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.
Medically stable stroke patients can expect to begin rehab about two days after the stroke. The quicker the process begins, the higher the chance of recovery. Only about 10 percent of stroke survivors recover almost completely after a stroke. Even then, this is not a full recovery.
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.
Some brain cells die quickly but many linger in a compromised or weakened state for several hours. Stroke causes permanent brain damage over minutes to hours. With stroke, “time is brain,” meaning that the sooner treatment begins, the better.
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.
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.
You or your loved one may experience feelings of irritability, forgetfulness, carelessness or confusion. Feelings of anger, anxiety or depression are also common. The good news is many disabilities resulting from stroke tend to improve over time. Likewise, behavioral and emotional changes also tend to improve.
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.
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.
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.
Few patients recover fully and most are left with some disability, but the majority exhibit some degree of spontaneous recovery. Doctors and scientists don't fully understand how this happens, because the brain does not grow new cells to replace the ones damaged by the stroke.
A mild stroke can be an indicator that a more serious stroke is on its way. Compared to the general population, people who have suffered a mild stroke are five times more likely to have an ischemic stroke in the next two years. Patients who have experienced a mild stroke should follow up with their doctor regularly.
Because walking is such an important element of day-to-day functioning, recovering functionality in the leg is the central priority for recovering from a stroke. The arm, though, can be left to do little to nothing for the remainder of the survivor's life.
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.
Mortality within 72 hours after stroke onset was 5.0% (32 patients) and a further 4.2% (27 patients) died within ten days. At discharge from the stroke unit, 63.9% of the 571 patients who survived went directly to their home with or without homecare and the other patients required further hospital based rehabilitation.
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.
If you drive a car or motorbike and you had a single transient ischemic attack (TIA) or stroke with no brain surgery or seizures, you can usually start driving again after one calendar month.
Stress can cause the heart to work harder, increase blood pressure, and increase sugar and fat levels in the blood. These things, in turn, can increase the risk of clots forming and travelling to the heart or brain, causing a heart attack or stroke.
Apathy is a behavioral syndrome characterized by a loss of motivation that occurs in one-third of patients after stroke. Post-stroke patients with apathy suffer from greater functional impairment and demonstrate slower recovery times to normal functioning.
Fatigue may improve with time but it can also be persistent and some patients may never be completely free of it. Tasks that may have come easily before the stroke may be harder and therefore require more energy then they previously would. Management of fatigue is best done with lifestyle changes.
Medical experts often use the NIH Stroke Scale to determine the severity of a stroke. Patients that score between 21 and 42 (the highest possible score) are considered to have suffered a massive stroke.
For example, 79% of people survive 2 years, 61% survive 3 years, …, 5% survive 16 years, and only 1% survive 20 years.