his arm and leg, could not move. He remained in hospital until his situation gradually improved. He was sent for physiotherapy, and subsequently was discharged. He hired a physiotherapist to conduct physiotherapy at his home for $100 an hour. After some time, he was able to do physiotherapy without assistance.

Life was never the same for my grandfather after the stroke. Although he had been discharged from the hospital, he continued to have problems where mobility was concerned. He used a walking stand at first, and later a walking stick, to move about. He did everything single-handedly (literally). His speech became slurred. The stroke left him feeling dejected and down since he, who was once a workaholic, could not work as before.

My grandfather passed away on the 9th of August, 1999, in his bed at home of hypertension. The doctors suspected that prior to his death, he had not taken any of his medication. His high blood pressure condition gradually worsened and culminated in hypertension and breathing difficulties.

Dear readers, I share this story with you, because I hope that you can recognize the needs of stroke patients, whether you know them personally or not. Often, although it seems like they have recovered from the stroke, the emotional effects still linger. As with all the aged, do spend some time with them, even if it is just a precious few minutes. Although the stroke my grandfather suffered from was not directly fatal, it left him feeling emotionally drained and he refused his medication as a result of losing both the will to live and the meaning of life. Hence, indirectly, the stroke affected him in a huge way.

At the same time, we should be thankful that all the information on the various common health conditions are readily available to us. The paralysis caused by the stroke my grandfather suffered from was a result of the too-great time lapse between the symptoms of stroke and him seeking medical attention. This time lapse was due to his family (and himself) not being able to recognize the signs and symptoms of stroke. Prior to a stroke, this time lapse is crucial as the sooner medical help is given, the faster the recovery rate and the lower the chances of paralysis will be. Do empower yourself with these bits of knowledge, as it could one day save a life, be it a casual passer-by, a relative, or even yourself.

Written by Wan Si

When our group selected STROKE as the topic to use in our blog project, a memory of a story, in a book ‘Chicken Soup’ which I read a few years ago, came to mind. The story was written by a stroke patient’s immediate family and is about this stroke victim who, after going for horseback riding therapy, amazingly recovered. I was really amazed at what I read. The woman, who suffered from stroke and could not move or feel the right side of her body, unbelievably regained movement in the affected parts of her body. She and her family were crying with joy when that happened. Of course, the woman still had to go for regular horseback riding therapy sessions to prevent her stroke from returning, but her stroke condition had improved significantly since she went for therapy.

This story really had an impact on me as I also had a stroke diagnosed grandfather who passed on not too long ago. Not only did it have an impact on me, it amazed me that horseback riding can really cure stroke. There is another term for this kind of therapy which is ‘hippotherapy’. Hippotherapy is a treatment method which uses horses to work on physical, occupational, and speech-language problems of people. It can be used for people with abnormal muscle tone, impaired balance and coordination, impaired communication and sensorimotor function, not to mention poor posture and decreased mobility. Not only can hippotherapy be used in the treatment of stroke, it can also be used in the treatment of cerebral palsy, developmental delay, Down syndrome, functional spinal curvature, learning or language disabilities, multiple sclerosis, sensory integrative dysfunction and brain injury.

In hippotherapy, the horse influences the patient, who is positioned on the horse, to actively respond to the animal’s movement. The movement of the horse can be directed by the therapist, who analyzes the patient’s responses and adjusts the treatment accordingly. The horseback riding therapy works as sensory input is provided by the horse’s walk, which is a rhythmic and repetitive movement. The resulting movement responses in the patient are similar to human movement patterns of the pelvis while walking, which means that riding a horse is like walking normally to the person receiving therapy.

I really hope that more and more stroke therapies will be uncovered and practiced so that more people, including their family, will not have to suffer from the devastating effects of stroke.

By Jia Wen

 The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) IV categorizes post-stroke depression as “mood disorder due to a general medical condition (i.e. stroke)” with the specifiers of depressive features, major depressive-like episodes, manic features, or mixed features. Utilizing patient data from acute hospital admission, community surveys, or out patient clinics previous studies have identified two types of depressive disorders associated with cerebral ischemia: major depression, which occurs in up to 25% of patients; and minor depression, which has been defined for research purposes by DSM-IV criteria as a depressed mood or loss of interest and at least two but fewer than four symptoms of major depression. Minor depression occurs in up to 30% of patients following stroke.

