Peter had his stroke in April 2022, a fit man who was training for his 4th London marathon. He had a bleed on the left side of his brain leaving him with weakness on his right side and aphasia.
After community physio and different private physio he seemed to plateau after 18 months, then we were introduced to ARNI/Stroke Solutions and the wonderful Carol Miller.
ARNI Institute is Help for Heroes (H4H) number 1 go-to provider for community stroke rehabilitation.
H4H has a contract worked out with ARNI to pay for a tranche of intensive rehab sessions (typically an assessment and then 10 hourly sessions, wherever there is an ARNI Instructor to match with a veteran).
For this application, we successfully applied for Peter to receive 13 one-hour sessions. And then very generously, in October 2024, another 13 one-hour sessions were granted to him.
A testimonial from Anne; his wife.
When Carol first started working with Peter in May this year (2024), he had no confidence. He was still walking with a stick and his balance wasn’t great. Within the first 2 sessions he was able to get down to the floor and up again, using a chair. Once he’d gained this skill, his confidence soared and Peter was happy to try anything Carol threw at him.
Prior to his stroke, Peter and I looked forward to attending Hull Park run each Saturday. Carol has factored into Peter’s regular sessions, a circuit training session with hurdles to step over and a lap to complete against the clock likening it to park run and tuning into Pete’s competitive nature. We do this at the gym that Carol works from as there is more space and Peter usually completes three circuits. Each lap, Peter improves his time and you can see the joy of this in his lovely smile.
Incorporating the hurdles works very well for Peter as this translates to improved balance and encourages a higher lift of the affected lower limb which has helped to improve his walking technique. This has also helped Peter in negotiating threshold of door entrances without using his stick as well as going up and down stairs, being a lot more manageable. Another big confidence tick!
Carol also has Peter performing the deadlift with an 8KG Kettlebell and body weight squats regularly which has really improved his strength and he can now go into a deeper squat as he holds on to a bar as well as being able to stand up from a low bench without using his hand for support. Peter is looking forward to increasing the weight of the Kettlebell as his technique and balance improves.
Peter’s movement in his upper limb has greatly improved. This has been as a result of the stretching exercises that Peter has been shown by Carol through her training with ARNI, which he does regularly, followed by strength work using a light dumbbell.
We also have an exercise now coined the Peter Duncan double whammy!! This involves placing the affected hand on a table and stretching out the fingers. The non affected hand is positioned over the top to keep in place. Peter then performs a squat and the challenge is to get the forearm down to the table so the hand and forearm are both flat as well as performing a deeper squat. This is a rather difficult exercise and Peter is always well up for a challenge!
Picking things up is much harder, yet improving through high repetition which is evident on each ARNI session with Carol. We stretch the hand first to get the pincer effect and Peter is now managing to pick items up, eg a peg out of one slot and place it in another. The release of this is also improving, once the thumb is out of the way. One of Peter’s hobbies that he would like to get back to, is fishing. We now have a fishing reel beside Peter’s chair at home that he practices regularly.
We continue to practice getting down to the floor and Peter is almost able to get down to the floor without using a chair as a result of all the strength work and repetition of exercise that has been mentioned above. I can’t thank Carol and ARNI enough. Bit by bit they are giving me my husband back. We work as a team and for Pete and I this approach really works.
