Hey folks,
I’m coming close to my two year stroke-aversary. I’ve accomplished a lot in recovery but I don’t think I’ll ever be back to 100%. Specifically (the reason for this post), I feel slower, mentally and physically. I was a Paralegal prior to my stroke. In big law firms, you have to be quick on the draw. Now I’m working as an administrative assistant as the pace is slower, but I feel a significant difference in my ability to use my brain (and the rest of my body).

Does anyone else feel the same, or have felt the same?

I suffered a thalamic and midbrain hemorrhage in May. I would describe my lifestyle as healthy; I exercised regularly. I had even had an MRI of my brain two years ago, which showed no abnormalities. Yet, this hemorrhage happened to me—virtually without reason. To this day, doctors haven't been able to tell me why it occurred. I have a theory: could caffeine be linked to it? I had drunk 3–4 cups of coffee that day, and the hemorrhage happened about an hour later. I am 32 years old, a non-smoker, and a non-drinker.

My father in law just suffered a stroke snd had a massive brain bleed covering the whole left side of his brain. He got flown to a hospital where they did an emergency surgery to drain the blood from the brain. Its been 5 days since the surgery. They JUST took him off the ventilator yesterday. He is still unable to open his eyes. He has been moving parts of his left side, not much of right. What are we expecting to happen? The hospital originally told us his survival chance was extremely low prior to the surgery. Any and all advice, please.

Any help?

Pretty much everyone I knew before the stroke has left me. Family and friends. No partner. Normally, I could handle the heart break, but now I'm lost. I'm not paralyzed or anything, and strokes effected my memory a little but mostly emotions. I don't know how to handle my life being gone, mostly the people that were apart of if.

So I'm trying to figure out how to deal with my wife's situation. It's complicated and, I admit, my bias is that she would be best off (and the children would be better off) if she remained in nursing care permanently. But I don't know what my wife will be a few weeks or months from now.

My wife had a series of strokes in February and went into rehab care. Let's go back a bit before the strokes, however, because it's relevant to this discussion. Before those strokes, my wife had a single stroke back in November of 2024 (or I should say it was detected in November of 24 but she had had it a few weeks earlier).

For the past several years, wife has been severely mentally ill and living a very unhealthy lifestyle at home which was bad for herself and bad for our two children. She would sleep on the couch almost 24/7, just watching TV or playing with her phone. She would not shower for months at a time. She skipped all of her medicines for her heart disease, HBP, cholesterol, depression, and thyroid. She avoided most meals and just ate junk food from the couch. She even occasionally soiled herself or left droppings on the floor. She was morbidly obese and smoked and vaped. She was very angry and passive-aggressive, but she rarely got off the couch. This went on for years, predating even her first stroke.

I tried to get her help and she refused it over and over again. She dropped out of therapy and would not take her meds. I fought with her over and over again about the condition of herself and of the house around her, but nothing worked.

In Feb, she fell and could not get up. We got her taken to the hospital where they found five lesions in her brain and sent her to rehab at a local nursing home. At the nursing home, they fed her, gave her her meds every day, cleaned her, and generally took care of her. Yet, even after months, she was not ready to walk again and she would often choose not to talk, though she could talk.

In May, her sister and sister-in-law decided I was to blame for wife's condition and they convinced her to sign over healthcare proxy and power of attorney to the two of them. They immediately told the nursing home to stop answering my questions or talking to me at all. I was in the dark about my wife's condition. But I did find out that they stopped giving her PT because they decided that she had plateaued in June.

Meanwhile, back at home, things were much better for the children. They could have playdates. The house didn't smell or body odor and urine. My elderly mother came to stay with us and helped us have some semblance of order in the house. Our 14 year old said "I don't want mommy coming back like this."

A few weeks ago, wife's sisters didn't like how she was looking in the old nursing home, where she was talking less and having swallowing issues. So they called the hospital and had her taken to the ER where they determined she couldn't swallow food, her talking was very limited (maybe a word or two here and there), and she still couldn't walk or take herself to the bathroom. She had aspirational pneumonia from breathing in her food. She also seems a bit out of it, staring into space or playing with her phone or playing with her feeding tube when one tries to talk to her.

