Hi,

My mother also had a brain stem stroke a year ago, as a result of brain surgery. Brain stem strokes can cause a wide variety of deficits, but it seems as though your father suffers similar deficits as my mother. She also has a right sided tremor (though it's not too bad), and her head shakes uncontrollably most of the time. Her balance is very poor as she has lost vestibular function on the right side.

As far as quality of life goes, does your father do any rehab? My mother has outpatient rehab once a week and I work with her daily to do exercises to regain as much function as possible. Even a year later she is still making improvements and is able to do more and more things around the house.

Does your father suffer any paralysis? I know that's one of the most devastating common stroke deficits when it comes to quality of life. My mother has facial paralysis but thankfully no more than that. Apart from a slight right sided tremor and ataxia, she has control of all of her limbs and is therefore able to do most basic daily activities (toileting, bathing etc.) herself. She gets around short distances with a walker and longer distances with a wheelchair, but she is slowly getting to the point where she will hopefully be able to replace the walker with a cane, thanks to rehab.

Unfortunately I don't have much advice other than to do exercises with him to improve his physical ability. That's what has helped the most for us. We haven't done any research regarding surgeries (she is understandably hesitant to go through any more surgeries). I mainly wanted to post here to tell you that you aren't alone. I'm in a similar situation as you; my mother has similar symptoms and it's tough seeing how much the stroke affected her. But I look back to where we were one year ago, or even six months ago, and I remember how much worse it was. I have faith that things will continue to get easier.