Taking Care of The Elderly
Strokes
What does “They had a stroke” mean?
Note: This page focuses on strokes, there is a subpage on Dementia.
Whew, this is a biggie. There are as many answers to this question as there are people who have had strokes. According to the medical dictionary website, the answer is:
A stroke is the sudden death of brain cells in a localized area due to inadequate blood flow.
For more basic information, click here: https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/stroke
Strokes can happen at any time, to any person. Age, Race, Physical Health, Gender, and all other specifications do not apply to strokes. There are things you can do to limit your chances…watch your weight, don’t smoke, live a stress-free life, don’t drink…but there is no guarantee this will keep you from having a stroke. (But do those things…you should live longer and be happier.)
Here is another fun thing about strokes. Did you read that definition? Did you see the word “death” in it? That’s right when the brain cells die, they do not get better.
Let me repeat that.
They do not get better. All the therapy and rehab in the world will not regrow those dead cells.
What therapy, rehab, and your own body can do is forge new pathways, different ways to accomplish the same things that you used to use the now dead cells for. In other words, you don’t really get better, you get different.
And that is not a terrible thing. You are still you. Just a slightly different version of you. For some people, it may not even be noticeable. For some, it may involve a complete change of personality or habits, and for some, it will show itself in subtle ways.
And it all depends on which side of the brain was affected.
The obvious effects of a stroke are usually found on the body. A weakness or paralysis of the left or right side. A drooping mouth or eye. Incontinence. Jerking movements for no reason.
Slurring or incorrect speech or understanding. Mimicking the facial expressions of other people around you.
More subtle effects would include the following:
“Agreement Syndrome” Some stroke patients are so disoriented by daily life, that they will agree with anything you say. With anything ANYONE says. This is a hard one to detect, but if you are dealing with a stroke patient, never assume anything.
Personality Changes. A pastor who has been mild all his life may start swearing and hitting out at people. A meek and mild housewife may suddenly become more…let’s say “friendly”…than a drunken barfly after the bar closes. A person who has lived a hard life, no holds barred, may become shy and reclusive.
Sense of Humor. Some people may develop a mean streak in their humor or lose a sense of what is funny altogether. They may become socially inappropriate. They may become upset when things they think are funny are not perceived that way by anyone else.
For a lot of stroke patients, there is an almost constant level of irritation. There is frustration because things don’t feel the same. (Sometimes literally, things can “feel” different.) There is frustration because they cannot seem to make themselves understood. Then there are the people like my father, who are almost back…but do not understand that 80% is not 100% and become upset when their personal freedoms…like driving a car or going to the market alone…are not something they can do, perhaps something they will never be able to do again.
You will need to be patient. You may need to repeat something several times before it is comprehended. You may need to find new ways to talk to them, new words to use to describe things. You need to be prepared that they will be angry and upset with you. It's not you, it’s not really them, it is the situation and it sucks. It is the new normal.
This is a very brief overview of what it means when someone has a stroke. As I said before, everyone is different. All stories have different endings, different through lines. There is so much out there, so much information.
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Do your research. Learn. Question. Get advice.
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And share the burden.
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Helpful Links:
http://www.stroke.org/understand-stroke/what-stroke
http://www.strokeassociation.org/STROKEORG/
https://www.webmd.com/stroke/features/is-it-stress-or-stroke
