Hi! I've just joined today. I had my stroke 3 weeks ago and I'm 40 and an emotional wreck. Obviously Im Tiring very easily but trying to take it easy but also trying to push myself a bit everyday if possible. Yesterday I went for a little walk around my town and and about 3 or 4 times I got the feeling in my coming up from my legs into my body as of I was going to pass out. Each time it only lasted a couple of minutes then faded off. Has this happened to anyone else? I've got so many questions feel like I've just came out of hospital and I don't know what to do no one has told me if I'm supposed to be putting appointment on with Dr's or if I'm supposed to get my bloods checked, which a couple of people have told be I should be and they referred to some yellow book? It's all just too much I'm not coping at all xx
Hi and welcome! Sorry to hear about your stroke. You should have been medication from the hospital before you were discharged. If not, then definitely do see your GP for advice about the faint feeling. The 'yellow book' people mention to you is for warfarin. Stroke patients are usually put on Clopidogrel or aspirin to thin their blood out. Warfarin is usually for people with heart problems although some people may have both. It depends which kind of stroke you had - a blood clot or a bleed of the brain. Feeling faint and weak could be a sign of tiredness too as your brain has to work really hard in the first 3 months to 're-wire' itself. Rest when you need to and don't try and push yourself too far as this normally ends up making you feel worse. You'll get lots of help on here and there are some really useful videos on this site to help you through the first stages. Keeping a diary of how you feel is good too so you can monitor your progress over the months ahead. Hope that helps.
It was a clot, Yeah I've been given medication, but I just feel like I've been given that sent home and expected to crack on. Some one from stroke team came out about a week later but only answers I got out of her was here's a telephone number for everything which Is bloody fantastic when you are struggling to talk properly x
you've been through a major trauma. if you haven't been affected with physical impairment it won't be visible to anyone and people will probably be telling you that you look well. there's a discussion thread on that subject on here somewhere. I have major physical impairment but was spared the worst of the cognitive issues that others on here can talk about with more authority. I was in hospital for 10 weeks and was fortunate to have a good discharge plan which included a referral to the local community rehabilitation team who were brilliant, and continue to be so. I am 3 years post stroke still struggling with weakness in my left side and left hand is totally non functioning. coping with any kind of bureaucracy was a major stress in the early days. I can do it now, mostly. I would suggest a visit to your GP sounds like cyou didn't get a proper discharge plan. there is support and your GP is the way to access it initially. try the stroke association helpline if you haven't already. Iin the early days even that would have been too much for me. you'll need as much help as you can get. stroke is utterly devastating and however it affected you will very likely play havoc with your emotions and confidence keep up with the walks, you've probably lost some fitness so that will help. dizziness could be that your blood pressure has dropped a bit if you care out of condition. postural hypotension. happened to me in hospital. I can't walk to well yet, but working on it, it was a great love and my main form of exercise. so I want to work on getting it back cas much as possible.
if it is getting you down the forum here is very supportive.
your GP should be able to get you to the right people. I'm sorry you've been left to fend for yourself. that shouldn't be happening. keep strong
best wishes
Tony
Sadly, strokes are the poor relations in the NHS although it is a postcode lottery. Some people on here have had fantastic aftercare. I pretty much got the same as you only mine was an occupational therapist who visited me a couple of times and blamed most of my symptoms on menopause! My follow up appointment was a quick chat with the neurologist at 6 wks then after another 6 wks, a tick box form from somewhere - can't remember where but it was a waste of time.
Hi, welcome to the forum. I think it very much depends on where you live as to what kind of aftercare you receive. I had a subarachnoid hemorrhage in April this year, in hospital for 7 weeks, aftercare in my area of the north east of Scotland is pretty non-existent, on release from hospital I had the occupational therapist visit after being home for about 3 weeks but nothing since, my doctor's surgery don't know enough about subarachnoid hemorrhages, I had my MRI scan last Sunday and should hopefully hear from the consultant in the next few weeks so hoping for more information then. I hope you are feeling stronger soon, rest when your body tells you and keep positive best wishes Katy x
Totally agree. We are all conderellas. Hospital care varies across the country, I was lucky as Colchester stroke unit is simply superb and wonderful. And under staffed.
But aftercare is hopeless. My area is Tendring (near Colchester but not covered by Colchester) and the SA doesnt even cover Tendring. We doo have a jolly good alternative voluintary group, but its too far for me to drive and was not obvious when I was in the early stages.
Another issue I am beginning to notice is that Stroke has a stigma. Just as dementia had a stigma that is now reducing. I wonder if the stroke stigma is reducing ?? I suspect not.
Colin
Stroke Association don't cover my area either or they didn't in the early days. I think people just don't know what to say to us - probably why they keep coming out with "Wow, you look so well. Don't look like you've had a stroke!"
Spot on.
The more I recover the more I begin to see the stigma and assocaited problems.
Yestreday we had visitors and I thought it would be a good test of how I can cope forseveral hours. Oh dear. I was exhausted after four hours and distressed after nine hours. Now today I remain so fatigued that I could cry.
