 | Deb Wetta, RN, is a Director of Marketing/RN liaison for Wesley Rehabilitation Hospital, an affiliate of HealthSouth, provider of inpatient and outpatient physical, occupational and speech-language therapies and exclusive home of the AutoAmbulator, Makoto and Interactive Metronome. Deb can be reached at Wesley Rehabilitation Hospital, 8338 W. 13th Street in Wichita, 316-729-1140. |
Health & Medicine
2007-07-01 16:13:00
Helping loved ones recover from surgery
ANSWER: A good way to address your husband’s condition would be to have a qualified professional, often referred to as a nurse liaison, come to your home to perform a free evaluation.
This evaluation can help determine if your husband may benefit from a rehabilitative care program that would include such as physical, occupational or speech/language therapies. Through a rehabilitative program tailored to your husband’s needs, he would have a good chance of regaining much of the strength and functionality that he had prior to his stroke. Options for rehabilitative treatment may include scheduled visits for him to receive care in an outpatient facility, visits from home health professionals or a brief stay in an inpatient rehabilitation hospital. If the latter of these options is determined to be most appropriate, then your husband would also receive specialized rehabilitative nursing care.
In performing the evaluation, the nurse liaison will ask you and your husband detailed questions about his medical history and his current medical condition. The liaison may also have him perform a few simple physical tests such as walking across the room or standing up from a sitting position. A qualified medical professional such as a physiatrist, who is specially trained in rehabilitative care, will then make a determination on the best course of action for helping your husband return to his former level of independence.