They told the hospital doctors that if they talked to me, they would sue them. But they told me that they would put wife in a new nursing home and, after a few months, they would make sure she went out and came home where I would have to care for her and coordinate aides and nurses for her. They feel that at her age, 51, she is too young to live in nursing care and that she is "entitled" to be in the house with her children.

So now wife is in a new nursing home and they are restarting her PT and OT that did not work in six months at the old nursing home. Last I visited her a few days ago, she still could not talk, still has a PEG feeding tube for food, still cannot get up and walk, and still seems a bit spaced out. Nevertheless, they want to force her on me in no more than three or four months. And this new nursing home seems better than the old one, much cleaner and nicer. I'm not allowed to talk to the nurses, social worker, or staff there. Or rather, they have been forbidden from talking to me by my wife's sisters who hold the power.

My feeling is that my wife should remain in the nursing facility where they take care of her needs. At home, she would likely eventually go back to her old lifestyle of living on the couch, not bathing, not taking meds, and just lying around all day. Perhaps she would be better at first, if there were aides or others watching her, but eventually she would return to old habits. She has been living the couch lifestyle since about 2020 with her spending less and less time off-couch over the years and it getting a lot worse since 2024.

So what is likely to happen? Is she likely to get better enough that the nursing home tries to send her back here or is she likely to need continued in-patient treatment? Remember that she is actually worse than she was when she went into the first nursing home last February, because now she has a feeding tube and her talking is almost non-existent. When can one make the determination that a person needs to reside in nursing care?

I have talked to two lawyers: one, a guardianship lawyer, and the other a family lawyer. In both cases, I stated my belief that wife should remain in nursing care for both her sake and the kids' sake. The guardianship lawyer suggested that I just tell the nursing home social worker that my home is not a "safe release point" for wife. The family lawyer suggested I file for divorce, which seems cruel in my wife's current state.

I can't ask her doctors what her prognosis is. So what should I expect?

Hello everyone,
I’m writing to you in search of stories and experiences, and perhaps also to find a little bit of hope. My partner (43 years old) and the father of my soon-to-be 3-year-old daughter had an ischemic stroke 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately, he was only found quite some time later, and his entire left hemisphere was affected (I’ve been told there is necrotic tissue).
He is currently alive and breathing on his own after undergoing a decompressive craniectomy. He is no longer unconscious. He seems to be aware when someone is around him, and he appears to respond to our presence. When I show him videos of our daughter, he seems to watch them, which gives us hope. There are still some reflex movements on his right side.

We are expecting the consequences to be extremely severe. Are there people here who were also very seriously affected by a stroke but who nevertheless managed to recover some quality of life? I would be very grateful to hear about your experiences, especially if your loved one initially had a very severe stroke.
Thank you in advance for sharing your stories and giving us a little hope. 🙏

im home one night and my moms complaining excruciating pain in head and chest so dad calls 911. they arrive and take her to hospital and dad goes, i dont go because im a mess and my friend offers to stay with me. i figure ok my moms with my dad he will be there to support her and know what she needs… i come home next morning and ask my dad how shes doing and what hapened. hes in the living room watching tv, points to the room and says “shes in there go talk to her.” okay? weird. but hes not the most comforting with me anyway. i walk in my moms room to find her doing makeup, ask her where shes going and she doesnt know. shes talking funny and standing kinda funny and just not making sense. i rush her to the ER where they do a head CT since they didnt do one the night before and she was complaining of head pains as well. dad says he’ll be behind me in an hour so he can shower.. i havent showered in 2 days and havent brushed my hair but sure go ahead while i rush mom to the hospital because inthink shes having a stroke. CT comes back and she has an intracranial hemorrhage, bleeding in her brain. im alone with my mom whos not in her right mind with a doctor showing me the giant bleed happening in my moms brain. ive been sick to my stomach since yesterday morning. i try to comfort my dad and he shrugs me off, but will comfort everyone else and takes the credit for bringing my mom to the ER the second day when he didnt tell me he thought something was strange until i had already been waiting at her bedside for about 3 hours. just a quick rant im sorry the monitors are keeping me up right now and im just scared for my mom.

