Only the Excuse of Staff Shortage Blocks Japan's Therapy to a Cerebellar Stroke.

According to the Health imformation offered by JFK Medical Center,

The cerebellum is located in the lower part of the brain, towards the back. It plays a role in body movement, eye movement, and balance.

The stroke harms these roles.

Except difficulty walking, including problems with balance  as symptoms of a cerebellar stroke indicated by most doctors in Japan,

some notable ones, whcih Japanese doctors hardly touch on, ALSO  include:

　　　　Speech problems (eg, slurred speech) and difficulty swallowing

          Problems sensing pain and temperature

          Difficulty hearing

　　　　
　　　　Problems with eyes (eg, small pupil, droopy eyelid)

And they are promoting  awareness like this:

"If you or someone you know has any of these symptoms, call 911 right away. A stroke needs to be treated as soon as possible. Brain tissue dies quickly."

It means these symptoms should  BE CONSIDERED SERIOUS.

Of course, these applies to my senior family member, but  he is thought to have senile dementia only because he slurs, and is hard of hearing and speaks louder. 

Unfortunately, a local Red Cross Hospital in Kobe City, as well as others in Japan  wouldn't offer senior patients and their families such rehabilitation programs

 only due to shortage of staff(in fact, due to too many staff members' sluggishness):

        Speech therapy—to improve swallowing and speech challenges

        Psychological therapy—to improve mood and decrease depression


They just need more downsizing and more study.

Difficulty Swallowing after Stroke

A family member of mine suddenly began to feel it difficult to stand and walk on May 15th, and finally on May 17th I took him to a local Red Cross hospital. He was diagnosed as stroke or lood clot in the cerebellum.

 Come to think of it, on March 12 he slipped on a wet iron gutter cover in front of a nearby small hospital offering Saturday consultation time, fell down, and hit the right side of his face with swelling and internal bleeding. The Red Cross neurosurgical doctor said in a month after such a hit a brain could often suffer a blood clot. The doctor also said the disease in the cerebellum caused him lose their sense of balance and prevented him from standing and walking. But he is a post-stroke patient, not couldn't get treatment.  He said we should see how it would work, and we came home on May 17th.

On May 18th morning, I saw he suffered an attack of delirium and got placed in the Red Cross hospital. On May 19th the day after hospitalization, he obviously suffered difficulty swallowing.
So, he had been taken food  with thickness by mouth, but he disked it.


 Since May 23 he has been fed by a tube. 

So,  NOT to PULL the TUBE,  he is forced to wear mittens and tied to the bed frames when his family are not with him.   Isn't it an abusive treatment ?



The doctor has never offered direct or EVEN INDIRECT trainings for improving his ability to swallow because he worries about aspiration pneumonitis.

According to the Internet, Brain stroke is often associated with dysphagia or difficulty swallowing.  Especially a blood clot in the cerebellum causes severe dysphagia.  In Japan, methods for the effective treatment of patients with difficulty swallowing have never become popular yet.