A Metaphor for Rehabilitation: Finding Balance and Momentum

My creation phase...

Through the Mayo Clinic website, I have identified similar disparities in people who have experienced stroke, or mild to moderate traumatic brain injury. Symptoms identified include: (a) trouble with walking (loss of coordination, dizziness or loss of balance), (b) trouble with speaking and understanding or slurred speech, (c) headache. Other commonly co-morbid states of being of someone who has undergone trauma include (d) feeling depressed or anxious and (e) abnormal sleeping.

  The goal of this program is to eliminate or minimize the identified health disparities through implimentation of a program with a of behavioral and educational objectives.  The program will utilize physical, nutrition and maintenace capabilities -- via the Sociable Tandem Cycle Recreation Program and knowledge that "you are what you eat,"( for improved physical coordination and a Better Brain (Perlmutter & Colman, 2004). A pre post test will evaluate the regularity of participant’s level of symptom occurrence, as they are aware of them. This Sociable Tandem Cycle Recreation Program will include physical activity on a side-by-side tandem quadric-cycle and cycle maintenance education.

 Back on the bicycle...

                   Project Purpose: To eliminate health disparities in individuals who have experienced Stroke and(or) Traumatic Brain Injury

You can read the following at  H.O.P.E. for Stoke -- "Healing on Positive Energy":

Maybe you remember when you were a younger person and fell off of your bicycle when you were learning to ride.  Remember that feeling you had at that very moment. Your knees were bruised, hands cut and your pride bruised beyond recognition.  Many of us proclaimed through our tears that we would never ride that damn bike again.  Many of us, however, did get back on that bike and became proficient at it.   Others were determined to hold true to their conviction of not getting on that damn bike.  A few things helped us learn how to ride that bike - determination, balance and momentum.  Balance and momentum were the most important.  You could have had all the determination in the world, but if you didn't have balance and keep your momentum up, you fell again and again.  Why is it easier to stay on a bike while moving? - momentum and balance.  The same is true for stroke recovery. You can have all the determination in the world but if you do not have balance and momentum in your life, success is a tragedy.For example, if you stop whatever momentum you had in your recovery, you fall or go backward in your momentum. You also must balance your recovery, so you can build on your efforts over time. One can not do it all at once or postpone it till next week. You must balance your recovery and keep doing it at regular intervals, trying just a tad more at a time. Listen, even as Adults, we can fall off of that bike, get back on it. Ride,take that journey, you will be glad you did.

        Stroke Symptoms

          By Mayo Clinic staff
           Stoke:Symptoms

       Traumatic Brain Injury Symptoms
          By Mayo Clinic staff
          Traumatic Brain Injury: Symptoms