Prochazka Study

Subjects needed for study on improving 

hand function after stroke

Dr. Arthur Prochazka in the Centre of Neuroscience, University of Alberta, is presently conducting research study entitled:

FES-ASSISTED EXERCISE THERAPY FOR HEMIPLEGIC HAND FUNCTION

See:

Canadians ask questions about stroke

Every year, about 50,000 Canadians suffer a stroke that results in death or disability. In honour of Stroke Awareness Month, Dimensions invited Canadians to ask questions about stroke, which we then posed to a scientist in the field....

A Target for Stroke Therapy Drugs

New understanding of post-stroke neurons could transform patient treatment and recovery. A drug that aids neuron repair has improved recovery in mice by as much as 50 percent.

Every year, nearly 800,000 people in the U.S. suffer a stroke. It's the country's third-leading cause of death, and a primary cause of severe, long-term disability—the damage it does to the brain is largely irreparable. But a study published online yesterday in the journal Nature describes how a drug helped repair the brains of mice to a degree that was previously impossible.

There are Differences in Rehabilitation Outcomes in Different Countries

In a comparison of stroke rehabilitation in 4 European countries, Lisbet De Wit and colleagues discovered that gross motor and functional recovery were better in the German and Swiss centers compared with the UK center, but Personal self-care recovery was better in the UK compared with the German center.

Previous studies in the same centers indicated that German and Swiss patients received more therapy per day. This was not the result of more staff, but of a more efficient use of human resources. This study indicates potential for improving rehabilitation outcomes in the UK and Belgian centers, Motor and Functional Recovery After Stroke (Stroke. 2007; 38:2101-2107).

Recognizing stroke in kids key to treatment

Stroke doesn't affect just adults.

That's what the family of a 15-year-old Lethbridge boy has found out.

Matthew Onofrychuk suffered a stroke ...

Improving Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy — which can be defined as "your beliefs in your own competence"-- is associated with better outcomes post-stroke including: quality of life or perceived health status, depression, Activities of Daily living and, to a certain extent, physical functioning.

Depression and Stroke

You have seen the ads on TV that say -- ‘Depression Hurts”.
It may hurt two ways in stroke:

Sexuality after Stroke

Survivors of stroke experience changes and difficulties in many areas of their spousal and family relationships. Within their role of husband or wife, stroke survivors described a lack of control and dramatic changes in their perception of self.

Consequences of Mild Stroke

Most people who have mild strokes are discharged home directly from emergency. 

A review of 13 research articles on mild stroke by Tellier and Rochette stressed that while mild stroke survivors may not have major impairments that affect their activities of daily living, they still should be assessed by a rehabilitation team. Mild stroke survivors  may have small deficits that can make it difficult for them to manage complex activities the same as they did pre-stroke.  Small changes in memory, ability to multi-task, or read and write can cause   stroke survivors to have difficulty coping.  Co-workers or family may  not understand why stroke survivors are making errors because they believe that they are "completely recovered". Tellier and Rochette suggest that rehabilitation can help remediate some of the problems experienced by mild stroke survivors.

 Read the full article

Resilience in Aging

Title of project:

"Resilience in Aging: Identifying Factors that Contribute to Resilience in Older Persons following Stroke".

Caregivers of Survivors of Brain Injury and Stroke

Alberta Caregiver College is a virtual college dedicated to providing courses to enhance the knowledge and skills of their family member(s).

For further information click on Upcoming Courses

What happens to care-partners’ support?

In 2002, the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada, headed by Roy Romanow contended that human resources were  a key factor in health care service delivery. Romanow recognized that doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals like physiotherapists, speech therapists are important in terms of quality and accessibility of the health system.  However, Romanow also recognized that the health system would be overwhelmed if we had to pay for all the unpaid care provided by family care-partners.

Mirror Box Therapy is used to help regain hand function.

The patient places the affected limb inside the box and the “normal” limb rests outside of the box with its mirror image replacing the affected limb. The patient looks into the mirror on the side with the normal limb and makes “mirror symmetric” movements. Because the patient is seeing the reflected image of the normal hand moving, it appears as if the affected limb is also moving. Through the use of this artificial visual feedback it becomes possible for the patient to “move” the affected limb and to reduce pain.

Fraser Wins the Cup !!

 Ad-hoc Darts Cup (and X-O's to boot !!)

Here is Fraser right after he wins the trophy!
It was a good night to do this - a good crowd

SRAE Seek, Eat and Speak for Aphasia!

To celebrate June as “Aphasia Awareness Month”, the Aphasia Awareness Committee of Alberta held its Second Annual event, “Seek, Eat and Speak for Aphasia,” on

 Sunday, June 5, 2011 with the Stroke Recovery Association Edmonton (SRAE) picnic.

