Signs and Symptoms

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the main signs and symptoms of stroke include a rapid onset of numbness or weakness in the face, arm, or leg (predominantly on one side of the body), sudden confusion (including difficulty speaking or understanding speech), trouble seeing in one or both eyes, trouble walking and coordinating movements with a loss of balance, and sudden severe headache with no known cause.

There is no distinct progression of these symptoms, in that they may occur in any order, and some may be absent altogether. A stroke may affect certain individuals differently, but all these symptoms are indicative of stroke occurrence, and an individual should be aware of the variety of symptoms of a stroke that play a role in stroke identification. The important concept to remember with stroke signs and symptoms is to take fast action, in order to prevent the damage that stroke can inflict upon a person's brain.

A pneumonic that many medical professionals use when teaching those outside the medical profession to identify stroke is F.A.S.T:

http://www.strokeassociation.org/STROKEORG/WarningSigns/Stroke-Warning-Signs-and-Symptoms_UCM_308528_SubHomePage.jsp

It's likely that a patient would notice a painful headache or vision changes first, in that they affect functioning more than some of the other signs. A sign such as paresis (face drooping, muscle weakness, etc) may be noticed initially by another person sooner than the patient would notice themselves. Difficulty with speech could be apparent to either the patient or the person they may be speaking to, and difficulty coordinating movements is likely to be noticed by both parties. It's extremely important to identify stroke signs quickly, because a lack of oxygen and nutrients to the brain for more than six minutes will lead to death. Many times, symptoms have a rapid onset, and a relatively short time span, because so much damage can be inflicted on the brain in such a short amount of time.

I made this chart to demonstrate the occurrence rates of stroke symptoms in individuals who have experienced at least one stroke.

Symptom	Percentage of people experiencing symptom
Speech deficit	24%
Hemianopia (vision loss) Diplopia (double vision)	14.6% 5.5%
Paresis (weakness/partial loss of voluntary movement)	Arms: 75.5% Legs: 68.6% Face: 54.6%
Headache	25%
Gait disturbance	10.8%

http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/33/11/2718/T2.expansion.html
http://www.cdc.gov/stroke/signs_symptoms.htm