Define a "minor stroke"

[stessie]

A stroke survivor told me he had survived a minor stroke. This individual was walking with a cane and dragging his foot and was off balance. It didn't appear to be a minor stroke but brought to mind how do you define a minor stroke. Is there such a thing as a minor stroke? Your feedback.

[PhilW]

Yes there is such called"minor stroke" it says alot of things like -this is just awarning change your lifestyle,you were very lucky this time,or it is a stroke with no ill-effects.I didnt listen to the first one & copped it big time later, my brother-in-law had a small stroke, he regaining full abilities now ,they are also known as TIA's. As for the stroke survivor Im afraid his stroke sounds pretty servere to me, any way big or small all strokes can be life threatning!

[dstraugh]

Yes, any stroke can be life threatening. Stessie, the person you mentioned to me sounds like it was more than a minor stroke with the deficits incurred. Perhaps the area affected in his brain was small but the location of it caused the deficits he is experiencing.

[Mema]

The survivor you described was probably rationalizing his stroke since he was able to get around and speak. Perhaps he knew someone who had not recovered those abilities or had not survived, so he considered his stroke as "minor". TIAs are strokes waiting to happen.

 

Vi

[fking]

You know, I guess we would have to define "minor" and of course "major" before we could classify the use of it in describing a stroke. I considered and my doctors stated my stroke was major. In my mind, I said, "OK I'm alive and have survived so far". As it turned out, I stayed in the hospital for several months while I saw other come and go in a few days.

 

I think minor would be a person that stayed hospitalized a couple weeks or less and was able to walk alone or assisted (cane) but under their own power. Major would be anyone that isn't able to do the same thing. Overall, minor would be a sliding scale that could go up or down depending on how that person perceives the definition of minor.

 

Stessie, to answer your question, there is such a thing as a minor stroke in my mind, on my scale of thinking.

[Terry TLO]

Stessie,

I was told by my neuro that mine was a massive stroke, my question to him what other kind was there? And he went into the thing about TIA'sas i was lying in ICU wondering if i would ever be able to get up and go to the bathroom on my own again, it hit me just what a stroke could do to aperson, although i have met other survivors that were worseoff than i was, I still consider my stroke to be major or massive whichever description you would prefer to use.

 

Terry

[Wesley H.]

I've kind of wondered the same thing as I was told mine was a "major" stroke.

 

If I had to define; I would assume that a:

 

"minor" stroke doesn't leave any physical deficits and is not apparent to the casual observer.

 

"major" stroke leaves physical deficits that we struggle hard to overcome, and is apparent to others that something is off.

 

'massive" strokes kill you.

 

 

that would be my definition,; though maybe not yours.

 

 

Wes

[fking]

Hey Wes, I agree with you and it's why I kinda think mine was major and 5 years later I still can't walk good or without a cane and must use a scooter or power chair to get around shopping or to any event including the theater.

 

I would think a massive stroke would lessen your chances of becoming a survivor for very long. With the same though process, I think it's all in God's hand after we are diagnosed with any stroke how well we recover from it.

 

Either way we learn to live with what we got left don't we?

[Le Hermite]

Hi Folks....

 

My thoughts run along the same lines as Wes's....

 

I would put mine as major, having put me in the hospital, wondering the next day if I was ever going to leave....

 

I have recovered enough to live alone independently, but still have issues with right arm/hand and leg....

 

I get by with a little help from my friends.....<G>....

 

Massive stroke killed my Dad, at 82.....He never came out of it......

[wiremanranch]

I would consider a "minor" stroke a TIA. Anything else would be some type of brain damage and then would become major with different degrees of deficits. I have numbness in my hand and arm weakness also have servere anixety from mine and I am not noticable. But I really have to be very aware as when I get tired I start to slow down a bit. Stroke is defiently a wake up call period.

Terry

[rla1961]

hi m y name is randy and i had a stoke on may 8th of 2008 at age 47 and will tell from my experience that no stoke is minor. i still have numbness in my right hand and a certain amount of weakness on my right side. i went back to work after 5 months but still have tremendous fatigue but say things are alot better nowadays i beleive nobody can tell you a stroke was minor and everybody is affected in different ways.

[Phoenix]

I think Wesley had great descriptions on the definitions. The ER Nuero told my husband mine was minor but my doctor said it was major. Whatever it is, it left me with left-sided weakness and I just think that sucks bigtime...Oh well! It's a massive change in my life either way.

 

By the way, WELCOME Randy to strokenet!

[kanderson]

hi randy and welcome to the site. i kinda agree with you too. my stroke was major also, killing 25% of my brain and the deficits it left behind. yes i still have 75% left but it doesn't function properly in all area's. any stroke is major to me, a TIA they say is a mini stroke, so lets add that to the scale, major, minor and mini, i would think according to the neurological society out there and the scale they use, they should be able to tell us the difference. interesting topic stessie, thanks for starting it.

[AllanWilliams]

minor or major does it really matter

we are all left physically or mentally scared, some get over it to a degree and some have to live with a lot of disabilities, but we all suffer to some degree or another isn't that why we are all here on strokenet as a caregiver that has helped a partner or a survivor that wants help, as a survivor i know I'm here because i need the help and encouragement to get through it all.

 

allan

[Clandrea]

This is a very tricky one.

Minor or major really is difficult to define.

