Dad's just had a massive stroke

[washy21]

Hi

I'm terribly upset. My dad has just had a stroke. He's 72 and is currently in hospital virtually asleep full time. We know that it is caused by a blood clot stemming from Atrial Fibrillation and it has affected his left side (No vision, left arm and leg)

The doctor has painted a very bleak picture which was very devastating and right now at this moment it just seems that there is no hope.

Can anyone re-assure me that if he survives there is some hope for quality of life. It's all a bit much at the moment and the future is too much to contemplate.

Thanks

[daniel1639]

I'm sorry to heard about your mom. Just always remember that there is still life after stroke. There are a lot of group discussion and forums focuses on stroke survivors and their families that would be happily provide you guidance.

[casual89]

My mom had a massive stroke on sunday and she cant speak or move her right side tho she scratches the right side with her left hand.dr put her in a rehab nursing home and seems like she is giving up the fight.i dont know if she can recover dr says no she is permanent after an mri.now what both her corotted arteries are clogged totally.and cant have the surgery to fix them untill its been 3 months after her stroke.give me hope plz my babies are hurting and it kills me to see them hurt and not being able to hear my moms voice or see her smile.help me plz im begging i dont want to lose my mom.what can i do....

[novanorth]

Hi,
My Dad had a severe stroke (left side) in 2010, which completely debilitated him.  He could not swallow. He could not speak.  He could not move his right side for days.  After about a week following some swallow tests and physical therapy, he was able to get up and go to the bathroom with help.  But his cognitive functions did not fully return.  He had lots of trouble with time passage, for instance, and if he read a book we weren't sure what, exactly, he could read and comprehend.  Eventually he was able to return home after a year in a residential therapy location.  Then last year he had another stroke, and all the work he did in therapy went out the window.  He's currently in a full time facility in therapy again;  he cannot be cared for at home right now because he's a severe fall risk.  His balance took a turn for the worse several months ago and now he can't be at home without full time care.  This is VERY heartbreaking, as my Dad is the Marlboro Man personified.  He reared five kids and worked as an electrician and professional musician his entire life.  As a matter of fact, he was on his way home from a gig with his band when he had his first stroke in 2010.  He has never fully recovered.  His name is Jeff.  And I love him.  And lately he's so tired of the endless rounds of therapy and hospitals;  he's 81, and he's giving up.  I'm heartbroken.

[zeechen143]

My Dad is 74 and has had 3 strokes and 2 of them major in the last 20 years. The first one 20 years ago, affected the left side and he was in ICU and they said he was going to die. He had a year of rehab, learned how to walk again with the help of a therapist, and eat and talk and he went back to work, and worked for another 10 years doing manual labor. His left side was never the same and he had the curled hand thing on the left hand. He did not change his lifestyle, high stress, bad marriage, financial worries all the time, and ate terrible and gained weight and let his blood thinners run out! He finally had a major 3rd stroke 8 years ago, and lost the use of his right side this time. He could not talk, eat or move for a month, but he is a fighter. Once again after a year of rehab he was able to talk and feed himself, but never walk again. I moved him in with me and now I take care of him full time. Luckily he can pull himself up and down with a pole in the room and use a urinal during the day and get in and out of his bed for a nap.  I got him an electric wheelchair he can get around by himself, bought a great electric toilet/bidet so it washes him after he goes, so he has some independence and dignity back. I make meals and care for him, but he can feed himself and he wears adult diaper at night but only pees, so that is not bad. He has his own laptop and is on the computer all day, emailing people, watching netflix and he loves to read Kindle books. He doing wonderfully now, he is off the blood thinners and his blood pressure is so much better than it has ever been before. Part of his problem was a stressful marriage to an alcoholic  who is financially irresponsible and tons of pressure all the time. He worked all the time and never took care of himself. Now it is like he on retirement and he has some money to spend because of his social security and he is very happy. Twice we were told he would die or be a vegetable and guess what that is not what happened.
It is up to you to encourage and keep their spirits up and they have to want to get better. New nerve pathways will form for them over and around the damaged areas if they keep working and pushing themselves. It is all up to person who had the stroke how much better they get. Stay positive and do not let the doctors or nurses bum you out. They tend to be very negative I have found until the person starts to get better. A lot of people do die after a major stroke, so that is more what they focus on I think, but I have seen many people get better!

[worrieddaughter6]

Hello,

My mom turns 87 next Friday.  She suffered a first stroke in April of 2010.  It affected her left side, however, she recovered enough where she was able to live on her own, with help from an aide for 9 hours a week.  I went by everyday to check with her. make sure she was ok, etc.

In October 2012, she suffered another stoke which was massive.  It affected her speech, her vision and the same left side.  After a few days, her speech started to return to normal.  She did 100 days at a Sub-Acute center where she had speech, occupational and physical therapy.  We had to move her to another facility where she continued PT.  However, I was not pleased with her care and a number of other issues there.  Now she is at a facility closer to my home.  They gave her PT for one week but are now discontinuing because they said that she is not responding to the PT.  They will now do what they call Restorative Theraphy with Range of Motion therapy.  

My mom is very alert, can speak and feed herself, but that is about all.  She has no movement on the left side and her left hand continues to be in a splint.  She is very weak on the left side and cannot stand on her own or walk.

I am wondering if this will be the quality of her remaining years.  Is there any thing that I can do or ask the doctor/therapist to do to help her?

[sara12345]

I can understand why you are so worried.  And it must be hard with you living so far away from her.  Yes, God will be the one to decide, but what those around her say to her and do for her will make a big difference.  Wish you the best.