Hello all,
Had had a stoke about 3 months ago. I thought I would be better by now, but unfornutley & I am not. Thought I would be better at 2 months & now it is at 3 mths and little difference. Was trying to receive results in 2 months but it looks havent change after 3 months. I have know idea when this when change. I suffer asphia at present & contertasion issue. Hard writing this. I am now feeling at is low. Now ideas at all?
Darin
Dear Darin
Sorry to hear of the stroke that bit you three months ago.
Us survoivors have to think in time scales that are far from that experienced with other ailments. I help keep myself sane by writing a stroke diary. Then I look back and see that I am progressing. I had a bad time around 3 months, seemed to go backwards. But it picked up and progress followed. I had aphasia and I didnt really understand what was happening with this part of a stroke. My brain had forgotten how to deal with language. Eventually I realized I could help my brain re learn. The first issue were echos. My brain just didnt get the hang of an echo. So most PA systems sent me in to, quite literally, a spin. But things will get better. Only last month I realized I could sing. My voice box was actually doing whta I wanted. Up till then it was a strain.
Writing was so variable. Now its improved but I will get more improvement.
I was always positive. I smiled a lot (do try it, smiling is an amazing generaotor for your brain). I drank the extra litre of water a day, despite hating every glassful.
And now I am gradually reaping the rewards.
I can drive, dig the garden and have even taken on a voluntary very part time job.
Lots of us are out here rooting for you, you are not alone.
Colin
Hello Colin,
How long ago the you recive your stoke? When did your speech return to normal? Where long was it when you who read about book? sorry for the endless lesson.
Darin
Dear Darin
I do not mind the endless lesson. Good people helped me at the beginning and I am happy to pass on whatever I have learned.
The stroke bit me 13/12/2015 so thats 33 months ago. My speech got to being OK after 5 months. It will never return to what it was before stroke. But its good enough for now. Recovery will go on for as long as is necessary. Never give up, your amazing brain will rewire and rework given time.
I wrote my diary from two weeks, ie from about 28/12/2015. I am still writing it every day.
Ask anything. I will try and give any help that I can.
Best wishes
Colin
Colin you are such a star 
and always there when someone needs reassurance or guidance.
The cheque is in the post Nic.
Colin
Hello Colin,
I am talking a little now. Get away the convestasion at moment at stammer on words. People dont mind when I do. My reading & writing are worse at present but will hope an will improve over time. am ready to go then to work in 2 weeks though I am very nervous. Part time at present until full time occurs. Tried to get better after 2 months & now the 3 months till no different. Sleeping a little tricky at moment, very little.
thanks
Darin
That sounds good on the speech front.
You need the sleep. You need to rest.
I assume you had a regular full stroke, do you have your written diagnosis ?
Stroke recovery doesnt usually complete in 3 months. I hope you are one of the few who have recovered enough to try to get a full life running.
Do be very careful. Most of us are not ready to do full time work until 9 months or so. Some of us take two years and even more. Please get rest. It must be very hard with a 9 year old, but you still need to get rest. I am 33 months and I have to rest every 45 minutes. And I get a good nights sleep (for me a good night is 7.5hrs). The stroke that bit me was not big, in fact quite small. I know every one of us is different.
Good luck Darin. Do ask anything.
Colin
Hi Darin,
Please don't be disheartened, I also had my stoke about 3-4 months ago (17th June) and I am struggling with my recovery. At first, in the first 6 weeks, my recovery was amazing, I even shocked myself, I couldn't believe my recovery but then it slowed down. At this precise moment I feel like I am going backwards, not a great feeling.
Unfortunately there is no time scale that can be given to stroke survivors on the recovery because no two peple are the same as are no two strokes - from what I can gather most people have an improvement after 6 months, this was and is the hardest thing for my to accept, but I am getting there.
Don't give up I bought a colouring book, felt tips pens, dot to dot book and read out aloud to myself. I do these things daily (I lost my ability to right too). Keep practising, every day, it helps, we need to reprogramme our brains to be able to do these things again.
Thank godness for spell check! It is beyond me how my pc knows what I am trying to type and to that I am very grateful, using my mobile phone to text is another matter and on a daily basis I manage to delete my message I am typing becasue of my hand co-ordination. I have also avoided speaking to people due to not being able to get my words out, slurring, dribbling and infrequent shouting of single words because I am struggling to get across what I want to say. Oh and yawning and switching off mid-conversation!!
People will understand, you need to teach them, I frequently tell new people if I yawn it isn't because you are boring it is a recovery process of surviving a stroke but I always add it is a great excuse though if you are boring, gets them every time.
Hang in there, keep practising every day, it will get easier, I belong to a local stroke group that meets once a month, I have received such inspiriation from my fellow survivors, could that be an option for you? Just remember you are a survivor, tell yourself this everyday, even on the good days, take care and remember there are so many of us, the support is here.
Mandy x
p.s. it took me 45 minutes to writie this post double checking that I made sense and there is no spell check!
Hello Mandy,
My partner is helping me write this response, I had a stroke on 3rd July this year. the first 6 to 8 weeks were really good for me and I made excellent progress, both my partner and son were home as it was the school holidays so I had lots of company. then all the early support therapy team stopped coming and sudenly I was on my own, my son went back to school and partner to work and i found this very hard. Things seemed to go down hill from there, and depression set in, I now have terrible depression and anxiety, I even find it hard to leave the house alone and that is not me! I am on anti-depressants but as yet that have not started to work. I was due to go back to work this week but have had to be signed off for a further month. I have a speech therapist, OT and Phsychologist helping me once a week and I attend a stroke club and soon will be attending a Headway support group so I am doing all I can but still am finding things very hard.
