How do you guys experience it? What can i do to overcome it??
Hi OC, My fatigue hit the second day out of hospital and is still with me two years later. It is hard to describe, but mine seems to start about noon with a heavy feeling around the eyes and a sense of lethargy. It is not a physical thing as most days I do not exercise or do any physical tasks. At first I needed several hours rest in bed, but now manage with one. I get into bed or on the bed at 1pm, then get up at 2pm. My physio advised an hour’s rest and told me not to go into a deep sleep. I take it that the brain, even after a long time, still needs to recover. The key point is to listen to your body and do what it says. Do not try to work through it. On the rare occasions I do, I feel shattered all evening. However, Iam now retired so can do as I please. Let us all know how you get on.
hi i had my stroke in may so not long ago i get tired in the afternoon so i just go to bed or a hour i still have a few bad days with my words dont come out right but given time i have just started to go swimming my daughter coming with me so am getting excise
Try to balance days out, and whatever you do, don't overdo it on a 'good day', it'll come back with a vengeance the next day. Took me 2/3 days to recover after a good day!
It's the worst part of stroke recovery for me. Everything else I can deal with but fatigue is so difficult. In the first 3 months, it was with me almost constantly. I'd have 10 hours good solid sleep and wake up feeling fine then within an hour, I had to lay down and rest as I was completely exhausted and that was without doing anything in the least bit strenuous at all, just normal pottering about the house. I am now 10 months post stroke and over the months I have become more active gradually. I do supermarket shopping on my own OK, can go to the gym for an hour, and look round the shops for about an hour. I know when I've had enough because my eyes feel heavy, my legs start to feel as if I'm walking in a swimming pool and I start to feel 'not quite me' sort of a strange feeling of faintness and disorientation like I'm starting to become not completely aware of what's happening around me.
Even now, I still need complete bed rest for 45mins to an hour a day. Close the curtains and shut the world out for a hour. I don't go to sleep as that makes me feel worse, like a bad hangover as I'm not a person that slept/napped during the day prior to my stroke. Everyone who knows me knows not to visit or phone during lunchtime hours because it's my rest time. I always switch the home phone onto silent so I can ignore everything and just concentrate on resting.
My hourly rest refreshes me and keeps me going till bedtime. If I have a good day, it takes me a couple of days to recover too just like Briony! I guess the only advice is you know your body and as time goes by, you will be able to judge what you can manage and what's best left till another day.
My fatigue is still with me 2 years later, I’m better at managing it, I can’t go out for Long days as I wouldn’t last the day, also talking to too many people can be tiring. It takes time to listen to you body and do what it’s telling you to do but that’s part of the recovery.