my 68yo moher just had a stroke

[giavirtae]

Hi
My mother who is 68 just had a bad stroke on July 9th, she has lost all feeling on her left side including periphial vision in left eye. It has been hard seeing her in this way as she was very active and vibrant even at 68. Its been 2 days since her stroke and the nurses say she is making good progress although very very early days . She can talk ( albeit out the RH side of her mouth only ) and her memory seems to be alright as well although she keeps asking for a beer to quench her thirst which is strange as she has never touched alchohal.

I use the web to research a lot of things I do in life and now that a stroke has affected my families life I'm useing the web again. Before I found this forum I was feeling a bit depressed about my mums situation and very upset in seeing her like this .But in reading some of the other stories on here I feel a bit better now knowing that many people go through this and manage to recover to a normal life.
I now also understand that it will take time and patience.

[caregiver222]

The time and patience can produce wonderful results. My little sweety pie is now a hundred and two plus six months, and first the first time no longer waves her hand but distinctly states: "I don't want any more of that, thank you", and "This hot chocolate is teriffic!". Her smiles and laughter are worth a million dollars.  Exercising her is a problem. I got her a chair an she "slides down" ocasionally, but uses her arms and feet  to push herself to a vertical position. Incidentally, a rocking chair is a medical device that can prevent stroke, but not all stroke patients can make use of it. Pushing down with the feet contracts trhe blood vessels and increases circulation. I cxontinue to communicate every day many times using the dry-erase board with large two inch block letters, which I encourage even with patients who talk because it develops another part of the brain crucial to thinking and judgement. Verbal encouragement, plus the chalk board. Don't be too sure you have "missed the boat" by missing the so-called "window of opportunity". Stabilization of the patient is the most important think. I am totally against the use of coumadin (except in esceptional circumstances), however it is the "standard-of-care", and I doubt if you will find a physician involved in stroke treatment that will risk his licence and insurance by telling you not to use it. Do ask your physician whether the stroke was caused by a "clot" or a "bleed" and do not be satisfied if he states "I don't know". Don't give up hope, though!

[joesi]

Don't beat yourself up over not finding her sooner. Be happy her neighbor called at all. Did they do an MRI? What country is she in?
The "beer" thing IS strange. When my wife stroked, she suddenly had this great sense of humor she never had before. She'd have us all in tears from laughing so much. Even the ICU nurses were amazed. She'd wake up and start telling one liners for an hour or so. Then she'd fall asleep. When she woke again, she'd start telling jokes. This went on for weeks. As she recovered, the joke telling slowed. Strange! It was like being married to a female Robin Williams.

[giavirtae]

sorry, I didnt mean I was gonna give her a beer, I know that thats totally out of the question, what I meant was its just really strange that someone who never touched alchohal all of a sudden wants a beer.

I'm not sure what kind of stroke it was, all I know is the doctor showed me a scan of her brain and the right side of it was all darker than the left. What  especially hurts most is that we have since learnt from my moms neighbor that she was feeling very unusually tired last saturday afternoon and went to lay down. Her neighbor then never saw her on sunday and decided to ring my brother on monday morning to express his concern in not seeing mom. My brother went over there and discovered her in bed still on Monday lunchtime, it appears she had actually had the stroke on Saturday afternoon and had been laying there for nearly two days so we had effectively ' missed the boat" with saving any early damage that couldve been avoided. But it couldve been so much worse, my mom obviously has a lot of strength.

[caregiver222]

Beer is very bad because it is a diuretic, causing urination, dehydration and increases the probability of another stroke. Large doses of vitamin C are alsoinappropriate for the same reason.If you are going togive her beer pay close attention to providing additional hydration. She has a good chance of recovery.

[joesi]

Keep a stiff upper lip. It's gonna take time. Pass on the beer. Keep at the rehab everyday. Keep up with a good diet. Keep searching the internet. BTW, what kind of stroke did she have and what did the doc's do?
NEVER GIVE UP and good luck.