Father's stroke

[Michele68]

My father, age 71, had a large bleed in the thalamus area about 3 weeks ago.  He is still in ICU, paralyzed on the right side, cannot talk, and has a PEG and a trach.  Unfortunately, he lived alone and we are not sure when he had the stroke; we found him on the floor.  We suspect he may have been there for days.  He developed aspiration pneumonia and sepsis, but these are now under control.  His neurologist feels he is a candidate for rehab; his other doctors seem more pessimistic.  Our concern is his level of alertness.  He is awake, but seems to have trouble following commands.  I believe he understands us, but he seems very weak.  A few days ago he seemed a bit more alert, but then the last couple days we could seem to even keep him awake for very long.  He was on a ventilator, but is now breathing on his own.  Is it common for someone to still be fairly unalert three weeks after the event?  Could it be that he is just really tired from fighting the pneumonia?

We are worried, but trying to be patient.  

[Michele68]

Thank you, lahinva.  Your comment is reassuring.

[lahinva]

It is common for stroke patients to be very tired after.  My dad's stroke was 18 months ago andsome days he will still be very tired and sleep all day.  Also, as I mentioned in another post, you may want to keep and eye on what meds they have him on.  My dad was on ativan and it made him very incoherent.  Once he was off of that he did much better.  The docotors switched him to risperadol for anxiety and it has worked much better.