Cerebellar stroke experience, treatment, recovery - want to dialogue

I had my stroke August of 2018. Had lots of balance issues and still work at it daily. It is getting better, in fact I would say I’m at 95% normal now. It take time and lots of work, Brightwings is right, you have to be patient give it time and be fearless in recovery! Question everything, learn as much as you can about stroke and what works best for your recovery, everyone responds differently to different types of exercises.

@narciso
Hello, you have had this event just 2 months ago. The one word I have for you is patience. The brain heals so slowly.
I had a full on stroke Nov of '17. The drag your foot to the door, left hand clenched, drooling kind of stroke.
Today, I look agile. No one would know I ever had a stroke.
Patience. I remember God giving me that answer to a different question I was asking...I roared at God, what this again????
I have learned patience since then....
So why patience, the brain recovers slowly, very slowly. Oh did I mention slowly? Nothing is going to rush this process.
Yes, you will go to see your granddaughter graduate. It's by having little goals you get thru this and past this. Hang on girl and keep coming back.
We are all in this together. Bright Wings

This was in news today. “28-year-old man suffers stroke from cracking his neck”
https://apple.news/AiQopdY_TQgeYTnnU41NZTw

I suffered a right cerebellar stroke on March 2019 at the age of 34. Yep, you read that correctly. About 3 or 4 days before I bought through Jetblue my 4 day trip in May to be at my goddaughters graduation. I bought the non-refundable type because, what could go wrong??? To jump around, the doctors say that I’m able to take a plane, so I’m going to her graduation.

The day that it happened I basically got very dizzy and kept getting dizzier. I even searched in the computer about strokes because I also felt my left arm getting weaker. I said to myself that I was too young, but then I got dizzier and dizzier, so I called 911. When I went to work my writing was off, but I didn’t think much of it. I threw up in the emergency room, where they cut through all my clothes. Then I passed out. I woke up in the ICU room with several tubes in my mouth that at times I would start by throwing up again, though it was mostly saliva. Once they took that off on the third day, I stopped throwing up. I tried to tell them, but with the tubes in my mouth I couldn’t speak and they didn’t understand my sign language attempt.

It turns out I have a vein get dislodged and a clot formed, giving me the right cerebellar stroke. I had one MRI and like 5 CATScans. For the MRI they had to move me from my bed to the MRI bed because I was too weak to get out of the bed. The first few CATScan they moved me, then I moved myself. I was very dizzy, I must say.

It has been two months since the attack and I have right side of face paralyzed except the right eye, although I can’t fully close the eye. As a consequence, I have to pour fake tears on my right eye and sleep with an eye patch. I can now feel better any touch to the right face, but its not like in the left which is normal. I can also feel some of the muscles while before I couldn’t feel a muscle in my right face at all or even move it. Sometimes I drool from right mouth.

My right arm/hand and leg/foot are weaker than my left side. I always had sensation, but it was less than on the left. The right arm/hand was slow and has got a lot faster than before. My hand still shakes when I write and my writing looks like a first grader, but the shakes have got a lot shorter and easier to stop. My writing is also getting better. I also use the Saebo Glove to stabilize my right hand and allow me to write without holding the right hand with the left. Before I always had to hold my hand with my left to attempt stopping the shaking. Apparently, in a few months the shaking is suppose to stop.

I use a walker because I couldn’t keep my balance. It has got a lot better with therapy. I’m currently at the first week trying the cane, which is a lot better than the walker. I do the balance therapy exercises and some balance exercise offered at the Saebo website too.

My right hearing is off, only a high pitch sound. Now, when I was fine I still suffered from Tinnitus in both ears, so I don’t know if its a new high pitch or the old one. Sone doctors say the hearing will come back while other doctors says its gone forever. I say lets wait and see, since that is all I can do at the moment. I have got used to hearing everything through the left ear.

My right eyesight is slightly off, although I saw double visions plus everything moving for 3 or 4 days after the stroke. Only the left end was everything stable, so I look mostly that way. I feel every day its a little less to wake up and feel the body move to the right. I still feel dizzy, especially when I’m standing and walking. It had got better, but I can still feel it. From about my right forehead to my right ear, passing by my right eye and even my right nostril, I feel a pressure that its daily going away, but only a little.

I go to outpatient therapy and its suppose to end in a month. Before that I spent like 5 days in ICU, 4 days in another big room where they have the normal people, and then 2 weeks in hospital therapy. I also do most of the exercises at home everyday.

In the middle of this week I visited another doctor who showed me for the first time my MRI shots and where in my brain the stroke happened. He also said that I was very lucky, but where he made the difference versus all the other doctors that said that was by telling me that if the clot would had happen 1 to 2 millimeters above the artery my only solution would had been death.

That’s my experience with the cerebellar stroke. I really hope to walk again, write again without the glove, and feel normal enough to go to work by the end of this month. I don’t think its going to happen, but you never know. I’m going on the flight at the end of May to the graduation of my goddaughter, God willing.

Hi everyone,

I'd like to invite you to join us today, Wednesday, May 1 at 12pm CT for a video Q&A. Drs. William (David) Freeman and Rabih Tawk will be discussing all aspects of stroke, and will answer questions during the live broadcast.
Simply click https://connect.mayoclinic.org/webinar/video-qa-about-stroke-2/ for details.
Drs. Freeman and Tawk will answer questions live. Post your questions before and during the broadcast.

Return to this page, https://connect.mayoclinic.org/webinar/video-qa-about-stroke-2/ to take part in the video Q&A live on May 1 at noon CT. It will also be archived on this page.

@hopeful33250- Oh what a relief you must feel. You had carcinoid tumors in your brain?

Praying for good results for you, @merpreb. Last week, I had my EGD for carcinoid tumors and all was good! Wishing the same for you!

May 1. For all in the Cerebellar Stroke Discussion group, please take a look at the link below that gives information about Mayo's Video Q & Q about strokes. If you click on the link you can register for the Video and also post questions that will be answered by the doctors. If you are not available for the May 1 Video you can watch it afterward. It will be available for retrieval to watch at a more convenient time.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/webinar/video-qa-about-stroke-2/

@brightwings- awww

Good for you Merry. Welcome...and get to reading. Giggling
Now that may sound off to be giggling she is here, but Merry and I have known each other for about a year at another group for withdrawing from Effexor.
Merry, I also want to say, I have the utmost respect for you.
Wow, girl, you have really been thru it, haven't you?
So many different challenges, anyone of them could have taken you out.
Pssst, I am going to let you join my club...The Energizer Bunny Club.
Why Cuz like me, you are just like the energizer bunny...We keep going and going and going...life is so much sweeter that way, right?
Smiling at you with tenderness, Bright Wings