Sonic Home Therapy for Stroke Victims

A stroke is caused by the interruption of the blood supply to your brain which, in turn, deprives your brain of nutrients and oxygen. Stroke symptoms include difficulty walking, dizziness, balance issues, a lack of coordination, speech difficulties and slurring, partial paralysis, numbness, and difficulty moving one side of your body, vision difficulties, and headache onset. Long-term effects include cognitive difficulties and the experience of pain. Sonic home therapy can help the stroke sufferer by offering pain relief.

Diagnosis

• When you suffer a stroke, your doctor will perform a number of tests to determine precisely what kind of stroke you have had in order to devise a course of treatment. Your doctor will assess your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and will listen to your arteries for any indication of atherosclerosis. Your doctor may also perform a carotid ultrasound, which involves the use of a transducer to send sound frequencies into your neck to get images of tissues and arteries: this will allow the doctor to look for blockages.

  You may also need an arteriography where the doctor puts a thin tube through your groin and maneuvers the tube through your arteries. The doctor injects a dye to look at the condition of the arteries and to seek out blockages. You might have to have a CT scan; a dye is placed in your vein via injection so that they can be seen with ease. Your doctor may perform an MRI to look at your brain and to seek out any hemorrhaging or indications of a stroke. Sometimes echocardiography tests are ordered to examine the heart condition.

Long-Term Effects of a Stroke

• Paralysis may be temporary or permanent, depending upon the extent of the damage your brain has endured. A stroke causes your brain cells to die and can cause permanent damage in terms of your ability to physically or psychologically function. After a stroke, you may have less control over your speech, difficulty controlling the movement of your mouth, and you may develop aphasia: a condition characterized by the inability to express yourself in understandable language. You may also experience loss of control of your limbs, memory loss, numbness, and physical pain or unusual body sensations. After a stroke, you can develop central stroke pain and become intensely sensitive to temperature changes.

Sonic Therapy at Home

• Sonic therapy devices are often used by a physical therapist in the office setting. However, devices can be used in the home that are capable of generating a high-frequency sound wave, or sonic wave, that can travel through your skin tissues into your muscles. The devices generate a natural heat that is therapeutic and relaxing; it eases sore muscles and reduces tension in your muscles so that you experience less inflammation and pain. Sonic therapy is ideal for the stroke patient looking to manage muscular spasms, general pain, and bodily pain produced by immobility and/or stiffness.

  Sonic therapy devices have a wand with a round head. The wand is applied directly to the skin and is moved around in circular motions in the area affected by pain and discomfort. A gel is added to the head of the wand to make the circular motion of the wand smoother: the gel also offers you protection from having your skin overheated by the wand tip during the sonic therapy application. Treatment of a painful area is conducted for a 5- to 10-minute period.

  If you elect to purchase a sonic therapy device for the home, the device could burn you if you do not keep the wand moving in a circular fashion continuously during treatment. If you cannot control the wand yourself, get a friend or loved one to help you with the sonic therapy application to prevent burns on the skin. Do not use a sonic therapy device if you have a pacemaker or implanted medical devices. Do not use a sonic therapy device on areas of the body where new fractures, healing fractures, or malignancies exist. Pregnant women should not use ultrasonic therapy.