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.
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.
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.
The rate of recovery is generally greatest in the weeks and months after a stroke. However, there is evidence that performance can improve even 12 to 18 months after a stroke.
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 receiving prompt treatments during stroke attacks, the golden period of post-stroke rehabilitation is within 3-6 months. Rehabilitation helps stroke survivors relearn skills that are lost when part of the brain is damaged.
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.
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.
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.
There may be help available with healthy eating, being more active and increasing your fitness and strength, such as physiotherapy or a cardiac rehabilitation programme. If you feel that emotional changes play a part in your fatigue, you can ask about treatment for depression, including medication and counselling.
When a stroke damages the areas of the brain that control muscle movement, the signals between the brain and the muscles can become weakened or lost. As a result, the muscles are not able to respond as well to the brain's directions, and paralysis/weakness can set in.
Recovering from a stroke requires time, patience, and, perhaps most important of all, rest. Support and empathy from family members or a support group is highly encouraged as this can be a difficult process.
Excessive sleeping after stroke is common during the early stages of recovery as the brain strives to heal itself. However, excessive daytime sleepiness could signify other problems that should be discussed with one's doctor.
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.
You should limit sweets, cakes, biscuits and processed and fatty meats. It's important to also switch the saturated fats in your diet for unsaturated fats and to reduce your salt intake by avoiding high-salt foods like processed meats, salty snacks and ready-made soups, as well as not adding salt to foods.
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).
Inappropriate behaviour
This can happen after a stroke for a number of reasons. If you lose the ability to read social situations you won't know what's expected of you, so you may stand too close to other people, interrupt them when they're talking or not respond to their body language.
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.
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.
The first 90 days after recovery of a stroke are referred to as the 'golden period'. This phase is considered extremely important in the complete rehabilitation of a patient since most of the neurological recovery happens during this time.
Furthermore, the effect of stroke on cognitive function has been shown to be equivalent to aging 7.9 years (Levine et al., 2015). Previous studies have not directly compared brain age to chronological age in stroke.