Early action vital for best outcome dealing with stroke

May 29--FAIRMONT -- A stroke can have a huge impact on one's speech, hearing and eating.

To raise awareness of a stroke and its symptoms, May is Better Hearing and Speech Month.

More than 795,000 strokes occur every year in the U.S., according to a Fairmont Regional Medical Center press release.

Speech-Language pathologist (SLP) Sara Woodruff, who works as an outpatient therapist for the Department of Rehabilitation of Fairmont Regional Medical Center (FRMC), said the acronym FAST should be used when identifying stroke symptoms.

Face -- ask the person to smile to see if there is any facial drooping.

Arm -- is there any arm weakness?

Speech -- is the person's speech slurred?T

Time -- call 911 to go to the hospital right away.

"Unfortunately a lot of people have a tendency to ignore them," Woodruff said. "They think, 'Oh, I just have a headache,' or, 'I will go to sleep and maybe this will get better.'"

Woodruff adds that people should not ignore the symptoms because early action is vital for the best outcome.

According to the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention (CDC), patients who arrive at the emergency room within three hours of onset of their first symptoms often have less disability three months after a stroke than those who receive delayed care.

"The real problem is if you are in the acute phase of a stroke, when you are first experiencing all of those symptoms, that is the time that the doctors, if appropriate, can administer tPA (Tissue Plasminogen Activator) which very frequently can reverse a lot of the symptoms of the stroke and break up the blood clots," she explained.

Rachel Cunningham, SLP, works as an inpatient therapist for the Department of Rehabilitation of FRMC. She and Woodruff said that certain lifestyle modifications could lower the risk of a stroke such as no smoking, lower blood pressure, limited alcohol consumption, diet changes and exercise.

"Stop smoking especially if you are on birth control," Cunningham said. "I have seen women as young as 30 have major strokes because of taking birth control and smoking at the same time."

Woodruff added that frequent screenings are also key.

"Strokes can occur in so many different way," she said. "If you are having trouble with your heart, with your oxygenation levels, if you develop a blood clot and sometimes it just happens and there are no warning signs whatsoever. When feeling bad, people need to go to the doctor."

Strokes can strike any age or gender.

"I remember a guy at HealthSouth who was a marathon runner, and he had a stroke," Woodruff said.

A recent study showed that the rate of stroke increased by 147 percent in people ages 35-39, 101 percent in people ages 40-45, 68 percent in people ages 45-49 and 23 percent in people ages 50-54.

Cunningham said right now she has three patients under the age of 50.

Individuals' ability to communicate is the foundation to daily living and interactions, Woodruff said in the FRMC press release.

"Beyond just having their basic needs met, the degree to which communication skills are restored affects stroke survivors' social interactions and relationships, employment status and success and overall satisfaction and participation in life," she said. "Seeking treatment from a speech-language pathologist can make a transformative difference in helping people enjoy a fulfilling post-stroke life."

Woodruff and Cunningham both received their degrees from West Virginia University. They also agree that the best part about SLP is the hands-on patient interaction and seeing their patients recovery process through treatment.

Speech pathologists can have a couple different roles in a patient who has had a stroke.

Cunningham, as in inpatient speech pathologist, is the first line of defense, and the first step is assesment.

"We assess what kind of deficits they now have -- is it speech and language, are they having trouble understanding language or are they just having trouble speaking (or) are they having trouble swallowing? ... We just assess them for where they are right now and where we want them to be. We then start initiating treatment."

Inpatient speech pathologists can also make recommendations on where people should go whether it is to a facility like HealthSouth, a nursing home or home and then go to outpatient therapy, Cunningham added.

Woodruff said in inpatient therapy, during the acute phase, one will see a more rapid rate of improvement.

"Once they get into the long-term rehab then we are going to start to see a steadier progression but it may not be as rapid," she explained. "When they come to see me in out-patient we know that we can set up a very consistent schedule weeks and months at a time.

"We are going to work on a day-to-day program that is going to get them from the language side of things or the cognitive side of things, it is going to challenge them to get back hopefully to where they were before."

Email Kelsie LeRose at klerose@timeswv.com or follow her on Twitter @kleroseTWV.

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