Sarah Stollberg got her start in physical therapy at a rural nursing home in Mississippi. She saw it all: post-op care, hip fractures and stroke patients.
Now in Metairie, Stollberg specializes in neurological rehab, programs that help patients recover from neurological illnesses, diseases and disorders. In her time at the clinic, Stollberg became frustrated with the disruptions and lack of continuing education with the stroke survivors she worked with.
She decided to do something about it: A book geared to patients and people continuing to heal long after their stroke.
“Wellness After Stroke,” published in February, and is available on Amazon for $19.99.
Stollberg received her doctorate in physical therapy from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 2011.
When did you start writing this book? What inspired you?
After I dropped my work hours after having kids, my life did not allow me to see my patients every day. I had an “aha” moment talking with one of my patients. They would tell me, “I learned so much every time I work with you, can I see you every day?”
I had to say I couldn’t see them every day, but I could write it down for them — that’s what really inspired me to write the book.
It was really a labor of love for over two years. After work — after I get the kids to bed — I would sit and write outlines of the information to make it the full-fledged book that it is. I also did all of the graphics.
I was doing this as I worked part-time. I wanted it to be perfect. And part of the reason I did the graphics myself is because of the exercises themselves. There are some nuances to the exercises — especially for someone with a weak side.
I didn’t want it to be a generic picture of a bridge stretch, for example, that did not reflect how it was going to look for someone who had a stroke.
From the very start, I was extremely passionate about the book having a spiral bound. I don’t think traditional publishers think of someone with one-sided weakness, which is the majority of your stroke patients and stroke survivors, who can’t flip a traditional book over. The patients would have to hold a traditional book open with two hands, otherwise the pages will flip back.
If a patient doesn’t have that second hand to stabilize the book or to flip the page back in the middle of an exercise, that could get super frustrating. And little frustrations like that are what make people not want to keep doing the exercises.
Did you consult other people when writing the book?
I did it on multiple facets. I had some colleagues in the therapy world read through the book.
It had to be real before I was really telling everybody about it, but my closest colleagues, I asked: “What am I missing? Is there anything that you know that you would add? Did I misspeak on anything?”
They helped me edit it and make some fine-tuning.
I also gave it to people that would have no clue to the meaning of medical terms that I may have inadvertently included. They gave me a ton of feedback — advice that has helped me in the clinic.
I realized that I use certain words a lot, and that it’s possible that 80% of my patients probably don’t know what I’m talking about when I am teaching them when I’m working with stroke patients in the clinic.
Tell me about the content of the book.
The book begins with nutrition. So often, patients come in really tired or low energy. I ask them, “What did you eat today?” They say: “Nothing yet,” or “One tiny bagel” — and it’s 3 p.m.
With little food intake, I explain to patients that they are at the clinic to build muscle and help their body, and they aren’t fueling it for basic life — much less for stroke recovery. Energy-wise, nutrition needs for stroke recovery are similar to performance fitness. There are specific stroke-related nutrition tips included like the amount of protein patients need, making sure they are getting enough calories, focusing on real whole foods versus processed foods. Patients need to sustain energy and not have a crash within an hour or two of exercising.
The next part of the book focuses on mental health and social health. Often, a friend will have a stroke, and people lose contact with them. They don’t think about how isolating it is, and the secondary effects a patient can have after stroke — depression, PTSD, anxiety and more.
A stroke doesn’t directly make a patient have depression, but when anyone has a major life change, a major change to physical ability, people often feel isolated and depressed that they aren’t able to do what they used to.
The book acknowledges those changes, and gives some strategies to counter them, such as reaching out to people like caregivers and friends.
The bulk of the book is the exercises. As far as the physical differences for stroke patients, not everybody is safe standing. I have it broken down into three sections based on what position patients want to work out in. I would say 99% of stroke survivors can participate in some aspect of this book.
Every page has the exercise itself, with a description and repetition recommendation. Then there are three tips for each exercise. Those tips are driven by the most common mistakes I see when I’m in the clinic.
Each exercise has two modifications — a way to make it easier and a way to make it harder.
I did not want the book to feel clinical in any way — something upbeat and positive that makes patients feel good about themselves.
There are no direct balance exercises, but there are cues and tips to improve balance. The book also mentions speech therapy: the flags, or common symptoms, that signal a patient to reach out to a speech therapist.
Who did you write this book for? What inspired you?
I wrote this for the patients. I felt like they needed a way to access all of this stroke-recovery information in one packet. Patients get some information from the doctors, usually it’s just a little printout, but they probably lose it.
They get different printouts from different therapists at different times in their rehab process. I think they are often left not knowing if they still need to go to a therapist or continue to do an exercise recommended from one doctor versus the most recent visit.
The book is meant to be a lifelong program for stroke survivors. My main advice for any stroke survivor out there is to keep moving — it’s never too late.
Doctors and medical professionals used to say, and I think a lot of the general population still has this old understanding, that most of a patient’s recovery happens within a year. That’s not true. Patients can continue to recover decades later.
This post was originally published on here
