Stroke recovery - advice please

[clouds87]

Hi, my DF (father) suffered a mini stroke two weeks ago, thankfully he is back home with my DM now.

It look's like - touch wood - he has been incredibly lucky, but he is sleeping terrible, and DM has had a to call an ambulance out twice as he has been convinced he is having another stroke.

What seems to be happening is its actually panic attacks, we assume due to the trauma of the original stroke. On the phone today he said in the info the hosptial gave him, there is a 1 in 4 chance of suffering amajor stroke withn 30 days :(

Does anyone have any tips on how we can help him through this? He has been very emotional when talking about it, and we have been reassuring him he is home now and we are all here. I wasn't sure whether to suggest councilling. Or if anyone has any sleep tips it would be appreciated.

The stroke was completely out the blue - he is reasonably healthy (we had been out on a 30mile bike ride that morning) ex-smoker from 30+ years ago. Its been a huge shock for us all...

Tia x

Hi op my df had a mini stroke - tia 21 years ago (my ds was a few months old is how I remember). I'm sure they are not exactly the same medical experiences but my df was 64 at the time, never had much illness before then except slightly raised cholesterol. We were all very worried at the time. He had to sleep quite a bit for the next few days but I think that was mainly from the mental shock. He didn't see him self as a susceptible to illness type of person; if that makes sense?

Maybe your df can access help from the medical people who saw him or his gp? Treat it as an anxiety issue. I believe it can cause mild depression afterwards as well. People can have strokes at any age. If your df is a certain age it might be his first brush with his own mortality so his reaction is understandable. Would he be open to reading a book about anxiety/panic attacks or look online? I would advocate family letting him talk about his worries as the best help. It might be one of those things where the more days going by without anymore illness the better he'd feel about everything. I hope he's got good medication he's happy with.

That statistic about likelihood of another stroke is not helpful with the mental aspect is it?

For what it's worth, my df is now 85 and has not had another tia or stroke and has only been getting a bit frail in the last couple of years. He gets annual check ups etc, medication adjusted if needed etc.

Hope I've not rambled on too much!

Contacting The Stroke Association might be a good thing to try?

I think that the experience really scared your father. Almost like a PTSD-type reaction. Have they put him on stroke prevention medications? You could reassure him, if that's the case. If they've arranged follow-up, that can also be reassuring.

He may need time to adjust to the new diagnosis and shock of it all. Like mentioned above, talking about it would help.

Hi thank you all so much for your replies. In reply to you all...

DF has recently turned 64 - so still ‘young’ in all of our eyes. And he has been told to reduced his chlorostorol as it’s a bit high but not too bad.

I think your right it has scared him so much, as it’s the first thing really that’s happened to him.

He is on medication, I’m not sure what but he takes it at night time - perhaps morning would be worth trying?

His Dad passed away from a heart attack 25 years ago so that’s possibly on his mind too (but he hasn’t mentioned it at all so we haven’t)

I’ll have a look on the stroke association website and hopefully go from there with some help. And perhaps some self help books like suggested.

Again a huge thanks to you all - and Tobee that’s so positive to hear your DF has done so well after his stroke x