 From the research this project entailed, I learnt about the causes of stroke. Unfortunately, my grandmother is also suffering from stroke. She had a bad condition of stroke and a series of heart diseases. She is also obese although she is a vegeterian. Her condition is not favourable and I hope modern medical technology will cure her.

Liyang

After some serious cases of stroke, the patient is very likely to get paralysed at one part, many parts of the body or even the entire body. When this happens, they are unable to move around, wholly helpless, reliant on others and vulnerable. They are just as good as a vegetable, or so they are called.

They would be a burden to the family, because of all the medical bills, time and effort spent all the time to look after their daily needs (e.g. food, bathroom etc.) Some patients would be aware of this, and might request to their families to just let them die, in other words, apply euthanasia on them to dispatch themselves and their families of sufferings and fatigue. This is a very controversial issue, because the resultant death is unnatural and is something that will definitely bring about disputes.

Families of such patients will definitely raise objections, saying that they shouldn’t take away their loved ones’ life just because he/she has become someone “useless”. They are probably trying to stay optimistic, believing that there is always still a chance, even if it is a small one, that the stroke patient will recover. Well, I am not trying to imply that this is a wrong decision; there have been cases of people recovering from stroke and reliving life again normally. However, that of course is a very very small percent of lucky patients. Time is also needed for such miracles.

Euthanasia itself is a very controversial topic of discussion, because it touches on human rights. Well, it does state that no human has the right to decide on other people’s fates, on who should live and who to die, because all men are equal and no one is dominant over the other. How true is this?

I personally feel that if the patient really wants to end all his/her sufferings and not be a burden to their families anymore, to just remain as a remorseful memory in their hearts, then why not? It is the patient’s decision. He/she has the right to decide on his/her own fate. This is really just up to the patient, whether he/she wants to live or not.

Posted by ZHIYI

After doing all the research about stroke, I realise how important it is to identify a stroke and send the person to the stroke specialists immediately. Before this project, I had previously received lots of e-mails informing us on how to identify a stroke – all the things about checking if a person could remember his/her name, whether he/she could smile, and if the person failed to do these things, it was an evident sign of a stroke and it required immediate medical attention.

I never took these emails seriously, although I took note to remember these information. It was never really deeply etched in my mind. I think this was because I did not think much of stroke. To me, it was only a medical condition that was spelt with 6 letters, and not fatal or nearly as serious as SARS (SARS is contagious, unlike stroke). I still think this applies, but now I have a new perspective of stroke.

It may not always kill, but the effects brought about by stroke are probably more torturing than SARS. I read somewhere that the worst way to die is through torture. Also, my mom used to tell me that criminals were extremely grateful in the past when their death sentence was the chopping off of the head, because it was immediate death. My opinion is that with time, stroke will bring about more suffering, because the patient, if paralysed, will be deprived of many activites, and furthermore, if the whole body was paralysed, they would practically turn into “useless beings”, or in other words, vegetables. This will probably feel worse than having contracted SARS. I’m sorry if this sounds harsh.

Stroke can also cause a person to die if the symptoms are neglected. The haemmoragic stroke sounds the most fatal to me, because it is the bleeding of the brain. The brain is the most vital organ in our body. If it dies, the person will die. This explains the critical importance of sending a stroke patient for treatment promptly. Sending the patient for immediate treatment can save a life, and also save the person from any emotional distress or in other words, depression.

My aunt is a stroke patient, but she is a lucky patient because her condition was detected quickly, and it was a mild stroke. Her condition was due to the bursting of a blood vessel in her brain, so she went into a coma. At that time, she was with my other relatives, so when she fainted, everyone reacted and immediately sent her to the hospital. Several days later, she was able to be discharged, but she had lost some of her memory, and required some assistance in walking and other activites. She needed someone to feed her, clean her, dress her, and hold her while she was walking. Think – her condition was probably one of the mildest possible types of stroke, but still she had to go through such inconvenience. What about other patients whose conditions are worse? It will definitely be several times as bad. This is very depressing.

I think that the picture used as our header for this blog is very symbolic. “With a stroke, time lost is brain lost.” I really feel that this is very true. We should all be on the alert, to recognise stroke symptoms and seek help immediately, because it is of utmost importance.

Posted by ZHIYI