Stroke 26 years ago

Hi all...Bear with me while I give you a little history......Husband had a very severe stroke at the age of 34, 26 years ago, lucky to survive. Out of the blue and never given any reason for it.  Was hospitalised in Germany, whilst on Holiday,   for 6 weeks and had extensive tests before reluctantly being discharged to return back to the UK with the promise that he was to undergo more tests and ongoing treatment. Was then told nothing more could be done in the UK and was put on blood thinners. We were given a consultants appoinment 6 months after our return so we paid privately to be seen quicker as Hubby was experiencing anxiety and severe side affects with speech, movement, memory, behaviour and fatigue to name a few. No ongoing care, physio or psychological treatments were offered. He could not work for at least a whole year and has never really fully recovered.
He has managed and coped and because of this massive change to our future plans we always planned to retire early and he was lucky to be able to privately retire at 50. 
Over the years has always suffered with fatigue, never recovered the full senastions on his right side, memory compromised and had terrible mood swings but now manages this better. He was seeing a consutant every couple of years, especially after having a TIA a few years back after coming off blood thinners, but is now back on them.

My query is this.....I can not find any information on people who have always experienced sysmptons but are now gradually worsening with age, several years after,  and we seem to remember the consultant saying this would be the case as he got older.
The main problems at the moment seem to be pins and needles and numbness in his feet and hands and arms which have always been there but are slightly worse.......he was tested and has had carpel tunnel treatment on his left hand and is waiting for surgery to his right which is the stroke affected side. Has been having ongoing physio treatment and they seem to think his symptons are in fact stroke related and not carpel tunnel...they have done several tests and proved his legs and feet to have the same symptons and also his left arm reacts completely different to electric current than to the right.
After never having any support or care all those years ago would be great to get some useful information or hear of others experinces that are similar
Many thanks for bearing with me

 

Hi

I was lucky and have a great stroke consultant who talks me through everything, he is very sensitive when he talks about things and that sometimes things that may have nothing to do with the stroke could be due to my getting older.  At 62 I had allways thought I was young but have to admit that since my stroke little things that I found easy are getting harder or taking longer to do.  Sometimes I think it is hard to differentiate stroke or age!  My stroke was 2017, and I made a fairly good recovery, but I still suffer fatigue and mood swings especially if I am tired, and my patience is not good either, I have poor suffering husband who does his best.  Getting dressed takes twice as long as it used to.

Hopefully you will get some help from the right place now. Good luck.

 

As Wendy says, is it age or is it stroke ?

I am trying hard to accept my state of disability and do the best I can. Whether age or stroke doesnt matter. I can, so far, tell which type of sleep (sleepy sleep or stroke fatigue sleep)and which type of forgetfulneess (age or stroke) but at the end os each day I am me and I cant split myself in two.

I believe that medical science has moved things on a great deal in the past 26 years. 

But thats no help for you Sullivan, you cant have your husband go back in time to see what can change. I am just 3 years post stroke and already I notice that things in the NHS are changing. We are still the cinderella illness, but things are moving on. 

After the initial period, which is nowadays about six weeks, for us "standard" stroke survivors, there isnt any treatment. Only I can mend myself, no one else can do it for me. No one can peer in to my brain, work out which of my brain cells are dead and treat me accordingly. Thats well in to the future.

There is no standard way to recover. No two strokes are the same so no two recoveries are identical.

I am pleased you wrote and I am fascinated that your outline above is being repeated today by many many of us.

I am sure we do deteriorate with age, but that happens stroke or no stroke. I reckon a stroke adds 5 years to your age instantly. So I cant really compare myself with my previous peer group. And I am sure you are looking at recovery over years and not each month.

My fatigue is bad but my mobility is good. I did make a decision to ignore my mobility and concentrate on the cognitive stuff. Did that benefit me ? I cant possibly say.

I reckon I had a modest stroke, but no one has ever worked out what modest represents. Should we look at the number of dead brain cells ? Is that pheasible right now ?

I could drive after one month. After three years I still can not drive safely for more than a half hour. I couldnt possibly take on my old profession. Not a chance.

Above all.I accept i am ot the same person as before. I am new Colin and old Colin is well and truly gone.

Again, I am so pleased you have posted. Its pretty lonely for us longer term survivors.

best wishes

Colin

 

 

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Thanks Colin for setting out your own journey, as someone who is at the begining of my recovery from a severe stroke so can walk badly with a stick have speech and cognitive capability cannot drive due to loss in peripheral vision but was back to part time work until April this year.
I am trying to understand what the key indicators of my arm returning to operations and my left side cold pain reducing.also how long it takes to walk fluidly.
Regards
Mark

Thanks Colin so many true words that match many of us and our conditions, the age factor means while you are repairing the brain the aging processes are challenging your new normal all the time.

Good luck to you and all SS we needs boost your narrative gave a clearer view,

Take care.

Mark