Mild Stroke Recovery: Living Your Best Life After Surviving A Stroke

Every mild stroke recovery is different because it will depend on the type of stroke and the person’s ability to recover. If you are currently taking care of someone who had just a stroke, it’s important for you to know the basics to effectively help them recover quickly. For example, you may encourage them during recovery to try some light exercise at home.

What Is A Mild Stroke

A stroke can only be deemed mild if it results in minor disablement. For most mild stroke patients, major motor skills like the movement of arms and legs are typically unaffected. However, it often impacts fingers, wrists, and hands.

Mild stroke patients don’t usually need extensive stroke rehabilitation programs to recover since the side effects are not maximal. The recovery period is much faster compared to major stroke as well as the brain recovers easily.

Recovery Period

As mentioned, the recovery period varies, but it is definitely shorter than a major stroke. Depending on the patient’s condition, the doctor might recommend a short stay at the hospital, although some are discharged right away.

If the impairments are minimal, the recovery period usually takes 3 to 6 months, sometimes, it’s even shorter especially if the patient is dedicated to following their stroke rehabilitation exercises.

During the recovery period, the patient must receive utmost support and care from their family friends, it is a crucial journey for them as they will experience emotional stress while trying to recover.

With enough support and understanding, a patient can recover quickly.

Caring For A Mild Stroke Patient

Even though the effects of mild stroke are minimal, it is still important to take the condition seriously. For instance, you can productively provide the best care to them if you are aware of the signs and symptoms of a post-stroke and everything that connects to it. A post-stroke could happen days or months after the minor stroke takes place.

Here are some of the things that you should remember to make the patients recovery speedy:

• Claw toe. A mild stroke usually affects the fingers, toes, wrists, hands, feet, and everything that is linked to minor motor skills. A claw toe happens because the brain and muscles in the foot are not communicating properly. Encourage the patient to regain control over their toes with exercises like toe tap, floor grip, squeezing fingers, and toe strengthening methods.
• Hand paralysis. Another minor effect of mild stroke is hand paralysis. This is the inability of the hand muscles to make a movement. Several methods like stretching, botox injections, and spasticity orthotics can help the person regain hand functions. However, surgery might be needed if none of these works.
• Aphasia. This is a common side effect of any kind of stroke. Aphasia is the difficulty in speaking and communicating. When you are speaking to the patient, be sure to use simple words and short sentences so they can understand you clearly. Moreover, their speech problems can be managed by encouraging them to stay relaxed, calm, and focused.
• Dealing with PTSD. It’s normal for patients to experience post-traumatic stress disorder following a stroke. The unpleasant experience and side effects could cause an individual to feel down and demotivated. Help them get through it by treating them normally. Avoid bringing up their stroke attack and divert their attention to interesting things.
• Fatigue. Exhaustion is on a different level for stroke patients. About 70% of stroke patients feel fatigued which can cause them to lose interest in recovering. If your loved one is frequently experiencing fatigue, it’s best to discuss this with their doctor.
• Emotional distress. Mild and major strokes can have a significant effect on the person’s mental health. To guarantee that they do not succumb to emotional stress, try to be supportive and patient all the time. This will motivate them to work hard on their recovery exercises. It will also give them the impression that they are alone in combating the effects of stroke.

Set goals and keep them motivated

In order to motivate them more, help them set some recovery goals that they can realistically achieve in a specified period. This is a good practice to prevent anxiety and depression since they will be too busy accomplishing their goals. Check here how some simple exercise can help.

It is easy to lose interest in recovering especially if the results are not showing immediately. Help them stay motivated by deliberately showing them their motivation, such as photos of loved ones, upcoming family gatherings, and things that they can do after they recover from the stroke.

Preparing for the after-effects

Educate yourself about the symptoms of a stroke. This is a preventative measure for you to be able to recognize if a stroke is about to happen once more. A second stroke is a common occurrence in stroke patients and having the knowledge about the symptoms can save their life.

Since a stroke can crucially affect the functions of the brain, there is a tendency for the patient to become forgetful, they might also have difficulty in working through their thoughts, and doing simple chores can be challenging as well. Prepare them for these dilemmas and assure them that you will be there to assist them all the way.

Watch out for dementia

Because of the effects of stroke on the brain, it is possible for dementia to kick in. This is a condition where the patient will have problems in their cognitive functions. Their ability to comprehend and sort out information becomes distorted due to the damages caused by the stroke to their blood vessel.

Overall, it is possible to fully recover from a mild stroke within 3 to 6 months given that the patient is surrounded by supportive people. Encouraging them to strictly adhere to the rehabilitation program at home will also greatly contribute to their speedy recovery.