The Benefits Of Undergoing Rehabilitation Care After A Major Illness

A major illness like a heart attack or stroke can rob you of your everyday health. It can leave you seriously debilitated and unable to take care of yourself properly. 

After you are discharged from the hospital, you still may not be strong enough to go home and recover on your own. You may benefit from undergoing professional rehabilitation care to help you regain strength and mobility after suffering a serious illness.

Relearning to Walk

When you undergo rehabilitation care, you may relearn how to walk unaided. Your illness might have taken from you your ability to stand up without support. You also may not remember how to move or bend your legs to walk properly, especially if you have been bedridden for weeks or months.

The therapists that work for the rehabilitation care program can teach you how to walk again without help. They may teach you to use equipment like balance bars, walkers, or crutches to keep yourself steady as you learn to put weight on your legs again. They can also hold on to you to keep you from falling as you regain strength and learn to walk.

Within a matter of days, you may be strong enough to walk a few steps at a time. You might make progress rapidly when you stay in a rehabilitation care program after a major illness.

Gaining Your Appetite

Rehabilitation care is also important for you to learn how to eat again and regain your appetite after a serious illness like a stroke or heart attack. When you were in the hospital, you might have been fed through a feeding tube. You might have lost a significant amount of weight, as well as your appetite, to eat normal foods.

During your time in rehabilitation care, you may be introduced to solid foods again. Your therapists can help you work up from semi-solids and liquids like gelatin and pudding to solids like a sandwich or chicken. They can ensure you can swallow safely and eat without choking. 

Regaining your appetite can be a vital part of getting stronger and recovering fully. Once you regain weight and can eat safely on your own, you might move closer to finishing your rehabilitation care and get to go home.

Rehabilitation care is important to undergo after you suffer a major illness like a stroke or heart attack. It can teach you how to walk again without support. You can also work to regain your appetite and weight so you can go home to recover fully. For more information, contact a local company, like Dominion Physical Therapy.