My name is Julia. I had a small stroke in 2015 that only affected my ability to remember words. I made a full recovery in a very short time about 4 or 5 days in hospital and 3 or 4 weeks to be mostly back to my prior self.
I had a more serious stroke in December. that started with a lack of coordination and eventually lead to zero sensory feedback from my left side.but no paralysis or even weakness . They caught a right side MCA blockage on a CT and later did an MRI to check my cerrebellum, because after a detailed assessment from a neurological pysiotherapist that is what my symptoms suggested (part of that was ‘ataxia’). But my cerebellum was lesion free.
I feel very lucky in some ways. I was walking unaided approximately 8 weeks later and I had ticked off almost all of the things physio wanted me to achieve by April…carrying a hot drink, using public transport etc. However I am frustrated that none of the tasks are getting any easier, For example, I could walk to the bus stop very close to my house a few days after I could walk unaided, but I still struggle to walk from the bus stop to my sons house, which is about double the distance and both my arm and leg still stop working when i break concentration or can not see them. I also still have profound sensory loss, to the extent that I sat on my left foot on the floor and broke a number of toes. My body experienced shock…it knew something was wrong, and my right buttock could feel I was sttng on something but I had to yell 'what am I sitting on?'to my partner and he informed me it was my own foot.
That is ‘my story’ in a nutshell. I just wanted to introduce myself before jumping in with questions, because I do have questions that I feel are best asked of fellow survivors. I hope I can become part of ths community and I do intend to do more than just ask questions
@sgjools welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your stroke. Sounds like you’ve been through a lot but made some good early progress. I, like you, don’t seem to be able to progress with walking further either. As I’m sure you know it’s actually quite exhausting having to concentrate so much on your walking. It does get better in time though so we have to be patient. Difficult when you just want to get back to normal.
It must be weird not being able to feel things like sitting on your foot. Your poor toes hope they repair quickly.
Hopefully you’ll find this forum really helpful & supportive. Please ask away. There’s usually someone who can help.
Best wishes
Ann x
These two things you have stated are things that are still a daily occurrence in my post stroke life. I often ‘drop in’ on these forums and have found that there are others with similar experience. It is good to be able to share therapeutic ideas with other forum members.
Welcome to our forum. I find that I have to focus fully on my walking or a stumble is inevitable. I walk with a stick too. Sounds like you are doing reasonably well.
welcome to the forum Julia. Your poor toes. I’ve managed to stub mine and turn them blue but not to actually break them. If you have questions please ask. People have been so helpful to me.
Rups, your thread on Cerebellar Stroke was the first thing I read in these forums some fantastic information in there. I did not have any lesions to the cellebrum, but after doing much reading I still feel the ataxia explanation of my symptoms is accurate. One of my big questions is have others developed sensory ataxia without cellebrum lesions? But I’ll ask that again in an appropriate time and place.
The long and the short of it, yes. As the whole brain functions as a holistic network. Certain parts, however, have more authority with motor functions and are more likely to have sensory ataxia as a result of injury to that part. It’s all by degrees of damage, what’s been damaged and how neurotransmitters, once connected with the other damaged parts of the brain, attempt to reroute around the malfunction.
When people say, what’s the difference between a cerebellar stroke and a cerebrum stroke? The answer is that the cerebellar has a closer relationship to motor functions, just like the brain stem. So, many of the symptoms are sensory ataxia related, however, if the cerebrum is damaged it still needs to communicate with the healthy cerebellum and, if it is misfiring, the cerebellum can’t pass on the information to the motor functions. Conversely, if a damaged cerebellum tries to communicate to a healthy cerebrum, and misfires, the cerebrum can’t interpret the information that needs to get passed back or passed on to other functions.
I don’t have any medical training, just a keen enthusiasm for understanding what has happened to my brain, and how I can overcome the issues associated through that. The deeper I dig into brain matters, the better autonomy I seem to have over my symptoms.
Rups. Thank you again. Like you I cope better with health ssues when I understand them. I did some research on the dfference between cerebellum and cerebrum after reading this post. I think now there is a strong possibilty that something happened to my somatosensory nerve or cortex during the MCA stroke. Apparently that is very common in ischemic stroke. Even if that is not the case, I feel better knowing there is a potential explanation that makes sense.
hope they repair quickly.