SRAE Newsletter - June 2011

Jackie Poff: “Stroke awareness is important”

Who expects a stroke at 38 years of age? Jackie Poff didn’t She was the senior buyer for one of the largest computing supply companies in North America and mother of two girls age 18 and 13. She had a staff of 12 including her daughter. Jackie loved the customers. She laughs wryly, “I took care of them right up until the day before my stroke” “My grandfather passed away the day before, I put orders in for several customers and the next day had the stroke. “I did get to the hospital and they did give me the clot-buster TPa, but it didn’t work. It did artery damage that I have to have something done with now.” But I lucky, they transferred me to the University Hospital and Dr.Findlay did surgery to remove part of my skull because there was so much brain swelling. That saved my life. From there I went back to Stony Plain Hospital and then to the Glenrose.” 

Letter from Mary Suggett

Here is the letter from Mary Suggett.  The first sentence is very clear (and I add emphasis):

"You may link to www.gocomics.com directly from your blog. ..."

 I changed the style to the direct link to GoComics.com (and Dilbert.com) from S.S.Tattler.

cheers / SSTattler

January 5, 2012

RE: DILBERT, FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE, GARFIELD

Dear Mr. Anderson,

You may link to www.gocomics.com directly from your blog. But unless you’d be willing to enter into an agreement to pay for the cartoons you wish to post. I’m afraid this is your only option. Just as you point out in your email I’ve quoted below.

“I can link to GoComics.com to specific cartoon:  "<a href="http://www.gocomics.com/forbetterorforworse/2008/07/30" title="http://www.gocomics.com/forbetterorforworse/"> <img src="http://cdn.svcs.c2.uclick.com/c2/204630705f35012ee3c100163e41dd5b?width=640.0" I /></a><br />".  No trouble at all and the image is in the site cdn.svcs.c2.uclick.com/c2/.... not in my site.  But legal it is unclear to me."

I hope this helps.

Mary Suggett, Permissions Director

Universal Uclick

1130 Walnut St.

Kansas City, MO 64106-2109

816-581-7500 x7394

msuggett @ amuniversal.com

---

From: John C.Anderson
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2012 7:36 PM
To: Adams, Patty
Cc: Anderson John
Subject: Hi Patty, I'm John C. Anderson and I need help/permission….

Hi Patty Adams,

   I am John C. Anderson and I have a personal "blogSpot" stroke-survivors.org or http://www.stroke-survivors.blogspot.com.  I had a stroke 15 years ago and  I have aphasia, so if you can call me at 780-628-4222 but e-mail is better.  

   The past 3 months I put cartoons, mostly Dilbert, and then I found recently For Better and For Worse starting 2006.  It tell you the story about 'Grandpa Jim' and he has a stroke -- it takes more than 60+ strips.  Approx 20 - 30 people in Edmonton with various kind of stroke they loves the series of FBandFW cartoons specially about stroke.   They told me (and I agree) to re-publish on my web site with FBandFW & stroke, probably every week, to the end of the series.  But I have a problem:

• I have no money to do it.  I want to be legal and honest but I don't really understand "copyright", "trademark", "permission" and so on.  Can I do it or I'm into trouble??? (Actually, I can spend approx $10.00 but that is it).
• Technically, I can do it with my web site; I built many web site before.  For example, I can link to GoComics.com to specific cartoon:  "<a href="http://www.gocomics.com/forbetterorforworse/2008/07/30" title="http://www.gocomics.com/forbetterorforworse/"> <img src="http://cdn.svcs.c2.uclick.com/c2/204630705f35012ee3c100163e41dd5b?width=640.0" /></a><br />".  No trouble at all and the image is in the site cdn.svcs.c2.uclick.com/c2/.... not in my site.  But legal it is unclear to me.
• I have done the cartoon FBandFW(and Dilbert, Garfield) Dec/31/2011 http://www.stroke-survivors.org/2011/12/comics-saturday-december-31-2011.html.  Can you reply/answer:

• Remove the links to GoComics.com cartoon -- it is illegal,
• or you want lots of money for, of course, a fee,
• or my code it OK but it has to be modified with ...?,
• or anything "links" with GoComics.com will cost $0.00,
• .... ??

• You can look at http://www.stroke-survivors.org/2011/03/dilbert-social-skills.html; I tried various kind of images to links to implement to GoComics.com.

Cheers,

John C. Anderson

Halt the Salt?

A high-sodium diet increases blood pressure and high blood pressure is a major risk factor for stroke, heart disease, kidney disease and dementia. High sodium consumption has also been linked to osteoporosis, asthma, stomach cancer and obesity.

Fewer Strokes in Alberta

There has been a 23% decline in the age-standardized rate of emergency department and in-patient hospital visits for stroke between 2004/05 and 2008/09 in Alberta.

Read all about it in the Alberta Provincial Stroke Strategy Interim Report.

SRAE Newsletter - May 2011

Akira Peters  "I like GPS -- it gives me direction when I'm driving"

When Akira had a hemorrhagic stroke in June 2008,everyone was shocked! How could a young, lively university student have a stroke? Akira was active and fun. All though school she won awards, and now just as Akira was all set to begin her final year of a Combined Honours degree in English and History, St. Thomas More College of the University of Saskatchewan she had a stroke. The cause of her stroke was an arterial malformation which was originally diagnosed as brain syndrome Moyamoya.

