Stroke Recovery
Rehabilitation after stroke, usually delivered at home: because frequency over months is what drives recovery, and transport is what stops it.
Common symptoms
- , Weakness or paralysis on one side
- , Difficulty walking or balancing
- , Loss of arm and hand function
- , Increased muscle tone or spasticity
- , Difficulty with transfers and daily tasks
Common causes
- , Interruption of blood supply to part of the brain
- , Bleeding within the brain
Recovery is relearning
The damaged part of the brain does not regrow. What happens instead is reorganisation, other areas taking over function, and that is driven by repeated, specific, difficult practice of the movements you want back.
This means rehabilitation looks repetitive, because it has to be. Hundreds of repetitions of a reach, a step, a sit-to-stand. Our job is choosing which movements to target and grading them so they stay achievable and demanding at once.
Why home is usually better
Practising in the environment you actually live in transfers far better than practising in a clinic gym. Your stairs, your bathroom, your doorway widths, your chair height. And it removes the transport barrier that ends so many rehabilitation programmes prematurely.
Families
Whoever provides day-to-day care gets taught properly: safe transfers, positioning, how to encourage the exercises without doing them for the patient. Doing too much for someone recovering from a stroke slows them down, and that is a hard thing for families to hear and an important thing for them to know.
How we treat it
- , Task-specific repetitive practice
- , Walking and balance retraining
- , Arm and hand rehabilitation
- , Transfer training for patient and family
- , Home setup and equipment advice
- , Spasticity management
Typical recovery: Fastest in the first 6 months; meaningful gains continue well beyond a year
See a doctor urgently if you have
- !Sudden new weakness, facial droop or speech difficulty: call emergency services immediately
- !Sudden severe headache
- !Sudden loss of vision or balance
These are not physiotherapy problems. Go to a doctor or hospital rather than booking with us.
Treatments that help
Common questions
When should rehabilitation start?
As soon as the medical team confirms it is safe, often within days. Early rehabilitation is strongly associated with better outcomes, and time lost in the first months is hard to make up later.
My relative had their stroke two years ago. Is it too late?
No. Recovery is fastest early, but improvements in walking, balance and everyday function are well documented years afterwards, particularly when someone has not had structured rehabilitation before.
How often are sessions needed?
Two to three times a week over a sustained period does far more than occasional intensive bursts. This is precisely why we treat most stroke patients at home: transport is the single most common reason rehabilitation stops early.
Book a physiotherapist in Nairobi
Clinic appointments in Westlands, or a physiotherapist at your door anywhere in Nairobi. Same-week slots.