I was in hospital with what turned out to be an old stroke. They couldn’t tell me how old. I was doing really well. Had managed to get on to crutches to walk. I have now gone backwards to using a Zimmer. I feel so frustrated. I also get awful spasms in my legs arms and back. I also get a terrible burning in my left leg. Has anyone else had these symptoms and have the regressed in any way?
@celtic_karma just popping along to say hi & welcome to the community. Stroke recovery can be full of ups & downs. Try not to get too frustrated & keep going. Easy for me to say i know. Simon has provided some links that may help re your spasms etc.
There is also a thing called decompensation which might be worth a look.
Best wishes
Ann
Thank you all for your warm welcome! It’s great to be able to talk to people who are in the same position.
Much love to all of you
Just popped in to say Hi @celtic_karma. There’s nothing I can add to what’s already been said, but I just wanted to welcome to the forum and look forward to seeing you around on here
HI everyone - I’m sorry to hear that others a backsliding a little as well , but in a way I’m also relieved as my partner keeps telling me that any gains lost are my fault for not working hard enough…gawd i work hard on exercises every day to the detriment of everything else in my life! I’m desperate for this nightmare to be over and am sure it will be one day if i only keep working at it…
It’s absolutely not your fault it happens to all of us I think. You nay be working too hard & causing fatigue which could makeyou feel like you’re going backwards.
Keep going you will get there.
I suppose partner could be right in a way, in that it is “your” brain that is at fault ultimately, after all it has had a stroke
But as we keep on saying here, recovery is marathon not a race. It years, not weeks or months, because the brain has so much to do right now.
It has maintain all current functionalities that haven’t been lost or damaged.
As @SimonInEdinburgh has already said, the full impact is still emerging, much like a ripple in a pond when you throw a pebble in. Only time will tell if that is all!
It has to heal/repair the damage done, if it can and, again, only time will tell.
It has a lot of relearning/retraining to do to regain lost/damaged functions however it can. And your brain is working day and night 24/7 to do all that, so it also needs you to eat well and get frequent rest periods and sleep when/if you can.
Every step of the way is going to be two steps one step back, sometimes two back. That’s just the way it is, but, it will get better, there is always hope.
My stroke was TIA’s over 3½ years and only this Wednesday gone, I recovered a bit more functionality in my stroke foot.
My stroke was not nearly as bad as many on here, but I do still have minor deficits such as foot drop and Supination (rolls outwards), which is much improved from the beginning. My calf and foot had been feeling weird for quite a few days, twinges and muscles fluttering constantly, on Wednesday I felt an almighty click in the sole of my foot and now my foot doesn’t roll over anymore! And I’ve been working of my recovery every single day since I had my stroke! It took about 10 months just for the brain fog to clear. It took 18 months to 2 years for cognition to return.
They are just a few examples to demonstrate how long things can take to return to “normal” IF they can. And there is no way to speed up recovery; I think we’ve all learnt that one the hard way. But you still have to do the work for it because it’s all about repetitions in order to retrain the brain.
You know, it might be an idea to show your partner this post or a few of the other to give him a better understanding by seeing it from our perspective. Even the experts can’t understand it as well as we can because there’s just not enough knowledge about the brain yet. You have to have lived through it to truly know and understand.
Yes, its all about pacing yourself but you have to find that pace first and that’s done through some trial error