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| Rebecca Dutton Home After a Stroke |
When Medicare was enacted in 1965 breast cancer was a death sentence. It was such a devastating diagnosis that no one talked about it. President Ford's wife was the first woman I heard admit she had breast cancer. Today if you ask doctors what they recommend for treating breast cancer the answer depends on several factors. Is the cancer stimulated by estrogen?
Do you have the genetic form of breast cancer? Has the cancer spread to the lymph nodes? Does a combination of surgery, chemo and radiation therapy increase your odds of recovery?
In 1965 a stroke meant families expected to do everything for you because they thought people with strokes were invalids. Even people with heart attacks were called invalids. With little or no activity some victims deteriorated and died two or three years after their stroke. Neuroscientists said only very young children had brains that could recover from a stroke. Recovery seen in adults was explained away by saying it was swelling in the traumatized brain that was going away. When I was a young therapist a doctor told me all I could do was keep stroke victims physically active until this spontaneous recovery occurred.
Neuroscience and stroke rehabilitation have come a long way since 1965, but more advances are needed. Doctors don't have a variety of options to reverse the effects of a stroke (e.g. tPA, BDNF, stem cells). They do not know why some people with strokes rewire their brains while others don't. Therapists often do not have research done with large groups to show who responds well to new treatments (e.g. robotic arms, smart electric stimulation devices). Clients have to try each new treatment to see if it has a positive effect.
I'm glad I no longer live in a world where scientists refuse to do research on stroke because they think it is hopeless. Now I get to read Dean's blog that keeps me up-to-date on the latest stroke research. However, I would ask hard questions before I volunteered for a clinical trial. Children were born without arms and legs after the Food and Drug Administration approved thalidomide. I'm glad human subjects committees force researchers to jump through more hoops than they used to. At 66 I may not live long enough to see the next big leap in stroke care, but I know it is coming.
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Cancer Versus Stroke
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