Mum's massive stroke & aphasia

Aphasia and communication
1

Hello everyone. This is my first post. My Mum had a massive stroke on 8 March 2018 and was sadly not found for approx 4-8 hours leaving her with 3/4 of the left side of her brain damaged so she has right sided paralysis and severe aphasia. She was in our local Essex Hospital for 2 months before being transferred to a London rehab centre. Sadly last weekend she was admitted to the local London Hospital with suspected heart failure and loads of fluid in her chest so now has a chest drain. She has Atrial Fibrilation which she had pre-stroke. She also had significant radiotherapy for breast cancer and a subsequent mastectomy on left side way back in 1978 when I was 2. All her problems in recent years have been on the left side, the site of her breast cancer and radiotherapy. She also has bronchiectasis again showing on the left side on scans. I am really struggling to cope seeing Mum in such a poorly way and not being able to talk. It's absolutely heartbreaking. 

I'm wondering if anyone has experience of this and also of any particularly good London rehab centres. We had 3 to choose from: Blackheath, Putney and Kings College. Has anyone used these and what did you think? I ahd been wondering in the last month if she was doing way too much at the rehab centre. Turns out my instrinct was right. I feel awful about it.

Aphasisa - I'm about to buy a new iPad with the ChatAble 3 app to help Mum communicate more with us. At the moment she can only point and gesticulate and sometimes we have to elimintate things to get to what she means. She finds this funny at times but mostly tiring and frustrating obviously. Has anyone used ChatAble and what was it like?

Any comments gratefully received.

Thanks

2

So sorry your Mum had a stroke. I haven't used ChatAble3. You might want to try her out using MyTalkTools Mobile Lite http://www.mytalktools.com/dnn/2/Home.aspx - free versions on iPhone, iPad , and Android. 

Another app is Phraseboard which installs as a keyboard, so you can use it anywhere a keyboard pops up. https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/phraseboard-messaging-made/id916976066?mt=8

That relies on a helper (presumably you) to type phrases that mean something initally to "feed" the buttons. "I love you", "I want to go to the loo", "Help!" 'Thank you!", etc. The keys insert the phrase thats on them, you could have one press for "I want a glass of " and three choices "juice" "water" "tea with milk". You can set the iPad to swipe downn two fingers from the top edge to speak. Versions on iPhone, iPad , and Android. 

I'm always available to help - message me!

Rick

3

Oops! Forgot! SpeechAssistant AAC is a alternative as well - https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/speech-assistant-aac/id1139762358?mt=8 
Easy to edit and customise too!

 

 

4

I was at Kings for 24 hours visiting my daughter who is studying nursing , when I had my stroke and I had two , 

age 42 and that was 10 weeks ago 

I have problems walking and talking and using my right hand and writing

the service I got from Kings was ok but more sessions in the Gym would have been good, and if their bedside tv worked it would have been a bonus. 

 

 

 

 

 

5

I work for the NHS but in psychiatric care and majority of our doctors in our Trust send our patients to Kings for the physical health needs because they say its one of the best and obviously they will know!  Best of luck