Stiff painful joints

Hi Everyone, I had my stroke in November 22. I was in the kitchen I must of fallen on the floor( I don’t remember) I couldn’t get up. It took me two hours to crawl up the stairs and phone my partner. I dozed of whilst crawling up the stairs. To cut a long story short both my daughters came over after I managed to contact my partner who was away on business, he contacted my daughters. My daughter told me that the left side of my face had dropped. I couldn’t move the left side of my body. An Ambulance was called and I was told I had a stroke. I was very shocked as nothing has ever happened to anyone in my family before.
it’s now April 2023. I am able to walk with a stick. I wanted to ask if anyone has the same issues as me. In the last two months I am having problems with sleeping and am in constant pain whilst in bed. My legs, back and neck really aches, I struggle to turn over in bed. I am also struggling with walking my legs feel so heavy. I have pain in my hips. Which is making me feel very low. Is this type of pain normal after a stroke. I feel that I am not improving and going backwards. Can anyone give me any advice. I’m sorry to have gabbled on but I am so desperate.

Thanks
Tricia

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@Tricia50 welcome to the forum. Sorry you’ve had cause to join us. Hopefully you’ll get lots of advice & support on here.

I never suffered much pain in my limbs after my stroke but did get a heavy leg. I wasn’t able to, & still can’t, lift my leg.

It may be worth you getting in touch with your stroke team or your GP as they can hopefully help with the pain.

Wishing you all the best.

Ann xx

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Thank you for your kind words. I will definitely speak to my doctor ASAP. I was looking up fibromyalgia
and the symptoms are very similar to what it describes. Did you have fibromyalgia before your stroke?
Thank you.
Tricia

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Shwmae @Tricia50, every stroke will be specific to each individual, but I ached, persistently, while supine. It was always a struggle falling asleep, I could never get comfortable, just find a spot that wasn’t too bad and hope that sleep would sweep me away.

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How are things now? Is the pain easier. I am unable to get comfortable in anyway. I’m hoping things will improve. As my stroke was less than 6 months ago.

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The pain went away for me, it took some time. Some of it was to do with the statins I was taking, and other pain was related to stroke. I can’t quite remember the timeline but please remember that each survivor will rebuild differently. I wish I could erase “normal” from the dictionary as it isn’t helpful a word. Mindfulness can help manage pain, observe the pain, notice what it does and how it makes you feel, go with it, and let it pass.

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Hi @Tricia50 I’m so sorry you’ve come to join us but you are welcomed.

I’m one of the fortunate ones in that I don’t suffer such pains. I did however have the heavy legs and insomnia.

My stroke 2 years ago and was on the left side of my brain affecting the whole of my right side, speech and swallowing among other quirks.

Walking felt like I had lead boots on, fortunately that disappeared at some point in that first year as my walking improved. Your pain may go away as you improve.

The insomnia I’ve come to terms with so to speak. Personally I say my off switch got fried in the stroke so I don’t have that sense of feeling tired as such, it’s more the brain wants shutting down, or should I say, it wants to go into sleep mode. And it was down to me to figure out when to nap or sleep. So whenever it’s in that mood I rest or go to bed, it gives me a bit of a thick head. I’ll only know if I was actually sleepy when I’d wake :wink:

And it took months to figure this out and months of inconsistent sleeping patterns but me and brain have now got an understanding. My brain cracks the whip in my house or it just pulls the plug on me anyway :laughing:

You will feel aches and pains in the night as toss and turn sleeplessly. You get up and have a drink, read a book, watch tv, play on your apps for hour and then try to sleep again. And you just keep on doing this until you finally manage to snatch a few hours before you start all over again the next night.

If you break your leg, it take 6-8wks for the break to knit back together. But, it takes anything from 6mths to year to recover back to full strength on average.

Your brain is in the similar state to the broken leg. It’s currently trying to maintain your present functionality whilst also repair and relearn and that can take anything from a year plus depending on the extent of the damage.
You’re barely into your 5th month now, there’s yet a lot of recovery to look forward to over the next 7mths or so.

And whilst you’re doing that, it wouldn’t do you any harm to start taking some vitamin supplements to boost your bodies nutrients as they always take a heavy hit in recovery. But don’t go borrowing trouble and worry yourself needlessly, that just puts more pressure on your system that could hinder your recovery. Your pain symptoms may seem similar to @Loshy but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are the same condition. See your doctor maybe about the pains, have him/her test your blood for nutrient levels perhaps.

Stay strong

Just pinch this from @Mrs5K reply in another post and it just struck a cord with me because I drag my foot and slur my speech at the end of day. And, as my daughter just explained, it’s my brain’s way of saying it’s done with that for day :laughing: It’s a good one to remember in times when you feel you are not making any progress or as you said yourself, you sometimes feel you are going backward. And I’ve enough experience with recovery over the years to know that it is always 2 steps forward and 1 step back for me.

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A warm welcome from me too

Can’t add much to the sage advice above but do recognise them

Recovery is slow, it’s a succession of forward & back. Keeping your spirits up helps your brain focus on repair & developing compensation strategies

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Thank you all so much for giving me positive support. It really will help me. I think because I’ve always been independent and done everything myself. I thought I was very fit before my stroke, and now I feel useless. I will keep going and I will remain positive.
Thank you all for your advice.
Tricia😌

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