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 See also:
Is there anything that will help relieve my dad's pain after his stroke?

See all 503 questions about Stroke 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.

My husband, 48 yr old in extremely good physical health (ran 30 miles/week, had a very healthy diet, etc) had a stroke (Left MCA) 3 days ago. I know a lot of you will not believe this, but he is fully recovered (except for the major bruising when he fell in the tub). He lost all use of his right side and could not talk. We got him to the ER within 2 hours of the beginning of his symptoms. The ER doctor began TPA treatment about 15-30 minutes after we arrived in the ER. My husband gradually began to regain movement in his right side and then very slowly his speech began to return. His physical functioning returned first (approximately 1-3 hours after the TPA treatment). His speech was slower to return - that took several hours. He was discharged 36 hours after being admitted for a stroke. Bill is a philosophy professor at a small liberal arts college, so I suppose his mind was extremely fit as well. Graduation was in a couple of days and the provost had called me and asked could Bill give him the grades of his seniors (about 5 students). I wasn't sure. A couple of Bill's colleagues (and close friends) arrived in the hospital about 24 hours after his stroke with Bill's final class rosters to get the information about these 5 seniors. I talked to them before they talked to Bill and told them I didn't know if he could remember or not. Bill had gone for an echo. I hadn't seen him in a couple of hours and at that time, his cognition was a little sketchy and he couldn't write at all, he couldn't understand complex commands, etc. So, you can imagine my concern at his being able to conduct any kind of work. Well, he made a complete liar out of me. When he returned from his echo - he was walking normally, speaking in full clear sentences (just like himself), joking and laughing with his friends. I was amazed.

Each day since I am amazed. But, with the right treatment and wonderful doctors and nurses and a you are an otherwise healthy person, miracles can happen. He seems to have regained all of his functioning - physical and mental. He has been grading finals, reading essays, writing lengthy papers, driving, walking 2 miles, etc. I know his case is unusual (or maybe not - I don't know much about stroke). I am so grateful that I have my husband whole as we was before.

I suffered a massive stroke on OCTOBER 16TH, 2012. I am a 50 year old male with no medical issues ever. My stroke was a mystery to my Doctors because someone like me should not have a stroke. It was determined that some oral surgery that I had done 6 weeks prior to my having the stroke could be what caused it. I went from a healthy man to a person who could not walk, talk or use my left arm and hand. My whole left side was useless. I stayed in ICU for only 2 days and was then transferred to a rehab hospital for the next 2 weeks. The one thing I can say is that I have a lot willpower and I was in extremely great shape. After being in rehab for 2 days I was walking again and my speech and reasoning were coming back, my hand was taking longer but within the 2 weeks I could perform some tasks with it. I am now in my last week of outpatient therapy and I am jogging again and my body is starting to feel better, my hand is getting better everyday thanks to the therapist and the fact that I work with it every day. I still suffer from fatigue and I still cannot workout with my arm and hand as of yet because I still cannot feel everything on my left side but I know this will improve as time goes on. I am very lucky and count my blessings all the time because I was able to improve so quickly, but it was my Doctor who saw in me a person who was not going to lay down and take it from the stroke who I must thank first, next is my wife and 2 sons who never left my side for 3 weeks and were my biggest supporters through all of this, next the wonderful therapist from my speech, physical, and occupational, these people push me like I have never been pushed in my life and for that I wish to thank each and every one of them, next I must thank my large group of family and friends who were there to see me each and every day, because seeing all of y’all made my day because it brought laughter back to me and that is the greatest medicine of all. I know I still have a long ways to go until I get all my feeling back and some of my reasoning but working with it every day seems to what has worked best for me.

I am 41 and had a stroke may 25th 2011. Clot to the brain. The test that were ran on me reveiled nothing wrong with me to blame the stroke on. Remained in ICU for 9 days before being shipped to an inpatient rehab. Checked into rehab on sat. and went home the following friday with super minor effects from my stroke. No outpatient needed, in fact the next morning of my release I biked 10 miles for the first time in my life. I guess I wanted to prove something to myself. The only meds I was given were lipitor and xanax. I started eating better, went to the gym every night to do mild swimmingthen my world crashed just like that. Unlike the first time this time I knew something was wrong, I remember leaving my house to meet my mom(pre-planned meeting) and thats all. somehow I drove 15 hwy miles I think and met my mom . When she looked at me she collapsed throwing up. I I made it in time for the clotbuster and my face regained 98%back to normal. I'ts been 8 months now and I'm nowhere normal. It would be real,real easy to just not try very hard and accepting being able to do things half-ass. Here is what opened my eyes. Not surgry on my heart, not people telling to try harder, it was a tv show i watched about a girl with no hands that had donor hands attached to her arms. Are you freaking kidding me???? The hours of rehab she does are 3-5 a day, everyday. ZLess than 2 years she can do things I've yet to tackle . that's a real "ROCK STAR"!!!! EXTRA THINGS I'VE EXPERENCED: Way more emotional(I hate it), there is a home clotting time tester that take about 6 sec for clotting time results, people are gonna look at you different no matter what so get over it and don't avoid the ouside world, use the electric shopping carts cause you can and remember that chick had hand implants and she can brush her own hair now.

THe Doctors answer sounds very true- there is no way to tell the outcome. My spouse's massive stroke in the brainstem wasn't diagnosed in time for any preventative treatment and it was a sunday so no MRI was done- only a CT scan which doesn't show brainstem strokes. He was unable to move anything but blink for 8 weeks. Took 5 months before he could eat anything. His courage and willpower was amazing- and lack of fear. His mouth was so tight it barely opened initially. 2 years on and he drives a power chair and operates a special mouse to work his pc- all with only the use of 2 fingers. He can say some words but with great difficulty. He tries very hard. He is incredible for someone with so little movement.

This is neither a question, nor an answer. Do what you can to prevent it.....my mother had a massive stroke in 1999, one possible reason was that her PHYSICIAN took her OFF of her hypertension medication. Being from NC probably was part of the equation, initially not a good diet from her youth: so , I recommend eating nothing but unprocessed whole foods. Stay away from the inside isles of the grocery store, and eat all the foods that are the colors of the color spectrum: R.O.Y. G. B.I.V. ; red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Go to the NIH ASA website for more info. { I follow this diet, and I'm the only one in my entire family that hasn't had any cancer or heart disease. Most everyone else has. I'm also a frequent exerciser (for 30 years) using high intensity training, to expel built up toxins from my system......} Also, get outside and get natural Vitamin D!
Mother is still alive today, going on 14 years with full Aphasia, and incapacitated on the right side. She has only said about 4 words in 14 years. They are the same ones. It robbed her and our family of not only her lifestyle, but my parents golden years.......for now, she is better, and still very alert, and knows exactly what's going on around her. She remembers things I would not expect her to remember. A vast part of her memory has come back over the 14 year period. Don't let a day go by to use any prevention that you learn about; exercise, de-stress, meditation, outdoors, healthy eating and cooking, visiting friends just to visit, enough sleep, and sometimes just doing nothing, learning to be still for a change, can be good for you.........