Plateau

One of the difficulties with stroke recovery is the plateau period. This is the period that follows the rapid progress of the first 6 to 9 weeks. John has moved into this stage where he feels he is working hard just to maintain the gains and is not appearing to make any further progress. This is a natural part of the recovery process, John will still make gains, but they will be less discernable and much slower. He has to keep working himself very hard but without the reward of obvious gains. We value your prayers for this time because John has also started his phased return to work and so can become tired and is already finding it difficult to fit everything in. It can take many years to gain all the skills you had previously, but each step takes a lot of effort. A lot of experts claim that gains are only made in the first 6 to 8 weeks and then there is no more progress. One can see how it is tempting to believe this because the gains slow down and indeed appear to come to a halt. However research has shown that if the individual continues to train the brain and keep on working the gains will start again after a plateau period. The brain needs time to consolidate all that has been learnt. Often therapy is stopped after this period and the individual makes no greater gains.