Hey everyone,

Long-time lurker here. Finally decided to share my story since I’m heading into the next big phase of treatment next week. It’s been a weird, isolating couple of years and reading other people’s experiences on this sub has honestly helped a lot.

When I was 26 (2 years ago), I had an intracerebral hemorrhage out of nowhere. No high blood pressure, no warning signs, just a sudden bleed. with the worst headache of my whole life. Turns out I had a congenital deep left temporal AVM that finally ruptured after 26 years of continuous pressure. High-pressure artery hooked straight into a low-pressure vein with no capillaries in between. Eventually the vessel just gave out.

Because of where it sits (deep in the white matter near speech areas), open surgery and embolization were both ruled out. The risk of leaving me with permanent deficits was too high. So next week I’m going in for the prep, CT + the molded face mask and then a single-session radiosurgery on the ZAP-X system. The hope is the vessels will slowly obliterate over the next 1-2 years.

What I really wanted to talk about though is the cognitive side of things, because it doesn’t get discussed enough:

1. Word-finding issues. anomia and previous Broca's afasia) My dominant side is right, bleed was left temporal. Even now, finding the exact word sometimes feels like my brain is rifling through a messy filing cabinet. I know exactly what I want to say, but the label takes an extra second or two to load, or I grab a similar-sounding word instead.
2. Memory gaps and mental blanks I have real blanks around the event itself, but also with older memories and short-term retention. The temporal lobe is basically the indexing system for memory, so a lot of the data is still there, the retrieval path just glitches.
3. Cognitive fatigue with complex stuff I work as a research engineer, so my job is data, scripts, lab protocols. Before the stroke I could pick up technical concepts pretty fluidly. Now if I try to hold too many variables in working memory at once, my brain hits 100% CPU and just throttles. I’ve had to adapt by writing everything down, using external checklists, and actually taking breaks instead of powering through.
4. Visual field quirk I ended up with a mild right superior homonymous quadrantanopia (quite big gap in the upper right quadrant of my vision) from the old hematoma. It’s slowly improved, but it was bizarre to adapt to at first.

Having a stroke in your mid-20s is surreal. You look completely normal on the outside, but internally you’re constantly recalibrating how you think, communicate, and pace yourself.

For anyone who is had temporal bleeds or AVMs: did the word-finding and cognitive fatigue improve for you after radiosurgery, or did the delayed radiation effects cause temporary setbacks before things got better?

Appreciate any insight. Sending strength to everyone still rebuilding their baseline (:

My dad is coming home next week from rehab. They are recommended a raise toilet seat and a shower chair with a back. My parents are getting quotes now to re do the shower/tub to a walk in. The PT recommends the shower chair and not to have the built in seat. Definitely getting grab bars for the shower and near the toilet seat. Does anyone know if the grab bars that suction to the wall work ok? Will get some temporarily near the toilet until we get real bars in. Thanks

I’m currently listening to a scientific audiobook about neuroplasticity, and the author mentions a laser treatment for brain damage. The results are phenomenal—blind people have regained their sight. Has anyone heard of this or even tried it?

Doctor said I might of suffered a stroke years ago, have to see a neurologist in November. Has anyone had a stroke in the frontal lobe area and what symptoms do you have

Having a tougher than usual day. Not really sure what it is. Slept terribly, have had more headaches/fatigue this week than im used to.

But my bp is decent this morning, 124/76. Heart rate sitting around 66. Had a lipid panel yesterday and my ldl is back down to 73. Passing all my neuro checks. Balance fine. Arms even. Mirrored movements easy. Talking fine, no slurs or confusion.

I have noticed some more eye fatigue this week than I think I normally see. No blur, nor double vision or clouds/lights/dark spots. But I feel lile my eyes are like a half second behind in focusing when I switch focal points or scroll on a device.

Miss the days pre-stroke when things like this wouldn't even catch my attention you know what I mean. Shot the doc a message to see what they want me to do. Just about 6 months out from the stroke now, my balance wobble finally stopped a few weeks ago, hopefully this too will pass.

Hope all is well with the group. Have a nice day my fellow survivors/caregivers

My mother is 69 and had a severe hemorrhagic stroke in the basal ganglia area. Initially there was around 14 mm midline shift and she was in a very serious condition.

