Disclosure?

On my neuro prac I treated a man from day one post stoke who presented with comparatively very mild symptoms. That is mild weakness in the LL and UL on one side, slight sensation loss LL > UL in that side, and once the doctors deemed him medically stable, mild gait deviations. He asked me on a number of occasions if people were as bad as him, if they had as many problems as he did. I tried to assure him that he was getting better each day, and just how good his strength was (within a few days, L = R). However I’m not sure he actually believed me, as ‘better’ is a relative term. I realized that I couldn’t say just how dependent my other patients were, nor how good he was in comparison. I was wondering if anyone had come across a similar situation, in which you just want to say: ‘You’re actually really, really good compared to most other patients!’

In the end I was able to take my patient to the gym, and other much more dependent, non ambulant patients happened to be in the gym at the same time. I think he got the message, and then said to me just how lucky he was.