Autistic traits after a brain stem stroke.

[F1951]

My husband behaves very autistic only eats two types of food asks for a bank balance atleast three times a day, has repeated behaviour constantly, just wondering if this is normal after a massive stroke,

[Hidden]

Hi F1951,

Sadly, changes such as this do occur after stroke, and especially with brainstem strokes, where blood flow to the brain has been obstructed and interrupted and causes permanent damage. It must be distressing for you to see the changes in your husband, but to be honest they can be a great deal more debilitating than those which he has, even resulting sometimes in 'locked-in' syndrome. That's a really serious disability in which the person can only manage eye movement. Thankfully that's extremely rare!

Do talk to all your husband's health care professionals about the extent to which he has recovered and ask questions about what further improvement there might be, and what can be put in place to help you to help him. Sometimes it's more settling to know what the limits of his improvement might be, so that you can plan your way ahead together.

I'd also really recommend having a look at the stroke.org.uk/ website. It has a wide range of publications on all issues surrounding stroke and subsequent recovery from it.

I wish you both well, and I hope you'll pop back at some time and let us know how you're both doing.

[F1951 in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for your prompt reply, l'm very lucky really, stroke consultant said my husband was 1/4 a ml of being locked in, he's very disabled but he can move one arm, and his swallow came back after 1yr ,so we' re grateful for small mercies.