“My Therapists Took Personal Interest in my Stroke Recovery”

“The teams at MCIR are wonderful and had creative solutions for the problems that I faced with my recovery,” states Robbie.

“In June 2023, at 32 years old, I had a stroke which resulted in expressive and receptive aphasia, dysphagia, attention, memory, and reasoning impairment, as well as physical impairments with my right hand and right side of my body. I learned about Maine Center for Integrated Rehab (MCIR) from the hospital where I had a portion of my brain injury recovery. When I left the hospital, I had limited right hand usage and my right side was significantly weak making it difficult for me to write, eat, pick up objects, cook, and I was unable to drive. Due to my aphasia, I struggled to use the phone and communicate, read, or write. The difficulties I faced when using the phone were typing in the passcode and unable to make the thumb touch function.

The beginning stages of recovery were very frustrating because people wanted to speak for me due to the aphasia and I was unable to stop it. At first, I didn’t notice standing difficulties while in the shower, but swimming was a challenge because my foot and leg were numb, so I had trouble standing upright in the water during a fourth of July outing. In the beginning, people were determined I could not recover effectively and tried to do everything for me, including both mental and physical tasks.

Since coming to MCIR, I have regained my ability to communicate both verbally and in writing. I have regained most of the function in my right side and right hand. I’m still challenged with minor tasks like threading a needle or opening sandwich bags, especially when I’m tired. My speech is now fluent and I’m reading again at my former level. I’m driving again and preparing to go back to work part time, progressing to full time. The teams at MCIR are wonderful and had creative solutions for the problems I faced with my recovery. Each therapist had a personal interest in my recovery and made many recommendations of activities for me to do outside of therapy to increase the speed of recovery.” – Robbie, RWW Patient

*Maine Center for Integrated Rehab (MCIR) is part of the Rehab Without Walls family.