Life After a Stroke: What to Expect

You have sur­vived a stroke. You spent a few days in the hos­pi­tal where you start­ed rehab. And now, you’re back home – and you’re not quite sure what to expect. 

A stroke is a life-chang­ing event. It occurs when there is sud­den bleed­ing in your brain or there’s a block­age of blood flow to your brain. It is a med­ical emer­gency that can lead to long-term dis­abil­i­ty or per­ma­nent brain dam­age and can even be life-threat­en­ing, so it’s nat­ur­al to be con­fused and over­whelmed after sur­viv­ing a stroke when you think about what’s ahead. 

There are many dif­fer­ent ways in which a stroke may affect you, and no two strokes are exact­ly alike. How­ev­er, there are some effects that are com­mon. Here are some ways in which a stroke may affect you and which types of providers can help you work through the chal­lenges and changes.

The Extent of Dam­age and Loca­tion of the Stroke Make a Difference

The effects of a stroke depend on how much brain tis­sue is dam­aged and where in the brain the stroke occurs.

For exam­ple, a stroke in the brain­stem (the base of the brain that con­trols func­tions like heart­beat and blood pres­sure) can result in heart func­tion or breath­ing prob­lems. A stroke at the back of the brain, where the occip­i­tal lobe (the lobe that con­trols vision) is housed, may cause prob­lems with your sight.

A Stroke Can Have Sig­nif­i­cant Phys­i­cal Effects

Two of the main phys­i­cal com­pli­ca­tions of a stroke are weak­ness or paral­y­sis on one side of the body and spasticity:

• Paral­y­sis (inabil­i­ty to move) and weak­ness occur on the side of your body oppo­site the side of the brain where the stroke occurred.
• Spas­tic­i­ty is when a mus­cle invol­un­tar­i­ly con­tracts (flex­es or short­ens) when you move, caus­ing the mus­cle to become stiff or and mak­ing it dif­fi­cult to stretch.

In addi­tion, a stroke can lead to phys­i­cal effects such as fatigue, pain, and seizures.

If you expe­ri­ence these effects after a stroke, a phys­i­cal ther­a­pist can become your best friend. Your phys­i­cal ther­a­pist can lead you in exer­cis­es to relearn move­ment and coor­di­na­tion skills and get you back on your feet. If the stroke has caused changes to your abil­i­ty to move, your ther­a­pist can also help you learn how to best use mobil­i­ty devices like canes and walk­ers or fit you with an ankle brace to help sta­bi­lize and strength­en your ankle.

If you need phys­i­cal ther­a­py after a stroke, sched­ule an appoint­ment with a South Bend Clin­ic phys­i­cal therapist.

Strokes Can Dis­rupt Activ­i­ties of Dai­ly Living

Your body relies on fine motor skills – the tiny, pre­cise move­ments you make with your hands, fin­gers, feet, and toes – to do every­day tasks, from eat­ing to read­ing a book to get­ting dressed. There are sev­er­al fac­tors that affect your abil­i­ty to use fine motor skills, like aware­ness and plan­ning, mus­cle strength, and coordination.

A stroke can cause prob­lems with these fac­tors, impair­ing your fine motor skills and mak­ing it chal­leng­ing to do activ­i­ties that you’re used to doing with­out giv­ing them a sec­ond thought.

Work­ing with an occu­pa­tion­al ther­a­pist is key for regain­ing fine motor skills or learn­ing to adapt if there is per­ma­nent dam­age. They can help you become more inde­pen­dent after a stroke by help­ing you relearn activ­i­ties of dai­ly liv­ing (ADLs).

Basic ADLs are skills you need to man­age your essen­tial phys­i­cal needs, such as:

• Per­son­al hygiene, like bathing and brush­ing your teeth
• Get­ting dressed
• Feed­ing yourself
• Walk­ing independently
• Con­trol­ling blad­der and bow­el function
• Using the bathroom

Your occu­pa­tion­al ther­a­pist can also help with instru­men­tal ADLs, which involve more com­plex think­ing and orga­ni­za­tion­al skills. These are the skills you use to live inde­pen­dent­ly in your com­mu­ni­ty, such as man­ag­ing finances, cook­ing, clean­ing, dri­ving, shop­ping, and working. 

Strokes Can Also Change How You Think or Com­mu­ni­cate With Others

Cog­ni­tive impair­ment (dif­fi­cul­ty think­ing, learn­ing, mak­ing deci­sions, remem­ber­ing, or using your judg­ment) and prob­lems with com­mu­ni­ca­tion are both com­mon after a stroke.

These chal­lenges can be frus­trat­ing, but it’s impor­tant to remem­ber that these prob­lems affect cer­tain skills, but they do not cause you to lose any intel­li­gence. Your intel­li­gence has not changed since the stroke.

Speech-lan­guage spe­cial­ists and occu­pa­tion­al ther­a­pists can help you man­age these prob­lems and regain the skills you’ve lost. 

Your Vision Might Move Fur­ther From 20/20

If a stroke has affect­ed your vision, you’re in good com­pa­ny. Vision prob­lems affect about 65% of stroke sur­vivors. A stroke doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly cause com­plete blind­ness. For instance, it can cause a loss in a por­tion of the visu­al field (the area you see in front of you).

The good news is that, while you might not be able to entire­ly regain your vision, there are sev­er­al treat­ments to help you com­pen­sate for vision loss. An eye doc­tor, like an optometrist or oph­thal­mol­o­gist, or a neu­rol­o­gist can work with you on ther­a­pies like scan­ning (train­ing your eyes to scan away from areas of vision loss) or adding prisms to your eyeglasses. 

Your Feel­ings and Per­son­al­i­ty Might Be Dif­fer­ent From What You’re Used To

From depres­sion to anx­i­ety to sud­den mood swings to becom­ing eas­i­ly annoyed, strokes are known to affect emo­tions and per­son­al­i­ty. There are a few rea­sons why this can happen.

It may be because the stroke affect­ed the parts of your brain that con­trol mood, per­son­al­i­ty, and your abil­i­ty to inter­act with oth­ers. It may be due to the stress and the emo­tion­al toll of a stroke and its after­math. Or it could be a com­bi­na­tion of both.

Regard­less of what is caus­ing changes in how you feel or behave, a behav­ioral health spe­cial­ist like a ther­a­pist or psy­chol­o­gist can help you keep your men­tal health intact after a stroke.

Every­one has a dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ence after a stroke, and some peo­ple have life­long effects while oth­ers ful­ly recov­er. There’s no ​“nor­mal” out­come. But there is one thing that is for sure; with the right team of providers who focus on your indi­vid­ual needs, you won’t need to go through recov­ery alone.