Stroke how long to recover

If you or someone you love recently had a stroke , you may be feeling overwhelmed with emotion and questions about what lies ahead. But chances are, recovery is at the center of your focus. No two strokes are the same.

Some people may feel more like themselves within just a few days, without any lasting physical or cognitive issues. But for others, it may take several months to heal or adjust to any long-term effects. Things like the type and severity of the stroke, when stroke symptoms were first noticed and when treatment began, preexisting conditions and overall health can all have an impact on treatment and how long it can take to recover from a stroke. Below, we walk you through some of the physical and cognitive challenges that can come with strokes, as well as a general stroke recovery timeline to help you know what may be coming in the days and months ahead.

Not everyone will experience the same effects of a stroke. But some of the most common physical and cognitive challenges that stroke patients face after a stroke include:. How long it takes for someone to recover from a stroke depends on several factors. As we mentioned earlier, the type and severity of the stroke, how quickly treatment began, preexisting conditions and overall health can all have a big impact. Other things like how quickly you or your loved one may be able to begin rehab, living and working environments, and the level of support you can count on from family and friends can affect the stroke recovery timeline, too.

The first minutes and hours after stroke symptoms begin is the time when certain treatments can be most successful in reversing damage and improving outcomes. That means accurately diagnosing a stroke so treatment can begin as soon as possible is the vital first step.

If it is caused by a blood clot ischemic stroke , clot-busting medication can help reduce long-term effects if you are treated in time. The rehabilitation team includes physiatrists, neurologists, physical and occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists and nurses.

The typical length of a hospital stay after a stroke is five to seven days. During this time, the stroke care team will evaluate the effects of the stroke, which will determine the rehabilitation plan. Physical and occupational therapy can help determine which areas of the brain are affected by working with a patient to complete various tasks, like walking or brushing hair.

Speech-language therapy is important for patients who have trouble swallowing due to stroke or aftereffects of having a breathing tube. Therapy sessions are conducted up to six times each day while the patient is at the hospital, which helps evaluate the damage caused by the stroke and jump-start the recovery.

Activities of daily living ADL become the focus of rehabilitation after a stroke. ADL typically include tasks like bathing or preparing food. But you should also talk with your care team about activities important to you, such as performing a work-related skill or a hobby, to help set your recovery goals.

While therapy is vital, it is equally important to practice on your own. Beyond affecting ADL, a stroke can have serious cognitive and emotional impacts for both patients and caregivers. Rehabilitation psychologists and neuropsychologists can screen for these kinds of challenges and create a plan to improve cognitive function and develop resilience in the face of what could be permanent lifestyle changes.

Your care team will formulate a discharge plan that will depend on your level of functional impairment. After the hospital stay, you might continue your rehabilitation:. During this time, most patients will enter and complete an inpatient rehabilitation program, or make progress in their outpatient therapy sessions.

The goal of rehabilitation is to restore function as close as possible to prestroke levels or develop compensation strategies to work around a functional impairment. An example of a compensation strategy is learning to hold a toothpaste tube so the strong hand can unscrew the cap.

During the first three months after a stroke, a patient might experience a phenomenon called spontaneous recovery — a skill or ability that seemed lost to the stroke returns suddenly as the brain finds new ways to perform tasks. Some patients will experience setbacks in the months after a stroke, like pneumonia, a heart attack or a second stroke.

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