can I rant? I know I’m lucky to have recovered as well as I have but I can not cope with the fatigue it comes from nowhere and I hate it. How long does it take to have prestroke energy levels. I just want to be able to tend my allotment plots. Here I am feeling sorry for myself when I have got use of my right side and right leg back
4 Likes
I am one yr out , can walk and drive but the damn stiffness, pain and fatigue are enough to make me want to SCREAM. Want to rant every day.
3 Likes
Its awful I can’t cry as I take anti depressants but I feel like crying and then i try telling myself that i could be like those in the hospital
2 Likes
Hello @Veggiepatch. It’s a conundrum isn’t it? You feel able compared to many, and fortunate in that respect, but are acutely aware that there has been a massive shift for you. The fatigue has eased somewhat for me, but I know it’s still lurking in the background. I’m nearly 2 years in and contrary to advice I often hear I try and build resistance by challenging where the fatigue line lies. That said I do give in and rest when I absolutely need to for safety if nothing else.
I too love my veg patch and I know it will only thrive if I push a little out of my comfort zone.
Good growing, Julia x
5 Likes
I (& probably most of us on here) totally understand how you feel. Like Julia, I’m also coming up to 2 years and still battling with it. It really can be managed fairly well if you take regular breaks and don’t over do things…but in the real world, especially when work gets busy, you don’t follow that advice. This what I’m finding at the moment.
I’m sure we are all slightly different when it comes to fatigue, but I am currently thinking it is going to be something that will need managing for the rest of my life. I was never one to take it steady but now it is so important to keep trying to ease back.
Sorry that my experience won’t necessarily be the answer you want to hear, but in times when I have been able to pace myself it certainly helps a huge amount.
Keep persevering and things will improve a bit, but you will need patience.
3 Likes
@Veggiepatch its nearly 4 months since my stroke and the fatigue is the lasting present left by it. I have no visible effects but im not myself because my brain isnt how it used to be. I always feel ungrateful when i talk about how the fatigue rules my life because i know there are those who never walk again, or speak again with their loved ones. I have a great deal to be grateful for but fatigue has made a different person. I have to think about what I am doing and when I can do it always mindful if i over do it today I will pay for it tomorrow. Sorry not answered your question and TBH i dont think there is an answer, the only advice i have been given repeatedly is listen to your mind/body, if you need to rest then rest.
Good luck and hope youre able to tend to your allotment plots soon
2 Likes
@Veggiepatch rant away although that was a very small and restrained rant. 
I can sympathise with the need to rant I was born right handed and it just doesn’t work and because I overstress the left it now has all sorts of problems.
I’m over two and a half years and actually I think the fatigue is getting worse. I don’t really have a coping mechanism. I just keep going till I have to go flump and as soon as I feel able i get out and start again - perhaps that is the coping mechanism that I choose to use?
as a fatigue builds so my speech and affected side deteriorate, thinking fragments and some times I feel nauseous.
it is the garden where I tend to get the most fatigue doing things like spreading a metre cubed compost bin across various beds and forking under the horn beams where there are lots of roots.
I guess my personal philosophy which I offer in the hope it gives you perspective to compare the one that you’ve adopted is that I just have to live with the current reality. Therefore I approach everything as best I can without schedule but with objectives. I work on them serendipitously, I.E. as I feel able and motivated and I stop when Im forced to which is often fatigue and sometimes rain. then i move into my shed. I have a variety of objectives not all of which require physical effort and I intermix them so I might do a bit of planting and then I go and take the hedge trimmer apart and then do a bit more planting and a bit of compost moving and then go look the components in the hedge trimmer up on the eBay and lament that I’ll probably have to buy a new one because I can’t find a circuit diagram. I do the compost moving by filling the wheel burrow and then going off and doing something else before coming back moving at an emptying it where I want the compost.
I think that if you’re coping mechanism is to throw a rant every now and again and it’s gentle as the one that’s the OP to this thread then go ahead We’re here to listen.
1 Like
@Veggiepatch like everyone else has said i think fatigue is all about trying to manage it. Easier said than done when trying to just live your life. Mine has eased a bit but still wipes me out a lot but in a differebt way i think.
Hopefully yours will improve more & you’ll get back to the things you love.
Take care xx
1 Like
Good things come to he who waits 
You’re 5mths post stroke and your still has a lot of recovery to make, it takes it out of you…whether you want it to or not! 
Have you tried taking multivitamins as maybe something needs an additional boost or a daily nutrient shake like Complan for a time to see if that might help with it.
I’m 2yrs 5mths post stroke, yes I can get tired from doing too much but I don’t have the fatigue I had of the first 6mths. I recon it was the folic acid my doctor prescribed and still take it daily but just over the counter strength. I’m also taking B12 and Calcium (with magnesium, zinc and D3); I think that covers enough to keep me active
So as frustrating as all this is for you, you just need to give it more time, it’ll get better…just at its own pace
2 Likes