Thank you for your comments it does help to hear of people in similar situations.
All the best.
Darin
Hi Darin,
Sorry to hear about your stroke but be reassured that it is early days yet and things will get better but it takes time. I had a lacunar infarct in February and have short term memory loss as well as feeling low in the morning. I take antidepressants at night to help me sleep and they do help. Before I took them I only slept for a couple of hours which was not great and didn’t help with the anxiety I had. All these symptoms are due to the stroke and they do settle once you realise they are due to the stroke and you will adapt to them.
It sounds like you are getting a lot of help so I would definitely continue with that, especially the Phycologist and stroke club, they will help you lots. Take your time going back to work if you return too soon you may find you get too tired.
Dont worry about any setbacks, I’m sure we all get them. I sometimes think I’m much better, but then someone asks me a question and I can’t think of the answer or give the wrong answer, and then I think oh well maybe I’m not that much better after all. - hope that makes sense to you. Try reading through some of the posts on here and you will see others who have similar symptoms to you and how they manage them - it makes it all seem a bit less scary.
All the best with your recovery.
Ann
Dear Darin
Sorry to hear about your stroke.
I can so very much relate with the six to eight week set back. I honestly felt like I had been sailing in a fine cruise ship (my friends really were and they sent frequent emails of their passage across the Pacific) and then after six weeks I was put in a rowing boat whilst the ship sailed off. Horrible.
But I refuse to allow depression to get its hold. The stroke aftermath will send wave after wave of depressive thoughts to you. Now I did have clinical depression some years ago, and so I knew what was happening. I refused to let it grip me. Smile four times a day and be positive. Write down what you can do and not what you can not. My stroke diary often ceers me up, looking back at what I was like and then looking at what I am like now.
Depression is such a drawn out thing and we could do without that. If however it gets you then be assured the medication will work. Unless you are determined that it wont. So much is down to us. Help is great but it is only us who can effect the recovery.
The therapy you are currently doing is really good. Well done Darin for getting on with that. One thing, well one of many things, that caught me out was post traumatic stress. I didnt realize that the shock of the actual stroking had left a massive defect in me. Counselling sorted me out a lot.
I have needed so much rest. And fighting against that doesnt work for me. I wouldnt even think of returning to work for some time. Unless your job is routine and with zero stress (not many of those jobs left are there). Stroke is the most awful affliction and we need so much time to get some recovery. Your poor brain is damaged and at your stage it is trying so hard to work around the damage(Medic speak is neuro plasticity). Your brain needs rest and lots of water.
I now like to be left on my own. Its the only way I can sort myself out. At present my wife is away for 4 days and I can live these days at my pace. Anxiety is a right pain.
Please believe in yourself. You survived and many strokes kill. So we must do the best we can, mustnt we.
Best wishes
Colin
Dear Darin, I'm sorry to hear about your stroke.As a wife of someone who had a life changing stroke at 52, he's now 66 , recovery can be slow but with a lot of help,determination,patience and smiles(Colin) , things can improve. David was in an NHS rehab unit for 3 months. At first he could do absolutely nothing but he received amazing nursing care and daily had all the various therapies that he needed and he happily participated in them. I'm talking about re learning all life skills from the beginning. Reading all your different stories it seems that a lot of people have come home and feel that they have no real aftercare, follow up, support and it's frightening .I was told that sleep was essential, as much as possible. Water as well, definitely if David was really tongue tied, muddled, even now, water helps a lot. Sorry there's so much to say but having been through many situations with David I hope I can be of help to other people.
Hi Darin, Other’s have given you sensible advice. I can only reinforce what they have said. Six weeks is very little time and stroke affects us all in different ways. Mine was two and a half years ago and, immediately, all kinds of emotions kick in: fear, anxiety, sleeplessness, but also profound relief at being alive, safe and more appreciative of living life every day.
Progress is always good at first. I had to learn to walk again, get dressed, tie shoe laces etc., unfortunately, as soon as I got home post stroke fatigue kicked in and I still have to rest every day. But my walking improved further and I can now cook and bake again, which continues to help improve my hand and arm. I also go to exercise classes three times a week.
You have reached the first potential stumbling block...when support ends and others go back, as they must, to their own lives. However, you are relatively young, have a loving partner and son, so time and the ability to improve much further are there. Fortunately, I did not lose speech or memory, although those who know me might say I lost my marbles years ago.
At one point, my consultant said to me, ‘Although you are not yet the person that you were, remember to be the person you are now’. That was the best advice I had. I keep pushing myself, but also know when to rest and recover quietly. Since my stroke I have come across many much worse than me and they haven’t had a stroke but have to live with other life changing conditions.
In my first year post stroke, I wrote a poem a day, both as something to take up time, but more importantly, to reflect on the smaller world around me and the beauty of the every day. I do get frustrated, but every time I feel depression coming on I will not allow it to get me down. I’m still standing...maybe not as well as I did before but I am not giving in. I will fight till I drop!
Finally, I understand your wish to get back to work, but it is important only to do this when you feel the time is right. Good luck to you!
Headway Hertfordshire has had a massive impact on my life and I’m still so grateful to them. I am 7 years post Stoke and still attend the group 