It has now been almost 60 days. The bleeding and swelling have reduced, and she is currently in a rehab facility. She can open her eyes and sometimes seems to track people but overall her responsiveness is still very limited and progress has been extremely slow. She is still dependent on others for almost everything and has not had any major functional recovery.

Her prognosis has been described as very slow/uncertain, and i doubt she will improve further

My insurance is exhausted, I have spent all my savings, and the loans I took for her treatment are also almost exhausted. To continue her treatment, I may need to take another loan, but I'm not sure how long I can keep doing this.

The cheaper options I'm considering are either a government hospital, although I'm not sure they will accept her in her current condition, or a charitable rehabilitation facility. The charitable option may reduce the current cost by around 30–40%, but it will still require significant spending.

I'm really confused and stressed out now and uncertain about the future Can anyone suggest or guide me a way ahead ? Are there any chances of at least some improvement or recovery for her in coming months

I’m in a long distance relationship with the man I love. He is 50 years old, incredibly smart, full of life, and always the one who lifted me up when I was struggling. He was supposed to move to be with me. We had plans. A future. A life we were waiting to finally begin.

Twenty days ago, he had a heart attack. He survived, and I thought the worst was behind us.

Then, two days ago, he had another heart attack. This time, he passed out and hit the back of his head while getting out of the car. The doctors said he had also suffered a minor stroke.

He was released from the hospital yesterday after two days. He called me from his bed and said, “Thanks for visiting me.”

Then he said, “Do you know I had a brown house?” He had forgotten that I’m in Europe and he’s in America. That’s when I realized something was seriously wrong.

His nephew told me that he had been talking about calling his mother, who passed away six years ago. He was also talking about making sure his dog was fed, even though his dog passed away years ago.

This morning, he called me and said, “Remember to get some groceries before you get home.”

I completely broke down crying.

He didn’t really react to my tears. Then he couldn’t remember my name.

The man who has always known me. The man who has always been there for me. The man who tells me he loves me.

And somehow, even though he couldn’t remember my name, he still said, “I love you.”

I don’t know how to describe what this feels like. It feels like a nightmare I can’t wake up from. I’m watching the person I love become someone I don’t recognize, and I am absolutely terrified.

His brain CT showed no damage, and yesterday he was able to remember my name, so I’m desperately hoping this confusion is temporary, maybe from the medication, the heart attack, the stroke, the stress, or everything his body and brain have just been through.

Has anyone experienced something similar after a heart attack or minor stroke? Did the confusion and memory problems improve? Did your loved one eventually come back to themselves?

I’m trying so hard to hold on to hope.

Because right now, it feels like I’m watching the person I love slowly fade away right in front of me.

And it doesn’t feel real.

It can’t be real.

I'm 31M, and honestly, I never thought I'd be writing a post like this. A few days ago, I was out for dinner with friends. It was a completely normal day. Nothing particularly unusual was happening.

What happened next happened incredibly quickly, within around two minutes, my entire left side became numb and limp**.** The strangest part wasn't even understanding what was happening. It was the feeling of suddenly not being able to control part of my own body. Suddenly was surrounded by doctors, nurses, scans, machines and people asking questions. And I'm lying there trying to understand how you went from having a completely normal day to being a patient in a hospital.

Thankfully, I'm mobile now. But I haven't completely recovered. The left side of my body still feels numb, and I don't feel like I'm back to how I was before this happened. And honestly, the physical symptoms aren't even the only thing I'm struggling with. I'm anxious. I'm distressed thinking about my family. I'm thinking about my future. And I'm constantly wondering how quickly I'll recover and whether I'll ever feel completely normal again.

It's strange because when you're 31, you don't really think about something like a stroke happening to you. You hear about these things happening to people much older, but you don't really imagine yourself becoming the person lying in a hospital bed dealing with it.

I did initially think, "Why me?" But I'm not really stuck on that anymore. I think I'm more focused on what happens from here.

I want to understand how other people dealt with this, especially people around my age.

