How long do stroke symptoms last after a brain stroke?
Unfortunately, this is a very difficult question to answer. The general rule I use is that if people survive the initial days of the stroke, and the complications during that early phase, they almost always have some improvement. However, the amount of improvement is extremely variable. Some patients return to normal, some only have very mild improvement. Typically, most of the improvement happens within the first 6 months after the stroke, but, on occasion, improvement can be seen out to 2 years after the stroke.
I often tell my patients and their families that predicting recovery from a stroke is a very imperfect science. In some areas of medicine, prediction is easier. For example, if you break your arm, a cast is place, and a farely accurate prediction can be given as to how long it will take to heal. In stroke, we are not nearly so accurate. I often compare our ability to forecast to that of a weatherman. We are frequently incorrect, typically use rough percentages, and the farther down the road we are predicting, the less accurate.
Therefore, unfortunately, I cannot give you a great answer. One easy way to get a better sense is to track her recovery over the first few days and weeks from the stroke. If she is recovering well, you can usually expect continued improvement. If she is not recovering well, this often portends a poor overall recovery down the road.
I'm not an expert, but I am the spousal caregiver of a wife who had a minor stroke 2 years ago. Even though she has regained 100% use of her left arm and hand, they still feel "different" than the other parts of her body. And there are lingering cognitive effects: can only attend to one thing at a time; more easily emotionally upset; more fatigue (sometimes a state of brain freeze takes over); difficulty making decisions about simple everyday tasks; and much greater disorder in the house -- things being scattered around, piled up and regularly lost.
I am not a doctor or someone who knows anything about how to answer your question medically; but I am a care giver and a daughter, who is trying to understand how to deal with life after stroke. My mother had several minor and couple major strokes within two years span. Though, the strokes had left her with left side difficulties the one part that was difficult to witness was her inability to remember anything in the now. Meaning what she just ate, or what she just watched on TV or as simple as what we just talked about. Furthermore she suffered from sever left neglect, which affected her ability to read and more. The good news is today she reads and even writes much better than two years ago. But this accomplishment did not come easily. It required the effort of everyone professional and non-professional such as my family to help her with her new life.
We found that cognitive exercise such as reading, writing, solving simple math problems or memory teaser (something we created at home) seems to help her with her remembering stuff and multi tasking. She still has some bad days but thank God she is getting much better in her respond time. The most important lesson I learned from this journey is that through diligent exercise and emotional care the recovery time is everyday. Progress should be measured one day at a time!
I have a friend who had a stroke in his 30's. He was in the hospital for a month. He told me it took him six months to finally feel somewhat "normal" again, but still lacks feeling in his fingers on his affected hand. He is not diabetic, but has high blood pressure.
My husband, at 48 years of age, had a stroke (blood clot to the brain) 9 years ago, and he is still having issues. Like the others have commented, his short term memory and emotional side of the brain was affected due to the stroke. I agree with the others that it is strictly an on-going battle for their recovery. But, to be honest, our doctor's also tell me that sometimes it gets worse, as is happening in my husband's case. He will blow up emotionally without any notice.....and what hurts the most, is that he doesn't even know he's lashing out at me or our son. The thing I do when this happens, is just try to tease/humor him out of this emotional state. It works most of the time....he starts laughing at what I said to him and then he's laughing, not crying or yelling. His doctors told me this is the best thing I could do. A Stroke does take its toll out on the family. I truly understand that. Now, not only are we caregivers, we are also a financial advisor, decision maker, and head of the household every day. But,I guess all we can do is hope for the best. Each day I try to find a little "alone" time to myself when he's settled in for the night. It helps.
My husband had a severe rt medial cerebral artery stroke 4 years ago. I was the sole caregiver for him. It affected his frontal lobe, and his left shoulder and arm. The frontal lobe portion of the stroke was difficult, as it affected his logic - being ambidextrous, he used both sides of his brain for logic. If he had not been ambidextrous, the frontal lobe portion of his stroke would have been minor. The left should and arm we worked very hard on so that he could regain most of his function. There were many complications during the first 2 months of his stroke, several of them life threatening, but we persevered and he survived.