Best wishes
Colin
Hello, sorry about your Stroke it can turn things upside down... I had mine Dec 2017, personally I would give yourself time to recover and not push yourself too hard for the first couple of months, I decided to go on a long walk when I got my legs back and found I started to feel faint, what we established was that the blood pressure tablets the hospital put me on was actually taking my blood pressure too low so we reduced the tablets and now I do not take them as the very lowest dose was taking my BP too low. So might be worth checking with a home device what your BP is when you feel faint and slow down a bit. My consultant said to me if you broke your leg four weeks ago do you think you would be walking normally now? You have broken your brain and yet you expect to be normal straight away.... fair point I guess... have a chat with your doctor about your meds and if any lower your BP....... take things steady..
Hi I had a stroke 4 weeks ago been getting on great out walking etc then the other night my eyes went funny. Like when I first had my stroke. Now I'm very nervous and worried about it happening again ?
Hi Maria, sorry to hear your news.
All I can say is try not to panic or get too anxious, that has always been the biggest hinderance to my recovery. I still get flashing lights in my right eye and pins and needles in my left hand. I've come to learn that this is my brain warning me that I'm tired and need a rest, nothing more severe than that, so I just sit down with some dodgy daytime tv, a cuppa and rest up for half an hour or so.
I had my stroke just over 6 months ago. It was mild, didn't really affect me physically (nothing that didn't disappear within a week) and I felt that i should be back to normal. Going out walking is amazing!! I went out walking the dog after about 4 weeks and found myself focussing on what my feet were doing rather than enjoying the view out to sea. Was a little scary but a brought me down to earth on my capablilties.
Don't push yourself, take each day as it comes and look back every couple of weeks to see how much you're recovering and how far you've come. I still suffer from fatigue attacks but can spend a couple of hours in a classroom working with a group of children now, something I couldn't have done a couple of months ago. We'll get there.
Good luck
Jane
Hi there welcome to the forum. Yes it is sad in these weeks of theCovid that you feel theres no back up fromhospital or GPs. I had my stroke on 6 March this year a week before lockdown and lost all use of my right side. Fortunately I had different family members who stayed with me for 4 weeks so that I could get home from hospital, One perason first weekend and daughter on eweek and then my sister came down and lockdown started so she stayed 4 weks! Physios came in first wek so gave me lots of exercises and videos after but after that GP services were rubbish. Had hospital monitor to wear for one wek but waited 6 weeks for results! and even then GP hasnt come back to me although they are suggesting changing anticlotting drug. Last time was asked to monitor BP for a week and it was so high on 3rd day rang duty dr to be given an extra BP tablet which did the tgrick but own GP rang me later to say I was being paranoid and over anxious about BP (this after I tapped readings into surgery online referral and told to ring surgery immediately! I did mention that she was the one who asked me to monitor in the first place! Very disappointed in support and there have been other issues relating to taking me off BP which I feel caused the stroke in the first place and even now has not bothered to ring up to discuss hospital results. All in all very dissatisfied and really feel I want to change surgeries or GP at least! I do hope whenthe virus restrictions ease that you will get more support and the physios give you all the stroke pamphlets which are helpful and this forum is so helpful and if you want answers to any questions theres always someone to help! so thank goodness for the stroke assocation! Keep persevering hopefully in time support groups physically will be back up and running. Keep strong!
Rita
Hiya, I'm Charlie and I take great comfort in reading your letter here. I had my stroke on the 27th of December last year. I was at work at the time, I drove a 7.5 ton truck delivering milk. It was about 3:30am I became unwell. I had to be at my first drop by 4am. By the time I got there, it was 5:30. I could hardly see out of my right eye and vision was impaired. It was a farm, so they got me an ambulance that took me to the hospital. I has a scan which didn't show anything. I then had an mri. It was discovered that I had a infarct brainstem stroke. I couldn't walk right and hardly any speach. After 6 weeks of intensive philosophy and speach therapy I'm on the mend. I'm now back home. I used elbow crotches outside as my balance is a problem, however I'm not too bad in the house, moving about holing onto furniture ect. I've got a tremor in my right hand. The good news for me is I'm back driving my car, my work has made me medicaly redundant ?. I just want to wish you well, things will get better.
Hi Katy. I hope that you're on the mend. I had my stroke 27th off December last. I was at work at the time. I live in Central Scotland. I was in hospital for over 6 weeks. I was at the gym every day for 6 weeks. When I was allowed home, I had phisio for a few weeks before the lock down. Now I don't have anything. It's so frustrating at times. I'm still using elbow crotches out of the house as my balance isn't great. I hope you keep well and it would be great to hear how you're getting on now. Take care x
Hi Kisha, I'm alot better now than I was last year. I've spent the last 10 months trying to get my driving licence back as the DVLA are a nightmare to deal with. Unfortunately, I've lost my job due to the time that they've taken but finally seeing an end in sight as I received a letter today asking me to phone the driving assessment centre and make an appointment yay! Are you back at work?. That's good that you were able to get physio, were you given exercises to do that you can do by yourself at home? Good luck with your recovery, take care x
Good morning, yes I was given excersises to do at home. But, it's not the same. There is no motivation or anyone pushing you. But, I'm getting there. (where ever that is). I was a driver as well. I dove a 7.5 ton truck for graham's dairies. Used to start at 2am. One day I was out I had my stroke at 3:15. I've lost my job now as the company got a medical report from my GP, he informed them it will be another 18 month at least before I can get back. I've still got my licence but only to drive my car. I hope that you get the licence sorted out soon, there's nothing worse than losing that as well. If you'd prefer to text. My number is 07590191371
Take care x
Charlie