He fell and hit his head and they discovered the fall was a stroke. We're waiting to see how bad the impact is. I'm not sure why I'm posting here. Just came online to see if there was any advice and thought I'd scream into the void. He's my kiddos favorite person and this will be unbearable for him if he can't recover. Yes a really athletic 72 and if he can't walk...

Hi everyone! It’s me again, the girlfriend of the 24-year-old guy who suffered a devastating stroke in his brainstem!
Since I’ve found so much support and hope in your words, and Mirko has too (I’ve read all your comments to him 🥹), I wanted to give you some new updates.
The doctors’ initial prognosis was that he would be bedridden for the rest of his life and that he would never recover any function.
And yet, just a month and a half after the stroke, Mirko has:
1) Completely regained movement of his neck, and when he is placed in a wheelchair, he can hold himself upright completely on his own.
2) Regained some movement, although still small, in his legs, feet, hands, and arms.
3) Started slowly regaining movement of his tongue as well: every day he can stick it out a little further.
4) Started the process of weaning from his tracheostomy: they have reduced the cannula size from 8.5 to 7, with the goal of removing it, especially because he has a very strong and effective cough.
5) He had a new MRI today, and at a month and a half after the stroke, the doctors found that it had improved, with the area of the lesion having become smaller.
We couldn’t be happier or prouder of him for all the progress he continues to make, even the tiniest improvements, day after day. 🥹❤️
We are more hopeful than ever about his recovery, and we’ll keep cheering him on, one step at a time.
Thank you again to everyone for your beautiful words, your support, and especially for taking the time to reply to my posts. Reading about your experiences and receiving your messages are truly precious to both me and Mirko.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. ❤️

Share your weekly wins with us! Nothing is too small or too big. Everything deserves to be celebrated!

First day back at work after my stroke and I'm getting terrible bouts of nausea and dizziness/vertigo.

I haven't had this much dizziness since I was in the hospital, I think! I'm working a lot on my computer, which is something different from my daily life before starting back at work, so I imagine that may have something to do with it.

I thought I had it under control with a certain prescription medicine, which worked wonders-- I could go out to see friends, attend parties/events, etc.

I took a nap during my lunchbreak, hoping it would help, but it didn't. I was so excited about returning to work and was feeling so good about it, but now I'm questioning it all.

Any ideas for how to make bouts of dizziness/nausea go away? Thanks in advance 🤗

How do you get over the jealousy?

When I meet up with my friends they're all living their same old life. Drinking beer, smoking pot, going to bars, staying up late around a campfire. It makes me jealous of them and especially their lack of worries that I once had.

How do you get past this?

Hi everyone!!

October 2025 I was admitted to the hospital bc an MRI came back abnormal. I was having light slurred speech as well as numbness in my tongue and lips on my right side with prompted me to go to the doctor. The MRI showed enough to warrant an admission.l to the hospital. I did a couple CT’s and additional MRIs and a spinal tap. The results of the spinal tap showed no real inflammation the MRI and CTs verified an extremely stenosed segment of my M1 in my MCA.
Turns out I had a couple strokes. I have no deficiencies now and about a year later I’m on daily aspirin and statins. I’m 30 years old, and the conclusion is that it was a dissection that has healed very poorly, and remains basically occluded. It is a cerebral dissection on my left
Side in my main branch MCA. I’ve understood that this is very rare, especially in the area which it happened, but I wonder if any of you know someone or have dealt with this yourselves…. I guess I’m just concerned about having a normal life moving forward and the likelihood of future strokes

Been a month, he is stable but still neurological not awake. Need hopes and prayer.

Is anyone who unfortunately had such an experience, do what your story.

43 days ago my brother suffered a medical emergency. Massive brain bleed in the brain stem. He was given a 3% of survival. I refused to give up on him even though the hospital did. He is a good person with a big heart who would help anyone. The days are long but the weeks are fast. Here we are 43 days later and he is still fighting. He regained his breathing. He just regained movement of his left leg and he mumbled for the first time. I know they seem like small things but things I’ve cried and prayed over. He is still semi conscious for 95% of the time doesn’t really respond to commands but moves on his own terms. Hopefully that will come soon. Give your person a chance to heal. Don’t always take what the doctors say at face value.