HOUSTON – Almost half of stroke survivors can experience spasticity, meaning their muscles get tighter and tighter until they lose the ability to move.
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TIRR Memorial Hermann is helping survivors have a life with a wider range of motion. Their secret is injecting them with toxins that relax the muscles. Basically, that’s using Botox and other name brands to get results.
Matt Baier, has been on a long road to recovery, he had a stroke 17 years ago.
“I was judging a dog show and I had a stroke,” Baier said. “When I woke up, of course, my vision was 50% in each eye, so I couldn’t see out of the right of both eyes. I couldn’t speak. Nothing. My whole right side was shut down.”
The movement he’s able to do today, he says, is a result of toxin injections, like Botox. These injections have been crucial to his recovery and range of motion as the injections work to counteract spasticity.
“It makes everything looser. They stick the needle in me... and they can see it relax,” Baier said about the ultrasound-guided injection.
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It’s not just Botox, explained Cindy Ivanhoe, Director of the Spasticity and Associated Syndromes of Movement at TIRR Memorial Hermann and professor of physical medicine at UT Health Houston. She explained they’re trying to limit the complications of having had that injury to your nervous system.
“If we’re not going to treat spasticity, we know what happens. People get tighter and tighter, lose range of motion, and there are changes in the muscle and the nervous system,” Ivanhoe said. “One of the things that I think is an important message about Matt’s story is he’s still improving. There is a bias that when you have a stroke, you get six months or a year to keep improving, and then you’re stuck where you are.”
Baier has continued to see results 15 years after he started these injections. Although, insurance doesn’t usually allow for long-term use of them.
Ivanhoe said Baier is an example of how long-term use leads to long-term success for stroke survivors.
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Baier said he’s able to live an independent life, making it to his daily appointments and navigating public transportation.
“You asked how I got here; I rode my bike, got on a bus, and then got on the train. I wouldn’t be riding my bike if I’d only gotten this [injection] for two years,” Baier said. “It’s made my life a whole lot better.”