He regained much more logic function than his Doctor's thought, but I was with him for about 18 hours a day while he was in the hospital, challenging him to do things with his neglected side, and working with him on his logic. The more you challenge the neglected side of a person early on, the more recovery of function you will see. Luckily, my husband was madly in love with me prior to the stroke and would do anything he possibly could that I asked of him - this helped immensely in his recovery.
Unfortunately, he passed away just past the 3 year anniversary of his stroke from complications post open heart surgery. It had been explained to me early on after his stroke that from the size and scope of his stroke, he was only expected to live approximately 2-3 years post stroke. I had hoped to have him for 5 years, but it was his time to go, no matter how much I fought it.
Best wishes with your sister.
My husband was also very emotional after his stroke. It also seemed like he may have had two different personalities - and each personality was compartmentalized and was unaware of what the other personality had done/said.
What helps me the most is to remember how he was prior to the stroke, and look at his intention based on his pre-stroke personality.
Take care, and learn to enjoy the small things - a smile, hug, tender moments.....
Being a post stroke survival myself (haemorhagic stroke since 2007)and after almost 2.5 years of physiotherapy and medications i can say that the noticable improvment is in the first 6 months after that things are two slow and minor to notice as a real improvement .Things are sometimes frustrating especially that i used to be an active windsurfer myself before the stroke . I am 54 years old with diabetes since 33 years but acceptance and faith are 2 important weapons i can recommend for sure .Some areas of medicine especially the brain are still opaque spots and we just hope that science still will reveal some question marks .I advise all stroke patients to look at other much worse cases to be able to be thankful to god and realize that they are fortunate than others, god bless us all Mohamed Elbakary Cairo,Egypt
Here's what I had noticed about my husband's recovery - 1st 3 days - improvements hourly, 1st 6 months - improvements daily, next 6 months improvements weekly, 2nd year - improvements monthly. His last year, he actually started declining a little - probably due to his heart condition.
What this means is that in the first 3 days, I could notice something improving each hour. The 1st 6 months, I would see an improvement from the previous day. The next 6 months, I had to look back a week to see a change.
It also depends on how much/well family, friends and healthcare practitioners are able to motivate the survivor to work. In my husband's case - I spent nearly 20 hours a day at the hospital for the 7 weeks he was there, then 24 hours a day for 3 months, then went back to work part time, gradually going back to full time.
Each case is different and there are many factors that feed into the improvement curve.
There are bouts of joy and sorrow in case of my wife.As she forgets easily she constantly reminds for the things she wants that is too boring for the caregiver. She does not care but you have to care. She does not do it purposely but most irritating for the normal person. Really caregiver himself is at test.
i am a mild stroke patient 4 days now, it's a mild troke. At first i hve a tinggling feeling in my right face, fingers and tongue. I also feel falling in my right side all the time.. I can't tell if i am progressing as a stroke petient. i don't feel the tinggling feel in my right fingers anynore nor i fall on my right side but i feel like sobbing when i breath deep.. maybe i feel it only now becuase i wasn't aware of it the first time..or is my stroke progessing? i don't go icu or any ordinary room in the hospital because i feel am gonna die if i stay there..i only went there the first atacked when they said i need an mri to locate the problem..they said is was a mild stroke from a blockaged from my brain stem. I had my check up last night and it was all normal they said. it's 4 days now am wondering if it's progressing or not...by the way it took me an hour to make this letter. sorry for the wrong spelling
wife Suzanne 61 years old, had her first major brain haemorrhage involving the right temporal and parietal lobes in March 2010 and after 5 weeks in hospital, after an urgent craniotomy to remove the blood, she went to the rehab unit where after another 5 weeks I took her home. An angiogram was done when she was at the rehab hospital which indicated that all the veins in her brain were normal. The professor diagnosed Amyoloid Angiopathy. She had the use of her speech, could eat by herself and the use of her right arm and leg. Her spatio visual improved well and she was even starting to do cross word puzzles As the next few months progressed, Suzanne got better with neuro physio and occupational therapy and was getting to the point, where she started to take a few assisted steps and she was hugely positive that she would walk unaided within a few months.
