Recovery time after a stroke is different for everyone—it can take weeks, months, or even years. Some people recover fully, but others have long-term or lifelong disabilities.
The short answer is yes; the brain can heal after acute trauma from a stroke or brain injury, although the degree of recovery will vary. The reason the brain can recover at all is through neuroplasticity, sometimes referred to as brain plasticity.
Although just 10% of people fully recover from a stroke, 25% have only minor impairments and 40% have moderate impairments that are manageable with some special care.
Gains can happen quickly or over time.
The most rapid recovery usually occurs during the first three to four months after a stroke, but some survivors continue to recover well into the first and second year after their stroke.
After six months, improvements are possible but will be much slower. Most stroke patients reach a relatively steady state at this point. For some, this means a full recovery. Others will have ongoing impairments, also called chronic stroke disease.
How Does a Stroke Impact Life Expectancy? Despite the likelihood of making a full recovery, life expectancy after stroke incidents can decrease. Unfortunately, researchers have observed a wide range of life expectancy changes in stroke patients, but the average reduction in lifespan is nine and a half years.
Regarding the duration of fatigue after stroke, acute fatigue can last up to 6 months, whereas the chronic type can persist in 40% of patients after 2 years. Another study reported fatigue to be still present in one-third of patients up to 6 years after stroke onset.
Even after surviving a stroke, you're not out of the woods, since having one makes it a lot more likely that you'll have another. In fact, of the 795,000 Americans who will have a first stroke this year, 23 percent will suffer a second stroke.
You'll see the fastest improvement in the weeks and months right after the stroke. Progress slows between six months and a year, but if you continue to work at it, you may continue to see slower improvement over years.
Changes in your emotions and to your personality are common after stroke. It's very normal to experience strong emotions after stroke, however these emotional reactions usually get better with time. Longer-term emotional and personality changes can be very challenging.
Examples in stroke survivors include rapid eye jiggling (nystagmus), eye turning (strabismus), eye tracking control issues (oculomotor dysfunction) and double vision (diplopia). Your depth perception, balance, coordination and overall vision may be affected by these.
Stroke impacts the brain, and the brain controls our behavior and emotions. You or your loved one may experience feelings of irritability, forgetfulness, carelessness or confusion. Feelings of anger, anxiety or depression are also common.
Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is a prevalent symptom among stroke survivors. This symptom is an independent risk factor for stroke and may reduce stroke survivors' quality of life, cognitive functioning, and daytime functional performance.
In the early weeks and months after a stroke your body is healing and the rehabilitation process takes up a lot of energy so it is very common to feel tired.
This is because the brain requires extra energy to heal the damage incurred, leaving less energy available for typical functions such as staying alert. Furthermore, studies have shown that sleep promotes neuroplasticity after stroke.
For this reason, the 60 minutes after the onset of stroke symptoms are known as “the golden hour.” If treatment can be initiated within this brief window, the patient's outcome is likely to be better.
Common post-stroke physical problems include: Weakness, paralysis, and trouble with balance or coordination. Pain, numbness, or burning and tingling feelings. Fatigue, which may continue after you return home.
As you begin to recover, you might feel that your behaviour changes or improves. You may start feeling better physically and emotionally. But some changes will be long term. You are still the same person, but a stroke may change the way you respond to things.
For example, 79% of people survive 2 years, 61% survive 3 years, …, 5% survive 16 years, and only 1% survive 20 years.
On average, between 10 and 15 years after stroke, 25% of survivors were moderately-severely disabled, 21% were inactive, 22% had cognitive impairments, 32% were anxious and 38% depressed. Functional, cognitive and psychological outcomes between 10 and 15 years after stroke.
Fewer than 28 days after a stroke, the risk for death was estimated at 28 percent, but after one year, it was 41 percent; after five years, the risk increased to 60 percent. The study attributed excess mortality rates to other health issues, like cancer, cardiovascular disease and other diseases, suicide, or accidents.