YouTube May/2011

General Stroke

Stroke Overview

03/Mar/2012 How it feels to have a stroke

Stroke - hemorrhagic, ischemic, transient ischemic attack(TIA)

Understanding Stroke (Stroke #1) 

Risk Factors For Stroke (Stroke #2) 

Symptoms of Stroke (Stroke #3) 

Preventing Stroke (Stroke #4)

Effects of a Stroke on The Brain, Left vs Right

The Man with a 30 Second Memory

Aphasia

Global Aphasia

28/Jan/2012 Broca's aphasia - Sarah Scott - teenage stroke

28/Jan/2012 Update: Sarah Scott teenage stroke, Broca's Aphasia

28/Jan/2012 Update: Sarah Scott, Broca's Aphasia following a stroke at 18

Aphasia and Apraxia

Callosal Apraxia and Aphasia

Agnosia

Object Agnosia

Agnosia

Akinetopsia

Faceblindness

12/May/2012 Prosopagnosia

12/May/2012 Faceblindness - Prosopagnosia

Emotions

Recovering Emotions After Stroke (Stroke #3)

Driving

04/Feb/2012 Driving After A Stroke in Florida

Drugs

Lipitor

Cure for heart disease and stroke Part 1

Health

Understanding Cholesterol (Cholesterol #1)

Cure for heart disease and stroke Part 1

Spasticity

Paralysis and Spasticity

Moyamoya Disease

18/Feb/2012 Let me explain Moyamoya Disease

Prevention

Stroke Prevention - Modifiable Risk Factors

Women

Women, Stroke and the Red Dress: Cerebrovascular Disease

Stroke or Seizure

Is It a Seizure or a Stroke?

Rehabilitation

Stroke Rehab Week 6 Part 1 of 5 

Warfarin Dabigatran/Pradax — Personal Story

by Janet McTaggart

What is Atrial Fibrillation? In Atrial Fibrillation, the heart muscles in upper chambers of heart (atria) do not work correctly. The muscles are not able to force the blood out of these chambers properly. That blood that should be pumped out of the heart, but is left in the atria becomes "sluggish" or ― pools".  Blood clots can form. Those blood clots can be pumped directly up to your brain, block the artery and cause a stroke. Strokes from AF are large strokes.

SRAE Newsletter - April 2011

Alan Treymayne “I decided myself that I wasn’t a safe driver”

Alan was at the height of his career as an Aboriginal educator when he had a stroke. He loved his job. He was making sure that Aboriginal students succeeded in college and university. It wasn’t unusual for him to fly to Ottawa to talk directly to Jean Chretien the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs to ensure that his students received the education they needed to succeed. He was the person who started the program to ensure that Aboriginal students were able to go to medical school to become doctors,nurses and teachers. Alan was a work-a-holic because he loved his job. So when one hand stopped working, he just kept typing the report with one hand until it was completed. When he handed it to his supervisor, he said, “Alan, I think you should go to the doctor, you don’t look healthy.” “I’m just tired.” was Alan’s response. Alan’s wife knew differently. When he said he was just tired and going to bed, she called a neighbor and took him to hospital.

Edmonton Brain Injury Re-learning Society

The Brain Rebuilding Program serves adults brain injury survivors who have experienced a change in their cognitive functioning (thinking skills) following brain injury.

Physiotherapy many years after stroke

For many years, people were told that recovery was time limited. After a stroke, people recovered for 3 months or 6 months and then recovery stopped. There are several new studies showing that people can continue to recover many years after stroke.

Directory of Senior Services

This 250-page resource guide is FREE! It provides comprehensive information on 450 services, agencies and businesses that serve the older adults of greater Edmonton including:

Help for Aphasia

The Alberta government has created a website to allow learners to hear the stories they are trying to read.

Fresh Local Food Delivered to Your Door

The Good Food Box is a program of Live Local Alberta. The Good Food Box makes it easy for you to enjoy in-season produce, organic beef, pork or chicken and specialty foods you may not be able to find in traditional stores. You don’t have to out to the farmers market — your food box is delivered to your door in a Colman cooler.

Disabled? Free Parking at City Meters

Vehicles displaying the Provincially Issued disabled placard are permitted to park at City of Edmonton (not hospital) parking meters.

Disabled placard holders are permitted to park at on-street parking meters free of charge for the specified duration of the meter: 15 minutes at a 15 minute meter and up to 5 hours at metres that display the 5 hours signage. 

All vehicles must display the disabled placard.

The Find a Ride Program

If you don’t drive, and need transportation , the Edmonton Seniors Coordinating Council has a searchable database of  ways to get  around Edmonton. 

Ad-hoc-Darts Group

Darts session occurring:

 Tuesday on the first week

 in every month,

7:00PM

Hilltop Pub 8220 - 106 ave

We have two dart boards reserved for us, we have at more than two sets of darts available, lots of free chalk and lots of free talk.  As well, playing darts is totally free; if you want to eat or drink you have to pay the bill. If you're a beginner or an expert, all is welcome.  

Start the engines ...

Interested in Bowling?

Bonnie Doon Bowling Lanes

Monday Afternoon Stroke Survivors Bowling at 1:00 PM.

$8.00 for 2 games and shoe rental.

101 Bonnie Doon Shopping Centre NW
Edmonton, AB T6C 4E3