Stroke recovery in China

[pprendeville]

My father-in-law had a stroke last year (Not sure of exact date but I guesstimate last year). In-laws never informed us and it was only through a little detective work (emailing a family relation who speaks English and has been abroad) that I found out. 

Anyway, 岳父 is making a slow recovery and I want to find out what is standard procedure for recovery in China. I know most stroke victims who lost their ability to walk or found that they were severely limited back home would get rehab in a pool as they are buoyant in the water and they are that bit more mobile. However there is no pool in the local town so this option is a no go. 

I've asked 岳父 to quit smoking (daughters including my wife still go to he shop for him for fags believe it or not) as it doesn't help the problem and in fairness he has cut back from maybe 50-60 a day to 5-10 a day but he says a doctor told if he quits altogether he will get cancer. He is barely able to walk (needs help to get up from he bed) but can cycle a 3 wheeler. I massage his legs at night and he likes it but I don't thin it's going to help him improve much. Any suggestions? 

[pancake]

I'm not a doctor but, for what it's worth, I would suggest some light 气功.

[liuzhou]

Strokes can have many effects, some more serious, some less so. Every case is different, so there is no one treatment or standard therapy,

[pprendeville]

气功 - thanks. Have you any first hand experience where this has helped somebody improve? If I'm to make a suggestion I'd like to be able to back it up.

[Scandinavian]

Get him a new doctor, the one who says that stopping smoking causes cancer is not helping. Physical activity will help most stroke patients regain motor skills. Most hospitals I have seen in China have a rehabilitation ward. In these places they would be able to suggest what he needs to do to remedy his situation. If he has become inactive due to his condition, then he needs to be activated, inactivity does not help.

The cause of the stroke is also important. If the stroke was cause due to a blow to the head, then it will be one thing, if it is cause due to an underlying condition, then this needs to be controlled. Depending on the cause, also the level of physical activity that would be safe would differ.

[pancake]

I taught my sedentary and slightly arthritic aunt the "hug the beachball" posture of 太极拳, and she credits it for having (subjectively) improved her condition. Not enough stroke victims in my life to have any direct experience of using it for stroke rehabilitation, sorry. I did, however, find this: http://www.strokenet...pies/taichi.htm and this: http://www.worldtaic...on_therapy.html

[hbuchtel]

I did my internship in the rehabilitation department and neurological surgery department of a large Integrated Chinese-Western hospital in China, and the majority of our patients were stroke victims.

Besides surgery (if necessary) in the acute phase, the standard protocol for these patients was daily acupuncture treatments, herbal medicine decoctions, and physical rehabilitation, the goals being to prevent reoccurrence, increase physical ability, and reduce side effects (resulting from immobility).

I would estimate the cost to be about 300~400RMB per day, including the hospital bed. The vast majority of patients had this cost covered by insurance. Some patients chose to come in to the outpatient department each day for their acupuncture treatments, either to save money or in order to be able to sleep in their own homes.

The national center for stroke rehabilitation is in Tianjin, which is probably not an option but might be a lead for you to find more information. Search for 石学敏 Shi Xuemin and 醒脑开窍 XNKQ method. I think there is a fair bit of information in English, including clinical research etc.

[pprendeville]

thanks guys, especially hbutchel. i passed on the advice but it seemed to fall on deaf ears. i think they are stuck in their ways here and i'm thinking any advice i offer will not be listened to. son-in-law brought some, I'm guessing, herbal medicine today called 华佗再造丸. http://www.helpofchinesemedicine.com/HuaTuoZaiZaoWan.htm

Flowery talk like claims of "promoting the flow of qi to relieve pain, removes phlegm, improves the immunologic function of the body" usually puts me off straight away. Anyone know of these tablets?

I'm going to get my wife to look up those links as i'm way out of my depth trying to read them. Will let ye know how it goes.

[abcdefg]

@hbutchel's excellent post above gives some very helpful pointers for acute treatment. My experience with these issues in China is quite limited, though I have dealt with them in the US.

That being said, the two things that concern me most about this scenario are:

1. His stroke is half a year or more old and rehabilitation will be more difficult than if it had been started early on. Not hopeless, but much more difficult.

2. Don't know whether the underlying conditions (things that lead to the stroke) have been corrected. He might still have poorly controlled high blood pressure and diabetes for example. Stroke number two could be on the way.

Lots of other factors and variables are in play. Too many to make it practical to say "Just do this or that, and it will be OK." As someone else already said, finding him a new doctor might be the best starting point. All this puts you in a tough situation as a visiting son-in-law who is trying to be helpful without coming across as too pushy.

[pprendeville]

Last night my wife told me that he has has 3 strokes which was news to me. I was under the impression he had one. The first 2 left him confused and his speech was affected. the last one took place around the Chinese new year this year and it is this one that has left his motor skills in disarray.

I'm trying to convince wife of the necessity to at least look into alternative methods of recovery but she will just go along with parents as usual. It's very difficult to get precise information here I find due to translation difficulties and a seemingly lack of desire to get to the root of the problem.