Subacute Inpatient Therapy at GreenField Health & Rehabilitation Center

In Their Own Words 

The Story: A few months ago, a family barbecue turned into a scary situation for Sarah. She began to feel dizzy and her family noticed that her speech was slurred. They rushed her to the hospital and discovered she had suffered a stroke, leaving her with lingering issues with her motor control and speech. Her cardiologist recommended the subacute rehabilitation programs at GreenField Health & Rehabilitation Center, offering tailored therapies to aid in regaining more complete function of her movement and speaking.

It’s scary how quickly your life can change. In an instant, I went from enjoying a day with my kids to having a serious medical scare, but fortunately my family got me to the hospital fast. Less fortunately, I still had more work to do to get back to right again.

They say strokes can affect you in a lot of different ways. I feel lucky that it didn’t impair my thinking – but I still came out of the hospital with a lot of weakness and loss of control and feeling in my right arm and leg, and a little bit of trouble with speaking certain words. After talking with the doctor, I made the decision to go to The GreenFields for their specific post-stroke rehabilitation program.

When I arrived, I spoke with the therapists and we started to put together a plan to help me regain control and strengthen my motor skills that had been damaged. And I’ll tell you, it wasn’t always an easy road. The first days were the hardest. I basically had to re-learn how to walk and really focus on my sense of control and balance. Aquatic therapy was a great tool for me with strengthening – plus I was less worried about falling in the pool – but the staff continued to push me to work on walking and doing my hand grip exercises to relearn how to control my body in ways I always took for granted.

They also helped with my speech, using techniques that seemed weird but that work. I fought them a little a first – what was the point of sticking out my tongue? But they explained that tongue control is a big part of speaking, and the exercises helped a lot more than I expected. The team pushed me outside of my comfort zone from time to time, but it was always in the pursuit of helping me recover and get back to a more comfortable and normal lifestyle.

After a few weeks, I was more stable – both medically and on my feet – and went back home and started with outpatient therapy. While I’m still not back to 100 percent – and the doctors say that’s common – I definitely am much more in control than I was in the days after getting out of the hospital. I have more grip and grasp control with my right hand now, and I rarely feel wobbly or off balance when I walk. I still go to The GreenFields a few days a week and keep working with the therapy team, and I hope to get even stronger with every visit, but I would never be where I am now without their help and care.