DM had stroke 3 weeks ago, scared about slow recovery

[eastegg]

Looking for some reassurance after my DM had an ischaemic stroke 3 weeks ago. At first I was terrified about what would happen to her and my dad, then relieved that she's doing really well in terms of speech, swallowing and cognition. Saw her last weekend for the second time (I'm 200 miles away) and she seemed to have got her personality back to a large extent which is great.

But iI'm really worried about her lack of movement on her left side. It's got better but really slowly. The arm doesn't seem to have any movement at all but has a bit more sensation than at first. I had thought it was early days but today there was a family meeting with my Dad and brother and the care team seem to be saying they would expect more improvement by now and they don't seem to think it's looking very good.

So worried, about long term disability and about recurrence. She is 74 and was really fit and well but on BP meds and statins (hereditary stuff, always had a healthy lifestyle). Didn't qualify for clot-busting.

Thanks for listening. Has anyone experience of good outcomes even though movement was very limited at this sort of stage?

Sorry should have said I think she's had good care so far. Straight to a HASU then to local hospital 2 days later where the physios seem to be working really hard.

Hmm .. I'm not sure it's quite what you were after, but I remember being on a caving trip with a guy, I think in his mid 60s, who had had a stroke and didn't have any movement in one of his arms. He needed a bit of help in a crawl over a deep pool, but otherwise was fine.

Hi, My Mum had a stroke in 2018 (10 months after my Dad passed away) and I live half way across the world.
I was home for a month with her and she has made a good recovery, partly helped by her sense of humour and positive attitude. (The mix up of words was/is still funny)
She still has limited movement in her arm and her peripheral vision from one eye never really returned, but she she says she feels about 85-90% like her old self.
She can use her phone and iPad a little but if things get too much, she says her brain ‘switches off’ and she needs to sleep. She still has problems with numbers, bank PIN numbers etc, passwords.
Oh, she also, she thinks maybe had another small one about 6 months later, went to hospital and was home and O.K. within 2 or 3 days. (Didn’t tell me of course! Silly woman!)
So, it’s a long road to recovery and everyone is different, but encourage positivity and a little laughter :-)

Is she on a specialist rehab ward and/or will she get further rehab sessions once she leaves hospital? Encourage her to take up whatever rehab help is on offer. Have they spoken to you about blood thinning therapy?

Could you ask the physios for exercise sheets and encourage her to do them? The more she can practise the more new brain pathways have a chance to develop.

DM had a stroke about five years ago at a slightly older age than your mum. It's a long slow process but although she has weakness on one side she still has enough use of her hand to grip things and even to write.

Thanks for the replies.

I think it's a specialist ward Cathy, she's certainly getting a lot of physio and input from occupational therapists, and yes there are exercise sheets and my dad is doing lots of massaging her arm which he's been shown. She's extremely determined to walk again at least so she's doing everything she's being told.

Those who have experience of stroke recovery, can you remember what things were like in the early days and weeks and when most of the improvement happened? My big worry sparked by yesterday's meeting is that most of the improvement might have already happened. And DM is a long way from walking I think, although she is practising standing and taking maybe one or two steps heavily aided.

I'm glad your mums seem to have made pretty good recoveries tdaadfb and Cathy, it must have been hard.

Encouraging to hear it described as a long slow process because that gives me hope x

It was months not weeks, east. She was on the rehab ward for six weeks having spent some time (maybe a couple of weeks? can't quite remember) on an acute ward first. They didn't allow discharge until assessments had been made and they also provided some living aids.

It's all a bit of a blur but I remember initially she was transported in a wheeled stander and wheelchair in the rehab ward and encouraged to sit in her chair but was 'walked' by the physios as her time there progressed and they were assessing discharge. When she left she had a four pronged walking stick and as the months went by gradually downgraded it herself until she had a day to day one and now manages without that - just left with a limp.

From memory improvement happened quite noticeably over about six months and a bit more slowly over a year. She insists she's still improving (speech and spelling has been affected) but truth be told I didn't see much new after the first year. That said she lives independently even though Df died a couple of years after the stroke and she still drives intermittently (needed an assessment for this) so there is hope. Don't worry about asking the hospital anything. They're used to it.

Thanks Cathy that's so helpful. If your mum was on a rehab ward for 6 weeks and had gone on to walk well then that is really encouraging for me. I think maybe the team at the meeting yesterday were being more negative about her arm than her leg and I've taken it as bad news about everything. So hard being far away.
She's been doing standing on the wheeled walker as well and apparently took a couple of aided steps. And she's strengthening her torso with lots of sitting up exercises in the wheelchair. I'm hoping there's lots of progress still to come.

These things can’t be rushed. My observation suggests that those fortunate stroke sufferers who ‘recover’ need huge amounts of rest for the first few months - as well as physio and psychological help.

Three weeks is no time at all. Be patient.

Thanks surprise. I thought 3 weeks was early days as well and was feeling quite positive until the family meeting yesterday when the gist seemed to be 'we'd hoped for a bit more improvement by now '.

I would be thinking more like six months. Just because the medical team might have hoped for some other, specific things by this point, doesn't mean she won't make more progress. Her being determined and following the advice of the rehab team will stand her in good stead.

To look at it another way, too, her having got her personality back is the main win. Not everyone does.