Derek Burnett
Derek Burnett is a Contributing Writer at Bottom Line Personal, where he writes frequently on health and wellness. He is also a contributing editor with Reader’s Digest magazine.
After the emergency phase of a stroke, while you or your loved one is lying in a hospital bed, the inevitable questions creep in…What will be the long-term effects of this stroke? How much recovery is possible? What percentage of stroke patients fully recover?
The amount of function a person will regain following a stroke is dependent on many factors, including the type of stroke, its severity, how quickly the person received medical intervention, how much rehabilitation and therapy they undergo after leaving the hospital, and how motivated they are to work hard at recovery. Obviously, even the most highly motivated person might not fully recover if the damage is too severe.
Here’s a statistical breakdown of long-term stroke outcomes according to Northwestern Medicine:
Keep in mind that recovery has different facets. A person might completely recover their motor skills but be left with cognitive deficits, or they might completely recover their speech while never regaining full use of the fingers of their left hand. While only about 10% of stroke patients experience a complete or virtually complete recovery with no after-effects, people can still live full, happy, and productive lives without achieving total recovery.
The road to recovery may be a long one. It begins the moment you start having stroke symptoms, continues during your stay in the hospital, and then might go on for years afterward. What happens to you and what actions you take at each stage of your journey may have a significant impact on the extent of your recovery.
During the stroke: Neither you nor anyone around you can control the location of the stroke within your brain or the severity of the initial damage. But acting quickly by getting you to a hospital…even better, to a stroke center…can have an enormous impact on your quality of life in the years ahead.
At the hospital. Ideally, within an hour of your arrival, doctors will take action to restore the flow of blood to your brain. If you’ve had an ischemic stroke, this may take the form of “clot-busting” medication or thrombectomy (surgical removal of the clot). If you’ve had a hemorrhagic stroke, doctors will try to stop the bleeding from the ruptured blood vessel, relieve pressure inside the skull, and administer medication to prevent a second hemorrhage. Once the acute phase of the stroke emergency is over, physicians will work with you to address the causes of your stroke, such as controlling high blood pressure, treating an aneurysm, or surgically correcting abnormal blood vessels. You will most likely be placed on antiplatelet or anticoagulant therapy. Before you’re released, you’ll already have begun therapy to recover your physical and cognitive function. Your caregivers will get you up and moving as soon as possible, asking you to try to walk to the bathroom, to dress yourself, and perform other simple tasks. You’ll be assigned a rehab therapist to begin working on affected body parts while still in the hospital. By the time you’re released, you and your loved ones will have been educated about what to expect and how to continue your recovery.
After your release…About two-thirds of stroke patients need some amount of rehabilitation therapy. Depending on the extent of your disability, you may do your therapy at a dedicated rehabilitation center or in an outpatient facility belonging to the hospital. Expect to spend at least three days a week in rehab, putting in several-hour sessions. You’ll work with a team of experts using specialized equipment to maximize your chances of full recovery. Therapists concentrate on an array of areas, able to address your specific deficits. Besides helping you overcome impairments, they can work with you to establish a secure footing for living with the after-effects of stroke, gathering the resources you’ll need for your post-stroke life, and adjusting your lifestyle to help prevent a second stroke. These professionals may include:
Many patients begin recovering lost function in the first few days after a stroke. In a 2021 study, the median amount of time required to begin walking independently after stroke was just six days. Often, the most significant gains take place within the three-to-six-month time frame. However, just because you’ve been at it for six months and still are struggling, that’s no reason to give up. Our brains have a remarkable ability to forge new pathways and make new connections, and the work you put in encourages that process.
In one case study, a 53-year-old stroke patient rendered paralyzed on the right side of his body did not achieve full use of his right arm until he had put in 12 years of work. But don’t despair; that’s a rare exception. Most people will recover most of their faculties in their first year. However, it does prove the point that if you keep working it, you can continue to see improvement long after your stroke is over.
As you work to recover lost faculties, you’ll also be developing new lifestyle habits to help you prevent another stroke. This should include dietary changes including adopting an eating pattern such as the Mediterranean Diet or DASH diet. These are high in fish, whole grains, olive oil, nuts, fruits and vegetables, and low in saturated fats, sugars, salt, red meat, and processed foods. You should also work with your doctors and therapists to develop an appropriate exercise regimen.
Many people remain in relatively high spirits during the first few months of their recovery, but as the gains begin to taper off and the reality of the long-term challenges begins to set in, about a third of people become depressed. Be sure to share how you’re feeling with your therapists, who can either counsel you or connect you with resources to help address your mental health. Joining a stroke survivors’ support group can be a great way to share the burden of living with the aftereffects of stroke as well as simply connecting with other people, since social interaction helps reduce the risk of having another stroke.