Unfortunately, she had another massive brain haemorrhage in the same area of the brain on the 23 September 2010 and went through the normal trauma of this insult to the brain, surgical intensive care unit with ventilator, venticular drain etc. After 4 weeks, she was admitted to the general ward but this time, she has no movement in ANY of her limbs and is unable to speak. She is able to move her head only. We started neuro physio and occup therapy and speech therapy already by the second week. After 2 months Suzanne had another haemorrhage which was unknown to us and was picked up on an MRI which was done to try to understand why her right side and speech was affected when the MRI indicated that the structure of the left brain was intact but a right frontal haematoma had developed.
What was interesting is that with the previous bleeds, if Suzanne had not been admitted to hospital immediately, she would have died of the brain bleed yet we were unaware of this frontal lobe bleed. There was no indiction of this last bleed in any of her vital signs. Remember, she could not speak and tell us anything.
She has now been admitted to a care facility from 1 December 2010 because she requires 24 hour nursing. She still has neuro physio daily and occupational and speech therapy 2 to 3 times a week. Suzanne is in a wheelchair twice a day and is taken for a 1 to 2 hour walk in the care centre to stimulate her brain, see the gardens and experience the fresh air. Suzanne has a complete understanding of what we are saying to her and she vocalises this through a crying response which really is traumatic for the family. Remeber, she also experiences emotions and has emotional lobility as a result of the frontal lobe bleed.
We needed to remove the NG tube and get a PEG inserted to make her feeding more practical and when she went back to hospital for the small procedure, we had a CAT scan done of the brain just to ensure that the injuries were healing. The report dated 28/12/2010 reads as follows:
" extensive old infarcts/ evacuated haemorrhages involves the right temporal and parietal lobes associated with focal atrophy. No recent bleed. Old infarcts are also noted in the right frontal lobe inferiorly and left frontal lobe superiorly. Compensatory dilation of the right lateral ventricular system is present. Previous craniotomies noted"
My question to this long background particularly over the last 4 months since the September bleed, is what is the chance of Suzanne being able to recover her speech and being able to move her right side again. Remember, the MRI scan indicates that the left brian is structurally sound and the speech area is clear. Also there is no stroke indicated on the brain stem.
We wait every day for the small steps we have been told to expect but my question is has anyone experienced this type of event and what has the prognosis been? I know that each person is different but there are so many recovery stories which take place over the first 12 months and seem to continue afterwards and this has to be my hope and continue to pray for God's help. She understands what has happenned to her and I cannot imagine what she must be experiencing in trying to tell us what she feels or whatever and this is just not possible to comprehend.
Any comments please.
How much time are you and other family members spending with her? The more the better. Are the family members/friends speaking with her or around her? Continue to challenge her, speak with her as though she could respond. Continue to hold hands, move her limbs, have things from home all around her. Have bright cards pasted on the walls for her to look at. Challenge her by being normal with her, and expect a miracle! It can happen.
Thanks Claire you are 100 % right. As her husband, I spend every week day with her for at least 3 hours a day and Suzanne is visited by my daughter and her sister each day for about 1 hour. Normally, on weekends, I am with her the whole day. Suzanne is also supported by her neuro physio, occupational therapist and speech therapist also during the week. I have said to Suzanne, that I will help her to speak. She has indicated to me that she knows what she wants to say, but just cannot get the words out which as you can understand, is extremely frustrating for her. When I am with her or in the company of others, we include Suzanne in the conversation and never refer to her in the third person. Sometimes it does happen but having a one-way conversation is quite taxing. I feel very strongly, that if she can just start communicating verbally, that Suzanne will improve both mentally and physically a lot faster than she is at the moment. Also learning to speak again, we will also be able to understand why she feels she cannot move her limbs...so between Suzanne and the family, we have a massive challenge to face. Suzanne has also indicated that she is going to keep trying and will not give up. We are giving Suzanne every possible oppurtunity to improve but it needs her continual will-power, lots of prayers from all the family and others who love her and faith that she will get better which I firmly believe will happen in God's time. As one saintly man once said " Pray, Hope and don't worry!" and I believe that the miracle you talk about will happen.
