Slowly starting to feel normal again after a whole term back at work..but am still really struggling with my left hand. My (dream-gorgeous) physio signed me off two months after my stroke and I'm generally pretty much as I was apart from can't get the full function of my leftt hand back, hence shockinfg typing (thi sfom an English teacher!!) ANy one got any ideas how i can get a good physio's advice?
ALso, anyone out there who's survived a stroke find they get 'blank' moments? Difficult to know how to explain these..just feels, usually for no more than a sedcond or two s if the dead part of my brain is running the show..then it's gone. on't lose track of anything, jusy like your brain kind of blinks...or is this a common APS thing adn not post-stroke brin at al? Any insights?
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Eliza_E
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Your not alone in the blank moments Eliza.........I am a teacher too and i found it very hard to explain my blank moments after my stroke i struggled with balance and motor control on the right side and speech was a complete no no in my brains eyes.
The first few weeks post stroke i was a very slow thinker but i think some of that is down to the shock the brian is under i expressed my slowless as my down time.........A bit like a battery in need of recharge.................but as time passed these moment go less and less.
The speech was interesting procress for me it was more like riding a bike I hadn't forgotten i had just misplaced the pathways to the information so needed to remake the connection to help the word some out.
I am not the complete package i was before hand and nor will i ever be however i am better person who had better understanding of ones self...........I am stronger more able person. I think the fact i am a Stroke Survivour puts me in a very special group of people who see the world from a very special view point............
I have good days and bad days and will always struggle on the days when i have a headache or a cold.
The brain is an amazing thing we just don't know it full potential as most people never need to use it.
PS-It a good topic to get a social studies lesson started with..............or a get to know you session. Really opens the pupils eyes or silences the room in some cases.
Since I had a so called 'Silent Stroke' sometime between February 2010 & September 2011 I have had lots of blank moments too. I have great difficulty now remembering and recalling surnames especiallay, as well as other information.
I continue to get lots of 'funny turns' all the time, dizziness, shakiness weakness, fatigue and dull headache. I'm seeing Prof Hughes again on 15th February and I hope he will suggest some further tests and treatment.
Me too! After my stroke a year ago this week-end I had the same issues. I found when I was put on Heparin that things improved a lot. When that was switched to warfarin I started to go down hill again with the lapses returning and memory and speech not as good. Although things have got better again since returning to Heparin they are not as good as they were when first on it but then I seem to be in a never ending flare at the moment so perhaps thats more to do with it.
When stressed, put in situations when I am under pressure to use my brain and recall info or having to just recall info and then speak out loud say to a group my brain physically buzzes to a point sometimes when I want to hold my head. I feel like there is an electrical charge going through it!! I suppose this is the brain getting its act together.
I recently had another CT scan and you can still see the infarct clearly so that in permanent brain damage. The brain now has had to remap to compensate for what that area did. My neurophysio said the more you repeat the things you want to do the more it helps to do that until it becomes automatic again. Very clever little thing.
I did see an internet site once that had some hand exercises to strengthen after a stroke. Perhaps you could google.
Stroke here as well and wafarin is helping but like HP i am in a never ending flare at mo and as for blank moments have them all the time. You have joined a really good group of people
I had my stroke almost 5 years ago. Since I have started my own business and work full time. My left weighs heavy and left hand is weak, I think you must try using your hand as much as you can to try and build up its strength (not easy) I used a rubber stretch material to use as an exceriser at the beginning I could onbly do hlaf a stretch but after mnay many months of hard work I was able to do many.
I also get mental blanks, what was I going to do next, who to call, what did I walk in this room for type things! I write things down all the time and have a small dictaphone recorder I use.
My speech freezes some times for what seems ages but its just a tiny short blip, I wish it didnt happen when I am speeking but people are ok with it, a bit like a stammer I guess.
Spelling,Balance, fatigue, aching joints and bones,and the above are pretty typical in Hughes Syndrome stroke people.
Warfarin has got my life back though, I can not imagine life without it, I would not want to go back to the dark side!
Plaquenil also helps and Gabapentin for stroke pain.
many thankss for all your replies. However, the blanks people describe aren't whtA i EXPERIENCE: IT'S NOT A CSE OF FORGETTING SOMETHING: I've always had a very good memeory and still do, an find concentration comes naturally. So it;'s not like the other things people have experienced whihc leaves me all the mor curious: very difficult to descibe to my own satisfactrion, as I said. My spelling and balance are fine but typing is shocking adn can't always b bohered to go back and correct it; I fel liek I go in speaking a thinking and the correspondene between them just s i alwqys have. WIll talk to my consultant next week.
let us know how you get on at Docs, have you asked to see a physio or be refferd to one to help?
Regarding going blank is this like when you completly freezes as if you go away and come back ? as the docs say this is where the nurons are not fring properly and it skips a beep.
ahh, yeah, that sounds more like it..they cn come in 'patches', usully when I'm tired -they don't bother me, but it's a bit unpleasant. Taken to calling it 'dead zone' momemnts, although 'moments' implies something much longer thn the space between nano-seconds they actually seem to last..thanks for that. Do you know if one can do anything about this as I really dislike it? Or is irt a case of, once your brain's a bit dead...well, it's dead??
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