Lea en español At 51, Kerwin Ifill had a stroke. Though he believed he was in excellent health, a tangle of blood vessels – something called an arteriovenous malformation, or AVM – was hiding in his brain. One day after a regular gym workout, a vessel burst while he was taking a nap.
The brain bleed caused the entire right side of Ifill's body to go numb. Confused, he called for an ambulance. He was shocked to find out that he'd had a stroke and needed brain surgery.
But there were more surprises to come. "After coming out of surgery, I had a crazy burning sensation in my face," he said. "It was almost like alcohol being poured into a wound.
" Ten years later, his face still burns – the result of damage to his nerves that can be managed with medication but can't be fixed. "Post-stroke pain is not uncommon," said Dr. Talya Fleming, Ifill's doctor and the medical director of the Stroke Recovery Program and Aftercare Program at the JFK Johnson Rehabilitation Institute at Hackensack Meridian Health in Edison, New Jersey.
Though just how common it is remains unclear. Researchers disagree on its prevalence, with some estimating between 10% to as many as 70% of stroke survivors experience pain in the weeks and months that follow. Post-stroke pain can range from headaches that resolve on their own to chronic, severe joint pain or burning sensations like the type Ifill experiences.
"Some types of pain are due to the mechanical changes that happen in the body after a stroke, and.
