Some people regain full use of their arm in the weeks after a stroke. Many others still have some weakness, pain, or other problems with their arm. You may continue to benefit from arm therapy. Your medical team can tailor your treatment plan to your needs.
It can take many months before post-stroke fatigue starts to lift. The more you push yourself the worse you are likely to feel. Accepting that it takes time to improve can help you to cope better. Keep a written or visual diary of how much you are doing each day.
Depending on the parts of your brain affected by the stroke, rehabilitation can help with movement, speech, strength and daily living skills. Stroke rehabilitation can help you regain independence and improve your quality of life.
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.
After a stroke, it's common to have some physical, speech, and mental health problems. But most post-stroke side effects and symptoms will improve with time and rehabilitation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body. Sudden confusion, trouble speaking, or difficulty understanding speech. Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes. Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance, or lack of coordination.
Some of the most common effects of stroke are physical. You may experience muscle weakness, paralysis, stiffness or changes in sensation, usually on one side of your body. These effects can make it harder to move some parts of your body, and you may struggle with everyday activities.
Hemiparesis is weakness or the inability to move on one side of the body, making it hard to perform everyday activities like eating or dressing.
The first question a stroke survivor should ask:
Did I have a white stroke or a red stroke? Of people who survive a first white stroke, within 1 year 8% will have another one (1), and within 2 years 11% will have a second one (2). In one study, 39% of second strokes were fatal (2).
People often ask when it is safe to fly after a stroke. It is probably best to avoid flying for the first two weeks. This is the time when your problems are likely to be most severe and other conditions related to your stroke may come up.
The initial recovery following stroke is most likely due to decreased swelling of brain tissue, removal of toxins from the brain, and improvement in the circulation of blood in the brain. Cells damaged, but not beyond repair, will begin to heal and function more normally.
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.
Other brain cells die because they are damaged by sudden bleeding in or around the brain. 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.
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.
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.
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.