Joe's Story
It was Joe Arroyo’s turn.
The 78-year-old was making a meal in his kitchen in Slidell, Louisiana, when he felt funny. His right arm and leg were weak. He tried to speak to his wife, but the words just wouldn’t come. And then it started getting worse.
He managed to call his grandson, who lived next door, but by then he was certain what was happening to him. Sure enough, a CT and an MRI at Slidell Memorial Hospital confirmed it. A stroke.
Indeed, now it was his turn. He’d been caretaker for his wife ever since she became sick a few years ago. Now he was the one who needed help. The stroke had greatly weakened the right side of his body. He could no longer handle his own self-care or even walk. Simply communicating was difficult.
Once Joe stabilized at Slidell, Joe instinctively turned to Northshore Rehabilitation Hospital to help him restore his health. He recalled, when his wife got sick, she’d been an inpatient at Northshore, where a physician-led team of therapists, nurses and others helped her reclaim her life.
At Northshore Rehab, Joe set an auspicious goal. He didn’t simply want to improve a little. Joe was aiming for 100% recovery -- returning entirely to his old life. He’d been active, continuing to work as president of his family-run business, Fire Extinguishers & Supplies.
Joe put his trust in the physical, occupational and speech therapists that understood and supported his resolve. When he first arrived, he could walk about 70 feet clinging to a rolling walker with someone else holding him and providing about 50% of the movement.
Joe’s physical therapist helped him train daily to work to correct the stepping patterns he’d lost in the stroke. The therapist assigned Joe exercises on an electronic stepping machine to strengthen his legs and build endurance. He pushed hard.
Soon, he was walking up and down stairs with his therapist’s help. His right leg felt stronger.
At first, the little things Joe relied on every day had become big problems. Getting dressed and showering, for example, were nearly impossible. Yet, his focus on recovering his self-reliance motivated him. So, Joe’s occupational therapist worked with him on new methods for taking care of himself despite his limitations. For example, they taught him to put his weakened right arm into his shirt and his right leg into his pants first before putting on the rest of his clothes. Joe worked with putty to strengthen his hands and pushed pegs into holes on a board to rebuild his fine motor control.
Joe’s occupational therapist also worked on building up the strength he needed to master activities of daily living. He performed resistance exercises and used an arm bicycle to improve his cardio and upper body strength.
Concurrently, Joe worked with speech therapy to improve his memory and problem solving, where the stroke had also taken a toll. Joe worked on math problems, practicing every day cognitive tasks like paying bills. He used his phone, read books and played games to recall information. Among all the rehabilitation programs, Joe said speech therapy was a stand out. More than anything else, his speech therapist helped him understand his limitations and how to overcome them.
His loving family joined him from the very beginning. In addition to helping care for his wife during his time in the hospital, family members were regular fixtures at Northshore Rehabilitation Hospital.
So much so that many of his relatives joined the Care Partner program, which teaches family members how to help with a patient’s recovery. Some of them completed training so they could better understand how to help him after discharge day.
After 15 days in rehab, Joe was ready to go home. His hard work and grit had paid off. He proudly demonstrated how he could walk up to 500 feet independently with only a rolling walker for help – no human assistance needed. He was completely independent and needed no help performing tasks like getting dressed and bathing himself. And his cognitive lapses had fallen off dramatically – he needed help performing tasks, like paying bills, only 10% of the time.
He went home and continued to improve through outpatient therapy. He’s looking forward to getting back to work.
“My experience at Northshore Rehab was great,” he said. “I couldn’t have asked for anything better.”