Hi. I had a stroke 3 weeks ago. I got up in the morning feeling fine. 5 minutes later my right side went completely numb. I’m still able to walk & move my joints. Is there anyone on the forum that has had a stroke like this?
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@Evie16 welcome to the group, i have full mobility, but have a left shoulder that does not raise fully up. I do daily exercises on it to improve it, it does not cause me pain. Also take it easy 3 weeks is very early days in a recovery
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Hi @Evie16
as everyone has said 3 weeks is early but they haven’t said what you might expect .
Between 1 and 6 months you may get changes as your body heals up the damage from the stroke and you’ll discover what capabilities and losses are temporary/ permanent. You may have the onset of pain and fatigue but you may not and other things on the list that’s far too long to itemize
After about 6 months you may get a series of compensations or decompensations as neuroplasticity and other adjustments occur. fatigue may emerge change or dissipate, so too with most of the other challenges such as taste , swallowing , confusion, loud noises. dealing with lots of people etc
Long-term capability building and recovery of losses will continue for as long as you put effort into your rehab.
Don’t believe anybody who tell you recovery only happens in the first 6 months that’s complete tosh.
You’ll find there’s a lot of people here who had similar strokes and dissimilar symptoms and similar symptoms from dissimilar strokes. And you’ll find a lot of people willing to share their experience and a lot of knowledge And generally a much better place for finding out & making sense of what’s happening to you than you’ll get from the medical profession.
do be prepared to think about your post stroke recovery taking years not weeks and if you’re lucky it’ll only take months
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@Evie16 welcome to the forum. Sorry you’ve had a stroke. It’s very early days for you so loads of time for recovery. I had left sided weakness after my stroke along with vision & cognitive issues. Plenty of rehab has improved things but not there yet.
Lusten to your body as you start your recovery & try not to overdo it.
Wishing you all the best.
Ann
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I suffered a stroke 10 months ago like you it was numbness down my right side but still had mobility now although the numbness has mostly disappeared I still have it in my hip & part of my foot also some days have what I call my fuzzy head but have learned to live with it but sometimes worry if it will ever completely disappear
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Thanks for your message, this is a very common symptom and may improve with time. Keep fingers crossed.
Kusal Stroke OT
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Thank you for all your replies and support. Very much appreciated.
38th day now. I’ve had good days and bad days. Some days with no progress & other days when the progress is noticeable - like last Monday when I could actually smell & taste! At the weekend I had an awful night. Couldn’t sleep, the ‘nettles’ feeling in my leg was really bad! Finally got over to sleep around 4.30am.
I’m trying to stay positive, but I have had a few ‘pity party’ moments. Am trying to keep them to a minimum. My handwriting has improved a little - wasn’t very good to start with!! It was strange when I first attempted hand sewing - couldn’t feel the needle but at least I could see what I was doing. The first time I tried to sew with the machine I thought the machine was going to ‘take off’ out through the window!!
The most difficult thing in all of this is the ‘nettles’ feeling from the tips of my toes to the tips of my fingers. It is constant, never ending. The days I don’t feel any progress are difficult too, because I am trying to do everything I can to get the proper feeling back and some times it doesn’t appear to be working. BUT I’m still ‘upright & breathing’ which is a big, big bonus.
Take care everyone - keep trying - and thank you once again.
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@Evie16 good to read your update. Sounds like some things are going really well. The nettles feeling must be yuck. It is still early in your recovery journey yet so plenty of time for many improvements. Try not to let the days you are making less progress get you down. There may be no noticeable change on those days but they are all helping build the bigger level of recovery.
Best wishes
Ann x
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Hi @Evie16
Day 38 sounds a bit like enthusiastic children who when you ask how old they are tell you years months and weeks. 
I think I was like that in the first few months after my stroke too. You may be lucky but most of us have had to adjust to a longer time frame. You may need to stand ready to it embrace that too
When you’ve 38 weeks and I know that sounds hard to embrace - you’ll have a better perspective. You might have an lot of adjusting, recovering, benchmarking of status aspiration progress and plan to put in place yet. If you’re seeing progress some days that is really really really something to celebrate. 
all of us on the longer time frames who still have the mental fortitude to make an effort see progress - but mostly we have to allow months to see it. (Although I’ve had some in the last 4 weeks that has been visible on a weekly basis 
). I’m at approximately day 900
There’s quite a lot of folklore that the nettles or pins and needles or crawling ants is a sign that nerves are reconnecting. I don’t know whether that’s true. The GP can give you a better answer and maybe some meds to relieve it. It’s also a known side effect of statins in some people. The medical name is Paresthesia. It’s also a sign of vitamin b deficiency and I suspect a whole host of other more complicated things. I think some of the therapies suggested around neurological causes from misinterpretation by the brain of the nerve signals involve things like feeling warm and cool water, handling different textures. It’s more for recovery of feeling but I think it overlaps with paresthesia
Ciao Simon
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Hi. Thanks for your reply. It’s good to hear you have made progress over these past 4 weeks.
I do appreciate that it is early days for me regarding the stroke, that everyone is different in symptoms & healing progress, and I do know that it’s not going to be an easy fix.
I have consulted doctors etc re my ‘nettles’ and know exactly where I stand regarding this.