My stroke affected around one eight of the brain (very visible on the MRI) in the lenguage area, around a month ago, and left me around 95% I would say.

Every day is different, I have an Pfo that might need closing, but in all I feel very lucky, hardly notice.

The doctors said big stroke I say hardly damages, minor one.

I guess I'm part of the lucky ones who the stroke affected an area that didn't cause much damage.

It really is a puzzle.

I hope everybody is doing okay.

[kwaltke]

Any stroke that leaves disabiiity that could be permanent or one that you have to struggle each day to recover from is not minor. That is Life Changing. Mine was by no means minor. But even though it was thought to be a fatal stroke Ha ha on them. Karen

[Manders]

I survived a massive brainstem stroke in 2005. I was only 18 at the time so my recovery has been remarkable. I have no physical issues today although a large portion of my brain in cleary "dead." I have been told, "oh, your so lucky your stroke was minor." Minor? I had a brainstem stroke. The doctors only gave me a 10% chance to survive. Maybe I didnt lose any physical motion but trust me it wasnt minor. So im asking, is a minor stroke based on the degree of the stroke or on the effects it has to the body? Physically, you cant tell anything has happened to me at all, but i deal with more emotional and memory issues than most, so please dont assume someones injury was "minor" just because it appears to not have affected them. Stroke is a brain injury therefore, many of the issues are invisible.

 

 

[kanderson]

hi manders and welcome to the site. as far as i am concerned, no stroke is minor since it affects the brain. im not sure how they rate a stroke, maybe a neurological scale of some type, a brain stem stroke is the worst i think. regardless of your deficits, you still had a stroke that attacked your brain, the major organ of our bodies. deficits can be physical or mental. no one can understand that either unless they have had a stroke or walked in our shoes. my stroke left me with both deficits and i was told i lost 25% of my brain by my neurologist, but supposedly we only use 10% of our brains anyway, so i am still operational,LOL. we survived against all odds, thats a big deal.

[swilkinson]

As a caregiver I wasn't sure I should weigh into this but I will add my 2 cents worth.

 

Ray has had five strokes. After the first in 1990 he returned to work after six months of rehab and therapy. He could do his job but he came home from work tired out and that was it. I increased my workload to take in most of the jobs he used to do at home. I guess I would call this "minor" as he was able to go back to driving, back to work and did resume a lot of his prestroke activities. The downside was he could no longer walk long distances, had a lot of fatigue issues, could no longer dance (balance issues) or do anything extra outside of his normal work. The ability to multi-task had gone and I organized our finances, our holidays, outings etc. I guess our family suffered as those social weekends were gone too and all the extra driving was done by me. Our youngest was fifteen at that time and feels Ray changed a lot, more than I would admit to.

 

In 1999 he had two strokes, 19th April and 10th May. Both paralyzed him down the left side, the first wiped out his balance which never went back to anywhere near normal. The second seemed to set him back further, he had burst ulcers, breathing problems, arrythmia etc. I would call those strokes "major" as they left so many defects behind. He came out of hospital/rehab unit after 4 1/2 months but never went back to work, driving etc. I retired to look after him. All work in the house and yard was now mine. He was not able to do much walking so we began to use the wheelchair for even short distances although he could walk at home with a cane and had a AFO on his left leg. The AFO helped his footdrop but complicated any walking up slopes etc that required his foot to bend.

 

In the years since he had a stroke in 2001 and 2005. The 2001 stroke took some recovering from but he was still able to walk some. I think that one took out his process thought, he spoke slower, tired quickly, slept up to 14 hours a day. His motivation seemed to disappear and although he had a lot of therapy one of the physios complained that each time she returned they were back to square 1! I put this down to short term memory problems and a sorting problem. Ray couldn't make sense of a string of sentences so when she gave him instructions she left him wondering what to do first. This has got worse since.

 

The 2005 stroke was when vascular dementia showed up. The short term memory loss now affected his mid-term memory and even those stored memories from childhood merged into a hazy collection of recollections which didn't match with those others recalled. This has become an isolating problem as it has progressed. Compared with the 1999 strokes this one was minor except for the area it damaged, the loss of memory is a big loss on whatever scale.

 

I certainly hope that most of you will have just the one stroke, recover as much as you can from it and go on with living. It is not what you lost that counts so much as what you regained. If you drive, work, remember what you had for breakfast - great! If you struggle with mobility, balance, memory and recall - make the most of each day anyway. In the long run it is what you do with what you've got that counts.

 

Sue.

[jjohnson]

make the most of each day anyway. In the long run it is what you do with what you've got that counts.

 

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Dear Sue:

What a beautiful sharing from your heart. I thank you so much for the service you give to our group by sharing your story with us. It means a lot to me and I know everyone else who can learn from you.

I keep the both of you in my prayers.

 

It is so true, life is what we make it. Life isn't fair, but GOD is.

 

Thank you again,

God Bless,

Hugs, Jan

 

Believe In Miracles And SOAR

[merichsen]

I think it may depend somewhat on from what end of the stroke spectrum you're standing ~literally.

I began with a ruptured aneurysm, brain surgery, in a coma, that was undeniably major. Four years later I'm left with not having a left arm. The other end of the spectrum is extremely minor. I went from vegetative to inconvenienced. Rather than try to evaluate whether mine was major or minor I'd prefer to look where I am now and appreciate that I am incredibly blessed.