People can experience a variety of things after a stroke. “The term that people use is that it weighs a ton, it’s so heavy, I can’t lift it. It’s the brain that doesn’t coordinate with the muscle properly and that damage in the brain to a certain extent is permanent.” Recovery can be difficult…but physical therapists like Abe Abarbanel are here to help. “We are going to have to reteach your brain as much as possible to do the activities that you were doing before.”

He’ll start by assessing their current abilities. “I see how they get in and out of bed I see how they go from sitting to standing how they walk how they hold their balance how they move their limbs.”

He then works with them to help overcome the challenges they’re facing. “By making the activities as functional as possible that’s the keyword functional,” said Abarbanel. “For me it’s important to challenge them to the point where they are really challenged and succeed but then at the same time fail a little bit, because if I always make them succeed, I never push to the point where they go forward to the next level.”

His goal is to help his patients enjoy life once again. “The majority of the people that come to therapy will make progress no matter what,” said Abarbanel. You can learn more by searching for rehabilitation on leehealth.org.


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Lee Health in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of health care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For more than 100 years, we’ve been providing our community with personalized preventative health services and primary care to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

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