Hello everyone, I just thought I'd cast a query out there regarding brain fog. I'm now six months on from my stroke and the thing that knocks me about most is brain fog. Can I ask if it lifts at all or does it reduce its regularity, or does it persist? People's experience would be most helpful.
My brain fog symptoms are a tightness in the brain, a shushing sound, mild confusion, a sort of vibratory feeling when I scratch my head, and at times a mild headache.
I'd just thought I'd add to this original post, thank-you foremost for the recent replies. I have a very distinct shift from "brain fog" to a clear head. I can feel it dramatically, the cloud lifts. I'm not sure which way round it all is, whether I get the fatigue and then brain fog or the brain fog makes me fatigued. Resting doesn't seem to make a lot of difference but I do it anyway. It's pretty awful in the morning and sometimes takes me all the way through to sleep but last night, for instance, I had a wonderfully clear head. It affects me randomly it feels.
I think brain fog affects many of us, but in slightly different ways. By noon every day my brain seems to lose interest in doing much and my head feels cloudy. This is when I have my mid day nap. Am fine afterwards. No idea why this occurs, but perhaps the brain eases off when we sleep and then gets a rush of stimulus in the morning that requires rest.
What I have also noticed is that if I try to do too many things, I feel tired and dozy minded. I then stop and rest again. From time to time I also get what seem to be little electric charges on my stroke side at the back of the head. I assume this is part of the brain re-wiring.
So far as I know, there is very little information available on how the brain functions after stroke, unless someone knows better.
most of us find the stroke fatigue eases very slowly over the months and years. So slowly we dont notice, but it does get better. Some find we get longer breaks, some find its severity lessens.
I think the most common is reduction of severity and frequency over about two years.
It is often the case that loss of hearing etc can worsen the SF. Could you perhaps try to get medical help about the shushing. Most medical people want you to present with a specific, eg shushing noises, rather than presenting with "stroke problems".
The confusion could well ease once the shussing and SF have eased.
i had two odd days when the SF lifted. What a wonderful feeling. But then it returned . About four years for me, i think this is longer than most.
Many of us have common problems but no two strokes are the same.
My neurologist told me they didn’t think what I described as brain fog was caused by the stroke but by the medication. Medication may need to be adjusted as my blood pressure is lower than it should be at my age.