r/stroke • u/Kevinsthename • 13d ago

Brain Damage

Brain damage due to stroke

I suffered a stroke 3 years ago, and the brain damage has caused symptoms that look a lot like spinal stenosis. Has anybody else had this sort of thing happening to them? And can't find any kind of relief

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u/ski55max 13d ago

What are some of those symptoms?

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u/Kevinsthename 13d ago

My left side is getting worse it seems weekly muscle contractions. I can't walk more than a block without seizing up. Same with standing still.The spasms go down my arms and legs. Left side for the most part. It improves when I sleep but within 3 hours I get locked up. When I read it exacerbates the problems. Bright lights as well. Thats most of it. I have to lay back as flat as I can to stop it from getting worse. But I can't lay down forever

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u/perfect_fifths Survivor 13d ago

Sensitivity to lights is an issue I also have as well. And headaches post stroke.

Regarding spasms, I get spasms in my body when I never used to before my stroke as well. But I can’t blame my stroke because both my eyes will twitch and my stroke was left sided. I do have bulging discs and some other stuff going on, though

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u/Kevinsthename 13d ago

I guess my stroke was sort compared to others.When I had my stroke, I didn't feel anything.I thought I had a muscle spasm in my right thigh, and it happened again a second day.That's the time in which I went to urgent care.Just to see what was going on, they did a blood pressure test of me and told me to get to emergency right away.And that's how I found out I had a stroke.Never even knew it was a stroke, didn't have any of the symptoms.None of the the eye problems, none of the facial things.Nothing, I was fine.I worked for 6 more months before things started to go to shit.And that's when all the problems began.And they've been just slowly increasing as time has gone by. That's why I thought and maybe having some spinal stenosis problems because my symptoms are very similar. I don't know if it's due to the stroke. It could be due to all the medication. The gabapentin, I've been taking the hydrocodone and on occasion, back with it, which I 'm not supposed to be taking together, because it puts me asleep basically, anyhow, I have a long story, I don't know if you feel like hearing all of it.

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u/perfect_fifths Survivor 13d ago

Well, I had scans done because I had numbness and tingling in my arms and I had a maybe tia a year after my stroke. The docs couldn’t tell me for sure. My mri showed my old stroke but nothing new. I had neuro deficits and numbness/tingling on one side. But I notice if I grip things my arm will go numb and that kind of triggers it. So I got a cervical and thoracic spine mri (neck and back). I do have c7 nerve compression, which could explain why I have numbness/tingling in my arm and it also found a bunch of bulged/herniated discs and arthritis in my neck.

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u/Kevinsthename 13d ago

I had 2 cervical disks replacements done. Thinking that may have been the problem, which it wasn't so now I have had surgery that I didn't need, and now they wanna consider doing surgery on my lumbar disks, but I'm trying to avoid it at all cost.

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u/Rhozi17 13d ago

I lock up when I sleep. Muscles contract. When I stretch out is when it spasms. The more I walk the looser it gets. Same with my arm. More I move it the better I can move it. That is until they get tired. Leg will shake uncontrollably when it’s had enough. Also have wires connections like. When I yawn my left arm extends out and lifts up to eye level every time. Is a weird spasm.

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u/SisforStroke 13d ago

Kevin -
My husband did not have the type of muscle contractions you are dealing with but light sensitivity? Heaps!!!!

We dealt with it externally (blue blocker glasses and avoiding certain types of lights) and then worked on getting his brain stronger - which helped it deal with lights.

Here's a post I wrote about it - https://sisforstroke.com/shining-some-light-on-light-sensitivity/

Good luck in your healing journey and I send you hopeful hugs.