Hello Tonya,
Thank you for reaching out on EnableMe and being so open about your experience. I am sure that many people in the stroke community can relate to some of your concerns, but that does not make it any less difficult.
Everyone deserves support throughout their stroke journey, so we really encourage you to contact your local doctor as the fatigue is impacting your day-to-day life. You also mentioned that you are experiencing issues with your sleep. This could be contributing to your fatigue further. Perhaps have a discussion with your GP about your experience with Melatonin and if it would be worth re-trialing another round of it or a different regimen that could help improve your sleep. It may also be helpful to browse through Sleep Health’s foundations resources like ‘Ten tips for a good night’s sleep,’ ‘Common causes of inadequate sleep’ and ‘chronic fatigue syndrome and sleep’.
If you were up for it, StrokeLine (1800 787 653) would also love to have a chat with you over the phone about your experience, and how we may be able to further support you. Your stroke and fatigue are not your fault, and we hope that you continue to advocate for yourself and reach out for help when needed.
Fatigue
Unfortunately, fatigueis very common after a stroke. In fact, up to 80% of survivors report experiencing fatigue after stroke.
You mentioned that you do not have many services on Kangaroo Island, however it may be beneficial to consider an online Occupational Therapist (OT). They can assist with energy conservationmanagementtechniques that may be helpful to combatfatigue, especially when working. As StrokeLine cannot recommend specific occupational therapists, it may be helpful to search for potential services in South Australia or Australia such as Umbo, that provide online support. It may also help to further find any OTs that have stroke or neurological experience.
You may find more information about fatigue on our EnableMe website here or the Stroke Foundation website here. This includes a technique of personally managing your fatigue through Pacing, Planning, and Prioritising.
- Pacing is spreading out the activities you do and using numerous shorter breaks instead of one long break after an activity.
- Planning is understanding what activities you are doing and when, making sure not to group up too many similar activities together. Eg spread out appointments. This also means assessing which activities make you feel more, or less, fatigued for future planning
- Prioritising mean understanding what you need to do and what can wait. If you have a limit to what you can do each day you can plan to do those things which are important and save unimportant things for other days.
There are also further resources and strategies to manage fatigue below:
Relationships post-stroke
You may find more information on relationships post-stroke on EnableMe here, as well as the sex and relationships fact sheet here. On Synapse (1800 673 074), there is also information and some strategies for relationship changes after brain injury.
With relationship changes post-stroke, it is important to get further support such as counselling. If you do not have couples counselling nearby, it may be helpful to once again, find an online counsellor.
An alternative may be to contact Relationships Australia on 1300 364 277 as the leading provider of relationship support services in Australia.
If you were also interested, in may be worth joining an online support group to connect with other stroke survivors or people experiencing fatigue or relationship changes. Some options may be Synapse, StrokeNSW or Genyus Network.
We hope that this information may be helpful for you and the stroke community. Please do not hesitate to contact us on StrokeLine 1800 787 653 or email strokeline@strokefoundation.org.au. We are available Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm AEST.
Kind regards,
Karina and Fi
