Rick's story
Rick Rocco was driving to church with his wife, Stephanie, when his life took a turn. His mouth felt strange and he asked Stephanie if he was talking funny. They rushed to church where a nurse told them to go straight to the local Emergency Department. There, a CAT scan showed plaque on the main blood vessel supplying blood to Rick’s brain. Doctor’s immediately ushered him into surgery and removed the plaque. The medical team informed the 69-year-old that the blocked vessel was at the root of his stroke and his CAT scan had also surfaced a dark spot on his brain indicating he had unknowingly experienced a prior stroke as well.
Rick’s doctors recommended an inpatient rehabilitation stay to help him recover. For that, he and his wife chose TriHealth Rehabilitation Hospital. Upon admission Rick knew he faced an uphill climb as he was struggling with decreased strength, balance and coordination. Rick resolved to do the work needed to improve, telling his care team that he wanted to regain his independence and return to his daily activities. His physician-led care team kept that in mind when mapping out a recovery plan.
Rick’s speech-language pathologist (SLP) got to work with an evaluation of his swallowing. He was having a tough time swallowing liquids, and though counter intuitive, his team knew drinking thickened liquids would help prevent aspiration (breathing liquid into the lungs). To improve Rick’s swallowing ability and build his throat muscles, his SLP had him do various
exercises like the effortful swallow and the Masako maneuver. The former is when the patient to squeezes their throat muscles as hard as possible when swallowing, the latter involves the patient sticking their tongue out, holding it between the lips or teeth and swallowing. Rick’s dedication to doing these exercises proved beneficial. A Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallow, which measures the swallowing muscles in motion, showed Rick’s marked improvement. He continued to progress and within two weeks was consuming regular liquids and foods.
Physical therapy (PT) focused on improving Rick’s strength, balance and coordination. Initially, he needed the assistance of two people to move from the bed to a wheelchair. Therapists were also by his side when he took his initial steps, supported by the parallel bars in the therapy gym. Rich progressed to the body-weight support treadmill lite gait system. The overhead harness supported him as he walked on the treadmill, ensuring he wouldn’t fall. Meantime his therapist provided guidance and feedback on his walking form. Rick soon transitioned from walking with a one-sided walker, called a hemi-walker, which provides a wide base of support for the weak side of the body, to a quad cane. The quad cane is easy to maneuver and provides stable support with four points of contact on the floor. With continued PT, Rick was eventually walking distances up to 100 feet with minimal assistance.
Occupational therapy helped restore Rick’s ability to care for himself. While he initially required help for transferring from the bed to standing as well as bathing and dressing, he worked hard to improve those abilities. He did that by repeating tasks while his therapists employed electric stimulation to his arm and leg muscles to wake up his nerves and tell his muscles to contract. By the end of his stay, he could transfer with minimal assistance and was beginning to handle his own care with some assistance.
Rick credits his recovery to the skilled therapists at TriHealth Rehabilitation Hospital and advises anyone in a similar position to: “Put your faith in the professionals that are working with you.” Despite being a private person, he felt comfortable and motivated to work hard in his therapy sessions. His family also played crucial roles; not only did they provide daily encouragement but they also ran the family businesses while Rick focused on his recovery.
After twenty-four days of inpatient rehabilitation at TriHealth, Rick was eating and drinking a regular diet, walking confidently with a quad cane for support and managing his self-care needs. He was ready to return home, relax in his chair and enjoy time with his dog. Rick plans to continue building strength with home health services, followed by outpatient therapy.
“I cannot state enough how well I was treated by the physicians working at the facility, they were amazing,” Rick said.