Hi there,
I had a stroke in June. I am very lucky in that the effects are minor. My left leg sometimes feels a little heavy at times, which gets worse if I’m tired. And of course I am tired a lot of the time.
When I was discharged from the hospital I was told I couldn’t drive for a month. But no other information was given. Since then I have seen a nurse on the community stroke team who said that if my discharge notes didn’t mention anything about not driving after the month, then I can just ask my GP and they can confirm if I am able to drive.
I have been for a drive on an industrial estate with my partner. I had no issues whilst driving - I drive a manual car and made sure to test changing gears, stopping/hills starts etc. I didn’t feel any change or differnce (Have been driving for 20 odd years now). I wouldn’t need to make any adaption to my car or my style of driving.
My only concerns are more around making sure I don’t drive anywhere too far away in case I get tired. But my plan is just to stay local, and I have a partner who will most likely be with me in the car.
Given all the above, is it really the case that if I explain the above to my GP that I can just drive on the roads as normal?
Is anyone able to say what kind of questions will be asked?
I feel that I could go out and drive now but my worry is that if anything happened (I mean people drive like idiots around here, so an accident could happen that wasn’t related to my symptoms) that the DVLA will say I hadn’t been assessed properly or something.
Sorry for the ramblings, I just want my independnce back really, but want to make sure I’m doing things in the right way.
Hi Lucky Strike. I had to take an eye test after my stroke and as far as I know it’s obligatory. You have to go to Specsavers and its just like a normal eye test as far as I can remember plus a field test. Specsavers are not allowed to say whether you have passed or not and you have to wait for the DVLA to notify you. Hope that helps
My stroke was in my eye. I did a belt and braces job. My letter from the hospital said no driving for one month then I could drive if there was no lasting change to my vision. I booked an eye test which I passed in terms of driving although my sight has changed. I was shocked that I got 100% on the field of vision test. I then phoned DVLA just to be sure. I was told on the phone that I could drive and now have a letter from DVLA confirming this. I had to let my insurance company know but it didn’t change the premium, just cost me the admin fee.
I’ve been driving a few weeks now and am slowly building up how far I can drive. Some days I choose not to drive at all. I’m usually on my own in the car, I also get very tired but can usually rest for an hour or so then carry on with what I was doing. I’ve broken my driving down into short chunks and planned rest stops.
Welcome to the community, I’m sorry to hear about your stroke.
It sounds like you’ve made good progress. With regards to driving, we have some information on our website about this which you may find helpful. I’m sure some more members will also be along to share their experiences with returning to driving too.
If you need anything whilst you’re using the Online Community, please don’t hesitate to tag me using the @ symbol and my username.
Hi @LuckyStrike and welcome to the community. When I had my stroke I tried reporting it to the DVLA in the 1st month as I had been told I couldn’t drive for 3 months and had to ge cleared begord I could return to driving. My stroke caused vision issues hence the 3 months. When i tried reporting it they basically said they weren’t interested in the 1st month and I only needed to contact them if I had any ongoing issues after that month. So in essence I think the advice you have had is correct.
Have a look at this link which explains it in more detail.
