Experience with strokes?

All things considered, it sounds as if your MIL is doing quite well. My dad had a hemorragic stroke 11 years ago, and it took two weeks before they would allow him to try to sit up in his bed. He needed months of rehabilitation, but is physically doing relatively well now. Mentally, he did change, which is quite common with strokes. The patients typically become "more" of their personality. A timid person will be even more timid, an aggressive person will typically be even more aggressive (that would be my dad). The prognosis (according to a friend of mine who is a doctor in a rehabilitation unit treating stroke patients) depends on the size of the stroke, which areas of the brain that has been affected and their motivation for rehabilitation.

My grandfather had several strokes over the course of 15 or 20 years, with the first ones happening when I was a young child (under 10) and his last one happening when I was in my late 20's. The strokes he had when I was about 12 took away his ability to walk and talk. He completely lost the use of one side of his body. He went through a long rehab process to relearn these skills but he always walked with a limp, could not grip anything with his left hand, and had only a small vocabulary as he could not form the words. He never lost his cognitive abilities.

That said, I believe that your MIL's desire to get better will be a huge factor in how she comes out of this if she does end up with some impairment. My grandfather is the most stubborn man I ever met and although doctors told us he would likely never walk or talk again, he was determined to prove them wrong.

I wish her a speedy recovery and hope it remains good news for you all.

Sending you and your family positive thoughts. My mom had a stroke, I fully remember my sister and I holding hands in the ICU,looking at her hooked up to every machine possible realizing that life as we knew it will never be the same again... and it hasn't been. BUT, at least for my mom, she is doing great! She spent 3 weeks in rehab, regained all motor function. Her main loss has been language ability/memory. She went to speech and had to learn how to communicate again. It's still difficult to follow a phone conversation and it's been 7 years since the stroke. She mixes up pronouns and word retrieval is difficult, but then again she's 91. The best thing,she became a kinder, gentler version of herself and for that we are SO grateful.