Spinal stroke

[Sassy306]

So my DM (63) had a sharp pain in her back in June which within the hour had caused her to be completely numb from the waist down. she was admitted to hospital and spent 3 weeks having various tests Mri, CAT etc and they couldn't figure out what had caused it so released her with the promise of a 6 week check up appointment.

She has only just been given her check up yesterday 18 weeks post hospital stay and been diagnosed with a spinal stroke.

She is still completely numb, pins needles in both legs and walking with crutches but mostly wheelchair and it seems with physio and a lot of time she may be able to walk unaided again.

Anyone have any experience of this? Or tips on anything that helped your recovery?

Also, is it normal that it should take 18 weeks for them to come to this conclusion? If we had known this earlier she could have been doing physio for the last 4 months and made good progress but we were reluctant to visit physio or osteo without knowing exactly what was wrong in case it did more damage :/

Thanks

An acquaintance of mine had a spinal stroke which left them paralysed down one side initially.

Physios reckoned it was going to be a two year journey to reach ‘as good as it’s going to get’ and that has been fairly accurate. This person is very, very determined and set themselves physical goals to work towards (and set new ones after achieving them). They are not 100% compared to before, but they have returned to their hobbies, driving etc. Their progress has been remarkable, particularly as they are over 70.

Thank you for your reply. I'm glad your friend made a good recovery :)