I’m trying to remain positive, to share with others who are at similar stages to me that there is a lot to be thankful for, that there will be good times and bad times, highs and lows, and we can support each other step by step! I think of the children’s story of the hare and the tortoise - like the tortoise I will just plod on, day by day, to get to my goal!
I’m not thinking 3 years down the line. If I live another 3 years, that will be good, but during whatever time I have left I hope to make the best of my life, whatever stage I reach!
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Sounds like you have a positive plan in place to go forward with, long may it remain that way. Going forward with a positive attitude does make the journey that bit easier. Find laughter whenever and wherever you can and I wish you well in your recovery.
great news, using putty to make shapes with eyes closed could be a option to improve sensation - unless there are any contraindications. This is a very effective but innovative way of improving sensation. I have trialled this on many client with great degree of success. As far I know no one else does this. If you want you can get putty from amazon and give it a go.
Wishing you all the best.
Kusal, Stroke OT
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Hope you are all well & improving every week. It’s all the little improvements that build up the recovery!
70th day update: There have been many ups & downs since I last wrote anything here. I no longer have the feeling of lying in a bed of nettles. For a few weeks after the ‘nettles’ it was like an electrical current constantly moving through my right side. That too has changed - it now feels like sandpaper constantly there, moving about inside me. Not very pleasant at all. Still a few numb patches here & there.
I have been doing some hand sewing. It’s strange seeing the stitches appearing when I can’t feel the needle!! Although I have a good strong grasp there are still things I find a bit difficult to manage. I’m also using the sewing machine again and managing quite well, though slow, and I’m hoping to finish my daughter’s dress this week.
My frustration levels at times have been very evident. I think if I didn’t feel so tired at times it wouldn’t be so bad.
I know I need to be walking more than I do, but my right toes are painful, and along with this ‘sandpaper’ feeling in my foot, it makes it very unpleasant, especially when I have to wear shoes. I even managed to get a large blister under my big toe!
BUT, I’m still upright and breathing and I do have a lot to be thankful for!
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@Evie16 pleased to hear that your “nettles” feeling has gone. That must have helped a lot. Hopefully the other sensations you are feeling will disappear in time too. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you 
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105 days (15 weeks) since I had my stroke. Things are not progressing as fast as I would like, but they are progressing. I no longer have the sensations of nettles or electric currents going through me - I now feel as if I have a continuous buzzing / fizzing 24/7 in my right half, but also now have just 1 completely numb area. I still get very tired and have to sit down, but it doesn’t appear to be as often.
There are times I do feel useless, not being able to do what I used to, even simple things, and I do have some ‘pity party’ times and days I don’t feel like getting out of bed, but do my best to keep these days to a minimum. I learnt from a very young age that no matter how difficult things are for me, there are others going through much worse! I am thankful to God for what I can do!
As I previously said, my aim was to make a dress for my daughter. After 10 weeks and a lot of ripping out and re-sewing I finally got it finished. It’s definitely not perfect, but it is wearable.
I don’t know if I’ll improve very much more or not, but am trying to live with what I’ve got. Every little improvement is a bonus, no matter how long it takes!!
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Not the attitude 
You WILL improve more! You are only 15 weeks into recovery, it basically takes a minimum of 6 months to a year. You have loads of time for further improvements. And we are all entitled to our down days and pity parties to relieve ourselves of the stresses of it all. Then we pick ourselves back up and keep on moving onwards and upwards 
And now it’s time to celebrate the nettles or electric currents morphing to a mere buzzing and fizzing 'cos all progress, no matter how small should be celebrated 
Thank you for your reply and your encouragement - it means a lot!! When I said I didn’t know if I would improve much more or not, I wasn’t being defeatist - I meant that even if there wasn’t much more improvement I am prepared to make the best of what I have and ‘get up and get on with life’. I’m very grateful and tell all the family for even the slightest improvements. Some of them probably think I’m crazy getting excited over such little things, but they’re all very big to me!! As you say - onwards & upwards - our new motto!!
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I know, I’m the same, I find the whole process quite fascinating too. Plus I’m a good guinea pig (for want of a better word) for my daughter who’s studying psychology at uni. Today is the her first day back in her final year and already she’s messaged me with this
Psychologically it has been a boon for me, well for both of us, having her studying this. She has taught me so much about myself and my stroke that the health services couldn’t because we were in lockdowns at the time 
she has kept me sane and laughing all the way through 
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Yeah isn’t it wonderful how being able to do something like eat cereal with a spoon becomes a major achievement
This community is power is in the fact that it doesn’t judge and it does empathise with real understanding which despite everybody else’s expression of sympathy never has quite the same understanding as you get here.
Well progress might not be as quick as we want sometimes with effort it is constant. I get growing capability in using my right hand again every week although I can’t always see the week to week level that there has been improvement
Stay strong be happy
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Congratulations on making the dress for your daughter. I bet she loved it. It’s so good that despite what you’re going through you have tackled it head on and are prepared to live life to the full irrespective of the progress you make. That’s a great attitude and will make such a difference. I am sure you will progress loads more yet though as 15 weeks is so early in stroke recovery terms and your attitude will help loads.
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