Glen Hance's Story

Glen Hance likes to make brownies. It’s likely that, if he makes plans with you, and you have kids, are a kid, or just like brownies, he’ll bring you a pan. He confesses that he makes them from a box mix. But that doesn’t lessen the gesture.

Hance simply likes people, especially children. “If it’s in your heart to like people, it’s no problem,” he said.

So when Hance, who is in his mid-80s, had cardiac bypass surgery in September 2009, and then suffered a stroke two days after the surgery, it’s understandable that a lot of people gathered around him to help. First, it was the doctors and nurses where he had the bypass. Then, it was the therapists, nurses, doctors and staff at the Faxton St. Luke’s Regional Rehabilitation Center. Finally, it was his family and the people in his community who pitched in when he got home. “You’ve got to have a lot of faith and you’ve got to have a lot of help if you’re going to get through all that,” he said.

A Year of Challenges

Hance lives in Hubbardsville, NY. He’s a retired general store owner and postmaster. He’s also a Navy man, serving in the Pacific Theater in the 1940s on the USS Heed AM-100 minesweeper. He has three children, and is a grandfather and great-grandfather. Never one to shirk hard work, 2009 would be a year to challenge his fortitude. His wife of more than 50 years, Carolyn, was in the later stages of Alzheimer’s disease and went into a nursing home. Shortly thereafter, he had a stress test, and his doctor told him he needed cardiac bypass surgery.

Hance said he didn’t worry about himself having the surgery, but he worried about his wife and kids. But the nurses in his wife’s nursing home promised to take good care of her, and he went in for the bypass. Everything went smoothly until the second day after Hance’s surgery. Suddenly, he realized he couldn’t move his left arm and hand. He told the nurse, and they rushed him for treatment. He’d had a stroke. “I could’ve been paralyzed on my whole left side,” he said. “God was really with me on that deal.”

The Rehabilitation Starts

Soon after the stroke, Hance was transferred to The Regional Rehabilitation Center at Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare, the area’s only designated stroke center. Before arriving, he wasn’t sure what to expect. “I didn’t worry about [the cardiac bypass],” he said. “But when they shipped me over to Faxton, I felt like it was just like going into the first day of the Navy or something like that. I don’t know that you’re scared, but you’re apprehensive...” Then occupational therapist, Debbie Casler, came into his room. She was jolly and happy, he said, and he was less nervous. The next morning, he started therapy.

For two weeks, Hance would have morning and afternoon physical and occupational therapy at the rehabilitation center. The first few days, he needed help getting dressed. He was walking slowly, and his left arm and hand were immobile. But each day, he got better. He did all sorts of exercises, he said, “like you would do when you were a kid in gym class. And I could do them all.” He worked on balance, walking, going up stairs, and, of course, gaining mobility in his hand and arm.

He did his exercises again and again, especially his arm therapy. “[The therapists] would say, ‘do ten,’ but I didn’t want to stop,” he said. “They could walk away and I’d keep doing it. I worked hard.”

Determination and Optimism

“He was very motivated,” said Coral Hunt, OTR/L, an occupational therapist, who worked with Hance. “Everything that we asked him to do in regard to occupational therapy or improving his function so he could get home to be independent, he was very willing to do.” But his disposition didn’t stop at hard work. “He was also very cheerful. That was the thing that I noticed about him,” Hunt added. “I’d go into his room early in the morning and he had a big smile on his face and he was ready to go.”

Hunt worked with Hance on ADLs — activities of daily living. “It basically means getting him out of bed, getting dressed, and making him as independent as possible,” Hunt said.

Hance worked so hard, and so well, with the occupational and physical therapists and rehabilitation staff that he was able to go home after just two weeks of inpatient rehabilitation. His two daughters each stayed with him a week at first. Friends from the Hamilton Snack Program where he volunteers visited him on his birthday and even the local fire department made sure he had dinner when they hosted chicken barbecue fundraisers, delivering chicken to his home if he didn’t make it to the barbecue himself. His rehab would continue, though. “He was getting good mobility and good range and movement in his arm, but it wasn’t enough,” Hunt said. “So when he left us, he went to outpatient.”

Home and More Hard Work

Three times a week, Hance would drive in the 26 miles from Hubbardsville to Faxton for one hour each of cardiac therapy and outpatient occupational therapy for his hand. But the first thing he did after getting home and getting settled was see his wife, Carolyn, at the nursing home. “I couldn’t walk very far. They got me a wheelchair,” Hance said of the nurses at the home. Then they brought his wife up to see him. “By the time they got Carolyn up there, the area was full of nurses and caregivers. They were crying, I was crying.” He was glad to be back.

In all, Hance made 32 trips outpatient cardiac rehabilitation and occupational therapy. “I went to cardiac first [each day] and I couldn’t use my hand,” he said. “They (Paul, Alice, Peg, Marianne, and Terry) had to really help me.”

In occupational therapy, Hance worked as hard as he did while he was an ipatient. “They’d have you do a couple of minutes [of therapy] and then you’d sit down, but I said, ‘I can do more than this,” he said.

“He was absolutely wonderful to work with,” Hunt said. “The words that come to mind are pleasant, motivated, hard working. And just an absolute joy to work with.”

A Success Story

Hance finished his therapy in early January. Now, he says he’s in great shape, and his doctor told him he can do anything aside from shoveling snow. He spends at least a half hour on his treadmill in the mornings, and in the afternoons, he’ll walk two miles with the current postmaster. His wife passed away in January, but he still volunteers at her nursing home. And he works with the Snack Program on Thursdays. “I’m busy,” he says. “I’m going someplace all the time. And my life is wrapped around the three kids, of course. And wrapped around church.”

In a way, though, he says he misses the Rehabilitation Center. “It’s funny, but I got to the point where I looked forward to going there,” he said. “I was disappointed when I was done.” From time to time, he has stopped in to visit the staff at the center, and he has brought them brownies.

“That’s really what I remember most about Faxton is the caregivers,” he said. He ticks off the names of the people who helped him: Coral Hunt, OTR/L. Kristy Mcllwain, PT, DPT. Debbie Casler, OTR/L. Amanda Wallis, OTR/L. Cicily Tlerico-Hickel, OTR/L. The two Kims, Kim Bywater, OTR/L, Kim Jennings, OTR/L. The physical, occupational, and speech therapists and audiologists at Faxton St. Luke’s continuously obtain specialized credentialing, education, training and experience in rehabilitation, and Hance credits them with being exceptional at their jobs.

But what struck him time and again, he said, was the care. “They were just loveable, I tell you,” he said. “I bonded with them all.” He even visited one of his therapists when she was in the hospital.

That bond contributed a huge part to his rehabilitation success, and about 95 percent of Hance’s hand function has returned, he said, which is a very good thing.

He needs that hand to make his brownies.