Waking up from stroke coma? What is she doing?

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Hello folks!

It is I, advocate for Mum wondering what she is doing.

Mum has recently been seen massaging or trying to straighten or move her right hand/fist (this is paralysed side) with her left hand (non-paralysed). This can look quite aggressive in the way she does it and I am struggling to understand why she has “suddenly” started doing this (possibly in the last week or two).

  1. Is it possible she has been in some sort of stroke coma/memory loss whereby she was not aware of her stroke and has now suddenly awoken and is wondering why her right hand is not responding?

  2. Is she angry with her hand?

Mum has never shown the “text book” behaviours that someone in her condition are supposed to show until now and I am wondering why that might be - I know many don’t like this phrase, but she really does look like someone “Who doesn’t look like they’ve had a stroke”.

In addition to the hand activity, she has also been exhibiting another “new” behaviour which might be psychotic - seeing things, picking at her dress. This I understand might be “end of life” behaviour and dementia (GP has suggested she might be getting accelerated dementia).

Note:
A trigger might be a recent family gathering that she attended for the first time since her stroke. There were lots of people there, noise etc.
She seemed fine at the time and also when she came home and for a few days after. But just recently something triggers the above behaviours.

A possible fuel to the fire might be a visit from her niece this weekend when the niece and one of the daughters started taking about family history and the often contentious subject of heritage. Mum has had a troubled time with family “diddling” her inheritance or simply taking advantage of her good nature for their financial gains. Though she had accepted these as things that happen in life in the days before the stroke and she had reconciled with the offending parties, this may still be niggling her subconscious and now her stroke brain might be bringing it to the fore.

I have spoken with her and she has “assured” me she is OK with this and I have reminded her that she must not dwell on the past or think about it and focus on the here and now and the excellent recovery she has made to date.

But I can imagine it is not easy especially when through ignorance people discuss these things in her presence forgetting she fully understands what is being discussed even though she cannot verbally contribute.

Another thing for you to consider and chip in with.

As always, thanking you in advance and appreciative of any help, especially now with so much going on.

Up the Stroke Survivors!
Up the Carers!
Namaste|
:pray:

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It is difficult to say for sure but maybe your mum is starting to feel some sensation in her hand and maybe it is a bit painful or feels weird & her actions are her trying to ease those sensations. It is very hard to say what might be going on. Dementia is a possibility too. There are clinics that can look at that as a possibility if you can get a GP referral. Given that think your mum may have had some seizures or mini strokes today perhaps there is some brain activity going on that is causing it.

That’s probably no help at all.

Best wishes

Ann

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I wondered same as @Mrs5K, could it be mum is feeling some new sensation in her arm that’s irritating? So hard to say and certainly wouldn’t hazard a guess at this stage.

I have seen folk with dementia/Alzhimers doing this thing with picking invisible lint or soch off clothing and such, and certainly the hallucinations. Both my mother, my father-in-law being the more recent. He would see children on a hill outside the window of his care home. The only thing outside that window was an empty garden. Always bothered by his clothes, often wondered when his mum was getting home. We could be sitting alone together and he’d suddenly start asking about another person supposedly in the room. I do think some of the hallucination was more visual distortion as his sight deteriorated, or rather, the brain’s gradual disconnection with the sight as the brain deteriorated.

So yes, it can be end of life behaviour, the later stage of dementia/Alzhimers. But even that can go on for months or years depending. It might help you to check out the Alzhimers forum https://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/ the members on there might better relate to your mum’s condition and talk it with the members there.

Lorraine

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The issue with your mum’s right hand is that she feels sensation in it but the muscles have atrophied.and are therefore very weak. This happened to my mother-in-law a few years ago. Her stroke was on the left side of her brain, meaning manifestation in her right half of her body. For awhile she couldn’t walk. Then one day she told my wife on the phone that her foot was itching. The next day, the foot was burning. Afterward, she took daily walks in the hallway of her nursing home to build up strength. Granted that she is 23 years older than my wife is, and my wife is 42. (This proves to me that older people are capable of stroke recovery just as younger people are.)

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Hello @masChelsea - thank you for your feedback.

Mum is in her mid-90s and is recovering from her stroke and has made a remarkable recovering considering her starting point. To this day she continues to improve and yes, she has set backs such as this one but somehow she always manages to work things out.

What you suggest is almost what is happening and what she is doing is trying to “wake up” her hand.

Mum’s believe and I and her family concur that anyone is capable of recovering from stroke. What is needed is right frame of mind, good support and a little bit of luck. Age has never been a barrier for Mum in anything she has ever done and it isn’t now. Sadly for her others and especially the medical profession on whom she has become more reliant than she would like does not agree :frowning:

So, yes it is is likely Mum will use her right hand, she will walk and she will talk. Her right leg is now fully straight (it was paralysed by the stroke). With a bit of physio she will fully control that leg. As a side effect, her left leg that wasn’t paralysed became atrophied and we are working on it to bring it back to normal and just as your mother-in-law did, so my Mum will too :slight_smile:

And in closing, as I tried to suggest by the title of this post, maybe Mum is coming out of a coma and now she is on an exponential path of recovery. Maybe her brain has been rewiring/resetting for the past six plus years and she has been passively doing things and now she is going for it full tilt :slight_smile:

We might have to rein her in a little to stop the neurons mis-firing and causing mini-seizures.

Up the Stroke Survivors!
Up the Carers!
Namaste|
:pray:

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