How long does it take to recover after a stroke?
That was one of the first questions I had after my stroke and I’m sure I’m not alone in asking that.
During my first week or so in the hospital, a nurse joked with me that recovery would take about a year, and at that time, I would look back and laugh at this whole experience.
As of this writing — now more than three years later — I’m still not laughing as that nurse had predicted.
Over the past three years, I’ve learned that recovery timeframes provided by nurses and doctors are largely guesses. An individual’s recovery after a stroke is so unique to their own situation that an end date can’t be known.
It’s a frustrating experience as a stroke survivor – not knowing what the end will look like and when it will come. You can spend all day wondering what challenges might improve over time and what limitations you may always have to work through.
Instead, recovery after a stroke is no different than any other pursuit. There will always be improvements to make in how you can do something and progress to look back on and celebrate. It’s an ongoing process.
How Long Does it Take to Recover from a Stroke?
During my stay in the hospital and in-patient rehab, I was often told I would bounce back quickly from the hemorrhagic stroke I experienced.
“You’re so young,” doctors and nurses would comment.
One doctor even told me I was the “lucky of the unlucky” — unlucky to have a stroke, but lucky to be young and in good physical shape.
After returning home from in-patient rehab and believing I was primed for a speedy recovery, I set my eyes on Aug. 1, roughly 70 days after my stroke that I would be “back to normal.”
I felt I had come so far in the first month, learning to slowly move my stroke-affected arm, hand, fingers, and leg again.
Surely in another 6-7 weeks, I’d be able to walk faster, shower while standing, and feel much more like my “old self.” Stuck at home with nothing else to do, I thought I could fully commit myself to recovery and by the first day of August, I would be driving, ready to work, and back in the gym.
Needless to say, I didn’t achieve my goal of being back to normal by Aug. 1. In fact, I failed miserably. Being impatient was not a helpful attribute in recovery after stroke.
Challenges With Post-Stroke Recrudescence
Days before my arbitrary Aug. 1 deadline – July 25 – I went to the local emergency room when I noticed significant facial drooping and weakness on my stroke-affected side.
Concerned as to why I was experiencing stroke-like symptoms again, I was evaluated for a mini-stroke and sent home that evening. Doctors suggested I may have pushed myself too hard, too soon after stroke.
My intentions for a full recovery by Aug. 1 were thus out the window and I realized that setting a date for yourself to be fully recovered was unrealistic and impossible.
It’s certainly helpful to set goals that can help you make progress – both physical and mental –but setting a date when you can expect to feel “back to normal” is a mistake, especially so soon after stroke.
Is There a Time Limit on Stroke Recovery?
In his book “Stronger After Stroke,” Peter Levine provides this timeline outlining four phases of stroke recovery.
1) Hyperacute: From the first symptom to the first six hours
2) Acute: The first seven days
3)Subacute: The first seven days to three months
4) Chronic: From the first three months to the end of life
Recovery after stroke can feel like it’s never-ending. The fact that this timeline describes stroke recovery as ending on the day you die surprised me.
I’m sure my jaw dropped when I first read that considering so many resources geared toward stroke survivors focus on the progress to be made in the first year after stroke.
In her book “Healing & Happiness After Stroke,” Kari Dahlgren describes how the brain will never stop trying to heal and improve itself after stroke.
“Neuroplasticity works wherever we put in the effort. Recovery only stops when you stop,” she writes.
“Neuroplasticity works wherever we put in the effort. Recovery only stops when you stop.”
Kari Dahlgren
Stroke Recovery Timelines
After stroke, you want everything back at once – your old hobbies, your old abilities, your old lifestyle. That’s the goal: to be back to “normal.”
However, a hard lesson to learn is that nothing comes back as quickly as you’d like.
The first year of stroke recovery is held up as this holy grail of how long it will take to recover. Yet recovery after a stroke doesn’t end after 12 months.
You can make a lot of physical progress in that first year and you may look fine to friends and family. But you can continue to make progress in the subsequent years after stroke.
I’ve noticed significant improvements mentally and physically in the years following stroke. Emotionally, I felt much better and less irritable once I started to sleep consistently again.
In his book “The Brain’s Way of Healing,” Norman Doidge describes how Moshe Feldenkrais – an Israeli physicist who worked with stroke survivors – viewed recovery after stroke.
Doidge tells how Feldenkrais didn’t believe recovery was the right word to use after stroke. Instead, Feldenkrais preferred to use improvement or “recreating an ability” when discussing his work with stroke survivors.
“Improvement is a gradual bettering which has no limit,” Feldenkrais is quoted as saying.
Improvement is a gradual bettering which has no limit.
Moshe Feldenkrais
As the days, weeks, and years tick by after stroke, there are no end dates or deadlines for recovery, only improvements to be made.
Stroke Recovery Rehab 