A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain results in cell death. It can sometimes cause temporary or permanent disabilities, depending on how long the brain lacks blood flow and which part was affected.
Complications may include:
1. Paralysis or loss of muscle movement
Most movement problems are caused by weakness in your muscles. It’s common for a whole side of your body to be weak after a stroke, but you may have weakness in just one arm or leg.
Sometimes it can be severe and stop you from being able to move parts of your body at all. This is called paralysis.
Physical therapy may help you return to activities affected by paralysis, such as walking, eating and dressing.
2. Difficulty talking or swallowing
Since a stroke might affect control of the muscles in your mouth and throat, many stroke survivors experience trouble swallowing and talking at some point after a stroke.
Dysphagia is the medical term for difficulty swallowing or paralysis of the throat muscles. This condition can make eating, drinking, taking medicine, and breathing difficult.
3. Memory loss or thinking difficulties
Many people who have had strokes experience some memory loss. Others may have difficulty thinking, making judgments, reasoning and understanding concepts.
Older stroke survivors are likely to develop dementia.
4. Emotional problems
Stroke impacts the brain, and the brain controls our behavior and emotions.
People who have had strokes may have more difficulty controlling their emotions, they may experience feelings of irritability, forgetfulness, carelessness or confusion. Feelings of anger, anxiety or depression are also common.
People who have had strokes may also become more withdrawn and less social or more impulsive.
5. Pain
You may experience different types of pain including shoulder pain, muscle tightness or stiffness, headache and central post-stroke pain (CPSP)
For example, if a stroke causes you to lose feeling in your left arm, you may develop an uncomfortable tingling sensation in that arm.
Unfortunately, because the pain is caused by a problem in your brain, rather than a physical injury, there are few treatments.
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