talk to me about strokes

[youbethemummylion]

my Dad has had a stroke, he is only 59 this was about a month ago. He still has weakness in left side, drooping mouth, gets very tired, talks slowly and VERY quietly and as DS1 (4 years) put it "he's still like Grandad but not really really like Grandad" My parents have decided to approach the whole thing like they do everything that they find a bit scary/uncomfortable i.e. my Grandma's dementia (whole other thread) by pretending it's not happening/refusing to talk about it.

So really my question is will he ever get better or is this it? How likely is it that he will have another worse stroke? Is it wrong that I miss the old version of Dad?

Sorry to hear about your dad.
What kind of a stroke has he had?

Is he on medication or getting physio, speech therapy etc as these can help.

He is a young man so the more pro/active he is the better recovery.

My MIL had a stroke at 50. She was in hospital for 4 months. The council made some adaptations to her home, downstairs loo/wetroom, handrails etc. Although she remains a wheelchair user and gets a bit confused from time to time, she made a very good recovery, regained normal speech, could eat normally and became super adept with her 'good' arm. She went out around town by herself every day.
She is now 66 as has recently had another stroke and the recovery is much slower this time but getting there. One thing that has been worse this time is the depression, she is not working as hard at physio as she is so down about it all and wants to go home from hospital.
I wish your dad a speedy recovery.

I think depression might be a factor with Dad he has run his own business for a long long time, worked every hour god sends and has only recently retired and being an active 59 year old had loads of plans for spending his very hard worked for retirement! He is on medication but don't know about physio etc they just won't talk about it to me.

I'm sorry to hear that, I wish him well.

It's still 'only' a month and he is young so there could be quite a bit of improvement to come. Especially if he works really hard at it.

Is he getting assistance / physio / therapy at all? The more he gets, the better chance of recovering what's lost.

But you should be aware that there may well be a bit of your Dad that will not return.

Recovery can go on for weeks, months and even years but he is more likely to acheive his full potentail with input from the appropriate professionals.

I hope you can get them to speak to you about things and hope that his recovery continues.

It sounds like he has had a partial anterior circulation stroke.
This is not the worse kind of stroke, a total anterior circulation stroke (the worse kind) causes dense one sided weakness and severe speech problems.
In terms of his chances of developing another stroke, his chances are highest for the first month and remain fairly high for the first year
The good news is two fold.
Assuming that this has been a stroke caused by a clot, there are lots of medications and treatments that can reduce the chance of recurrence. And his function can improve.

He should have been screened for things that can cause clots and can be treated:
An irregular heart
A malformation in the heart
Vasculitis
Blockage of the blood vessels in the neck
Blood disorders that cause increased clotting
Heart disease
Diabetes

He should have been started on aspirin, dyperidamol, ramapril and simvastatin at least
He needs to have his blood pressure regularly checked and tightly controlled
All of these medications as well ad the detection and treatment of any causative illness can significantly reduce the chances of reoccurrence

In term of recovery,
During a stroke part of the brain dies and if not treated within 3 hours,is not salvageable, however areas surrounding the damage swell and it can take 6 weeks for this to subside.
This means the damage often seems much worse to begin with.
In addition to this, the brain can reprogram and relearn. This can take months and even years, but a good speech therapist and physio are worth their weight I'm gold in helping facilitate this recovery

Your dad is young and that will help speed his recovery but it will be a lot of hard work

I hope this answers some of ur questions. Feel free to get in touch if you want to know anything else
Pims x

Hi Thanks everyone for the very helpful and detailed responses. I will definately ask them if he is being sent for speech therapy or physio and suggest if not he should be asking doctor about it. Unfortuanately after the initial shock about the whole thing subsided they seem to have just accepted this is how he will be and don't seem to want to try and improve on it.