Fetterman suffered a stroke 5 1/2 months ago, on May 13th (yes, I had to look that up): what you saw last night was as good as it will get, ever
/John Hopkins: stroke recovery timeline
1–3 Months Post-Stroke
“The first three months after a stroke are the most important for recovery and when patients will see the most improvement,” says Pruski. During this time, most patients will enter and complete an inpatient rehabilitation program, or make progress in their outpatient therapy sessions.
The goal of rehabilitation is to restore function as close as possible to prestroke levels or develop compensation strategies to work around a functional impairment. An example of a compensation strategy is learning to hold a toothpaste tube so the strong hand can unscrew the cap.
The 6-Month Mark and Beyond
After six months, improvements are possible but will be much slower. Most stroke patients reach a relatively steady state at this point. For some, this means a full recovery. Others will have ongoing impairments, also called chronic stroke disease. Whether a full recovery is possible depends on a variety of factors, including severity of the stroke, how fast the initial treatment was provided, and the type and intensity of rehabilitation.
Even though recovery does slow down, it is still crucial to continue following up with members of your care team, including:
Your primary care physician, who can help you manage any health concerns aside from stroke recovery, as well as take steps to prevent future strokes
A rehabilitation physician (physiatrist), who can help coordinate aspects of your recovery and keep meeting with you as long as you need the support, whether it’s for a few years or the rest of your life
Physical, occupational and speech therapists, who can help you recover as much function as possible in day-to-day activities, with a focus on your personal goals
A neurologist, who understands the mechanisms behind stroke-related brain injury and can suggest customized treatments to target the affected area of the brain
A rehabilitation psychologist, who can help with cognitive, emotional and behavioral functioning as well as reintegrating with the community, which can aid in recovery
The Democratic Party leaders don’t care if they have a functioning senator from Pennsylvania — they just need to fill a seat that will add to their body count to retain their majority — but do Pennsylvanian voters want a vegetable representing them? I’m guessing that the Democrats will side with their betters on this and vote for the man, but maybe the independents will demand more.
UPDATE: I heard the reporter Salena Zito (she’s one of the good guys) interviewed this morning about the reaction of locals in Pennsylvania to the debate. Zito, who regularly writes about rural and small-town Pennsylvania, had avoided sitting with her fellow reporters in Harrisburgh and gone to a local bar to hear what the patrons there thought. Their overwhelming creation, Zito said, was shocked astonishment at Fetterman’s condition; Democrats and Republicans alike said they’d had no idea how bad it was, and complained that the local press have given no hint of his troubles.
This would explain why Fetterman’s poll numbers have remained so strong; if so, we can anticipate a collapse of that support now. Or I hope so.