I’ve posted this here as I’m not sure what category it should fall into.
I had what was diagnosed as a TIA at the end of August and was told that it was very mild. What is the definition of mild? I still get so tired and feel like I’m wading through mud mentally. I run out of steam so quickly physically and don’t feel like there’s been any improvement.
I sit on the sofa and feel fine (apart from needing an afternoon nap!) but when I go to do anything its hard going.
Am I not trying hard enough and just being a drama queen or is this common?
Hi @Fib welcome to the forum! Sadly, there’s no straight answer to your question. All of us who have had TIA’s or stroke have differing effects, some short term some long term.
Mental fatigue is one common one across the board though, and generally not something that we can just push through. Its part of the recovery process with the brain trying to re-align and find new ways of working. Hopefully with your TIA in the medium to long term the symptoms will ease. With any TIA/stroke they are brain injuries and things take time to settle.
@Fib it is still early days in recovery terms for you. Although your TIA was “mild” it is still damage to your brain & will take time to recover.
Its a fine balance between rest & doing things. I know for the first 6 months after my stroke fatigue hit really hard when i tried to do much. I am almost 12 months in now & still get times when the sofa is my best friend.
You should do what feels right for you and find the balance between activity & rest.
If you haven’t already done so have a look at the below Stroke Association leaflet on TIAs.
Hi @Fib - I always thought that TIA symptoms went within a day or two. However, my partner had a TIA at the end of April and is still experiencing some fatigue.
Investigation after the TIA showed that his carotid arteries were blocked and he had surgery in August to unblock one of them. I thought that once he’d recovered from that he’d be back to normal but he definitely isn’t.
He isn’t a drama queen and I’m sure you aren’t either! You can only report what you feel and as @EssexPhil said, we’re all different and experience things in different ways.
I know of someone who had a TIA and took a whole year out of work to recover. He was lucky enough to be in a financial position to do so but still… We are all different and even a so called “small” injury to the brain can really take it out of us
I was discharged and had bright ideas of going back to work (WFH) a month later…this on the back of sitting around feeling quite bright and OK. Optimism at its best!
Cue…sitting in front of the laptop and my work email and just not getting my head around the content. Composing a 4 sentence email about something that was quite mundane previously seemed like writing a thesis.
Fortunately my employer has been great to date; just in terms of getting back into the swing of things I’m the one who’s impatient.
Prior to this I didnt know much about strokes despite my father having one. He was quite badly affected physically whereas I’ve got back on my feet relatively quickly speaking. Its the tiredness and woolly thinking I’m finding it hard to get to grips with and is very frustrating.
Hello. This is my first post on this very helpful site, I also had a tia on 25th of August, in hospital for 5 days, I thought at the time a few weeks and back to my work as a builder, at this moment can’t see me back for a long time yet, you’ll find even half an hours work feels like 14 hours and is hard going fatigue and woolly head and legs like jelly , good luck but looks like small steps it has to be. Good luck on your road to recovery.
@Nor15 welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear you’ve had cause to join this friendly group.
I had a stroke last Dec & I genuinely thought i’d be back at work by Jan. It isnow Nov and i’m still not back at work.
I think the hidden effects of TIA/Stroke often take longer than physical effects to recover from. It’s still very early days for you yet & taking the time to recover properly is really important.
Shwmae @Fib, I know these TIAs well, I had six before a major stroke. What I understand of TIAs is that they don’t leave “permanent” damage but do have symptoms. Conversely, a silent stroke has no symptoms, and a stroke has lasting damage and symptoms. I think it’s the difference between dead matter and bruised matter. Bruised matter will heal over time and spark up again, dead matter requires new pathways to be formed.
A TIA may be considered “mild” due to its size, I guess, but I also imagine that where the TIA landed will have an impact on the kind of symptoms you experience and what activity or thought processes trigger those symptoms. I always think that fatigue is not a symptom itself, it is a result of symptoms.
You can help manage fatigue by resetting the brain. This can be done by way of meditation, Mindfullness, &c. So, for example, it is common for stroke survivors not to feel “rested” after sleep because when we sleep, the brain is actually using quite a bit of energy to prepare itself for when we wake. So, emptying the mind or resetting the brain is a way for it to go into sleep mode without actually sleeping, and conserve energy for the next bout of activity.
At your stage of recovery from a TIA, the brain is doing self-repair, so let it. Sleep and rest, plenty of it. It’s preoccupied, getting neurotransmitters blinking connections again, if you fight against it, it can’t do its job. After six months, most of the self-repair will be finished, and then longer term management needs to be put into place depending on what residual symptoms remain.
So you’ve been there and have the t-shirts! Your advice is worth taking; it’s a shame noone ever said anything like this at the beginning. I’ve been feeling a bit lost and very guilty about not doing anything.
Funny thing is that before the TIA I was very good at doing nothing - I guess its the difference between choosing to and not being able to!
@Fib i too have difficulty with noise since my stroke. Things like cutlery on plates drive me insane. I’m always turning things down. I think it is more common then the drs would have you believe.
Hello, you certainly need patience, but doing a small bit every day or two helps to build you up even if progress is extremely slow, stay with it, every day I find is a different feeling tired one day then a wee bit energy the next, have a good day
Shwmae @Fib, aye, it’s auditory overload. I had it quite severely early on after stroke. If someone coughed in another room my brain would sting. I used to try and tell myself it was kind of like a superpower but with its own Kryptonite when the noise was of a particular tone or pitch. It has settled down a bit now, but it still gets me when I am fatigued. I bought ear, sound, filter plugs early on and used those. Have lost them now.
hi what part it of essex, i was allright at home, my stroke was mild in hospital two days wrote diary, i was in broomfeld hospital, incidently, where i used to work, changed a lot since 1970 80. i was mobile, my leg and hand were affected, that was may 8th, recovering well, walked 1 and a half miles, but since i was in essex three weeks, my leg is more achy,as it was coaches, buses train to get there and back,cant write with right hand for long, think i overdone it, if i clean one one room thoroughly, i cant do too much more,gety tired. i am 76 just, so am going to have physio next week, cant walk up hills easily, as our bungalow is at the top of village somerset
