My 55 year old Mom just had a stroke last Wednesday. A little bit of history though before I get into my questions: she suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm 11 years ago (44 years old) which, about 6 weeks ago re-bled. She had to get it re-coiled and stents put in. She spent a month in the hospital. She was discharged from hospital July 13th without any blood thinners or anything to prevent clots. Well long story shot she developed a clot right where the stents were put in to fix her re-bleed last month, and exactly a week after getting home she suffered a stroke (July 20th) she has now been in the hospital 10 days and Im really worried cuz she has not really been alert much. She opens her eyes time to time when prompted by the nurses (and sometimes family) and is able to move her arms and legs. She has spoken a few words and seems to recognize most of us although her eyes have a hard time focusing and she seems to have a glazed look in her eyes most of the time. Sometimes she will speak 1-2 words without opening her eyes, other times she opens them but not for more than a few seconds at a time. Sometimes she just grunts or moans or just nods her head in response to anything. I realize stroke can take a long long time to recover from, and that there will be a lot of therapy involved but it seems she can't even really begin much of the therapy until she is more alert. The doctors and nurses keep saying "time will tell" and to "not lose hope" but it's so discouraging seeing her not make much progress each day. I guess my questions are 1) has anyone here ever suffered a stroke after a brain aneurysm and if so how was the recovery, and 2) how long should we expect she will spend most of her time sleeping and is that somewhat normal?
Thanks in advance,
a very concerned but hopeful daughter