Stroke Symptoms

The symptoms of a stroke depend on what part of the brain and how much of the brain tissue is affected.

• Stroke symptoms usually come on suddenly—in minutes to an hour.
  
  
• There is usually no pain associated with the symptoms.
  
  
• The symptoms may come and go, go away totally, or get worse over the course of several hours.
  
  
• If the symptoms go away completely in a short time (fewer than 24 hours), the episode is called a transient ischemic attack (TIA).
  
  
• A third of all strokes occur during sleep, so people first notice the symptoms when they wake up.
  
  
• These are the common symptoms of stroke:
  
  
  • Weakness in the arm or leg or both on the same side: This can range from total paralysis to a very mild weakness. Complete numbness or a pins-and-needles feeling may be present on one side of your body or part of one side of your body.
    
    
  • Weakness in the muscles of the face: Your face may droop or look lopsided. Speech may be slurred because you can't control the movement of your lips or tongue.
    
    
  • Difficulty speaking: You can't speak, speech may be very slurred, or when you speak, the words sound fine but do not make sense.
    
    
  • Coordination problems: You may seem uncoordinated and stumble or have difficulty walking or difficulty picking up objects.
    
    
  • Dizziness: You may feel drunk or dizzy or have difficulty swallowing.
    
    
  • Vision problems: You may develop difficulty with vision, such as double vision, loss of peripheral (side) vision, or blindness. (Blurred vision by itself is not usually a symptom of stroke.)
    
    
  • Sudden headache: A sudden, severe headache may strike like "a bolt out of the blue." Some people have called this the worst headache of their lives.
    
    
  • Loss of consciousness: You may become unconscious, stuporous, or hard to arouse and could die.