46-year-old Zhang Meng (pseudonym) is a housewife, cleaning, cooking, and washing clothes are daily tasks for her, however, a sudden illness has caused her to lose her basic ability to take care of herself. Like a child, Zhang Meng has made great efforts to re-start exercising and "learning" the various abilities of the body.
Sudden weakness in the arm and a diagnosis of cerebral hemorrhage
At the end of October 2023, Zhang Meng returned to her hometown in Xi'an from Guangdong to visit her parents, but not long after reuniting with her parents, Zhang Meng's body had a condition, she began to have insomnia, and she couldn't sleep all night. One day, while getting dressed, Zhang Meng suddenly felt weakness in his left arm, and he didn't care about it at first, but after a few hours, the feeling of weakness worsened, and his family quickly called 120 when he saw this, and Zhang Meng was sent to a nearby hospital.
After diagnosis, Zhang Meng had a sudden cerebral hemorrhage, and the head CT showed that the right basal ganglia hemorrhage was about 15ml.
However, the complete inability to move her left limb was a huge blow to Zhang Meng, and in order to seek further treatment, in November 2023, her family accompanied her to Xi'an Traditional Chinese Medicine Encephalopathy Hospital.
Hong Dengpan, director of the seventh department of encephalopathy, received Zhang Meng, and after a detailed examination and evaluation, the medical, nursing and health teams jointly formulated an individualized treatment plan for Zhang Meng.
"The patient was admitted with complete immobility of the left limb and venous thrombosis in the left lower extremity. In addition, due to a history of diabetes, high blood sugar levels, and insomnia, the whole person is relatively weak. Guo Dandan, the doctor in charge, said.
After acupuncture, massage, TCM directional dialysis therapy and blood sugar control, Zhang Meng's condition was well controlled, and the mental condition and physical function of the whole person were significantly improved.
After that, rehabilitation therapy, which focuses on occupational therapy, began to intervene to help Zhang Meng recover his hand function as soon as possible, regain his self-care ability, and return to his family as soon as possible.
Ping Xingtuan, director of the Sixth Department of Rehabilitation Therapy, led the team to conduct a further rehabilitation specialist evaluation of Zhang Meng, and found that he had a subluxation of the shoulder joint about half transverse fingers, obvious pain when the shoulder was passively moved, a grade 1 muscle strength of the left upper limb, and the practicality of the hand was judged to be a "discarded hand". According to the assessment results, occupational therapist Pan Ting first performed gross motor rehabilitation training on Zhang Meng's left upper limb.
Educate and encourage patients to build confidence
At the beginning of training, Zhang Meng behaved more "negatively".
"In fact, this situation is very common, many patients are prone to pessimism after experiencing the trauma of the disease, they don't know if they can recover, and they have no confidence, so they are not so active in rehabilitation training, and some will even resist treatment." Pantene explained.
To this end, Pantene will often conduct rehabilitation education to Zhang Meng and her family, so that they can understand the important role and significance of rehabilitation training. At the same time, he will always give encouragement and comfort to help Zhang Meng build up confidence. In Pantene's view, these are also an important part of the rehabilitation work.
After 4 weeks of treatment, Zhang Meng's shoulder subluxation and pain were relieved, and her gross motor function in her left upper limb was significantly improved. The left hand, which was assessed as a "discarded hand", began to flex and extend.
Zhang Meng once told Pantene that after she fell ill, although her family gave her meticulous care, she has always assumed the role of the Lord in the family, and she is more eager than anyone else to recover as soon as possible, to take care of her own life, and to return to her family.
Therefore, in the second stage of rehabilitation training, Pantene focused on Zhang Meng's hand dysfunction to improve finger dexterity. Through training such as picking beans, climbing stairs with fingers, tying shoelaces, holding a water cup to drink, combing hair, etc., Zhang Meng can gradually cooperate with both hands and independently complete fine movements such as eating, drinking from a water cup, combing his hair, dressing, tying his shoes, and twisting screws.
In addition, with the progress of sports rehabilitation and other treatments, Zhang Meng's lower limb function has gradually recovered, and he can walk independently. In January 2024, Zhang Meng was successfully discharged from the hospital, and when she was discharged from the hospital, Pantene gave her home rehabilitation guidance and regular follow-up. Now, Zhang Meng has basically returned to normal life.
Pantene said that it is the unswerving goal of occupational therapists to help patients reshape their roles in life and return to their basic life, and home rehabilitation is also very important to consolidate the results of rehabilitation. For patients with hemiplegia caused by intracerebral hemorrhage, home rehabilitation can start with massage and passive exercise to prevent joint stiffness, and then gradually transition to strength, flexibility and coordination. For example, for the upper limbs, you can use chopsticks to hold beans and other exercises, and at the same time, we should pay attention to strengthening the improvement of self-care ability, and family members should give enough patience and guidance to help patients always maintain confidence, so as to better recover and live a better life.
Chinese business all-media reporter Chen Mengyang correspondent Gao Yayu