Question: At 44 I have suffered a stroke to my optic nerve and now have blind spots and flashing lights in my vision. Can the optic nerve repair itself?
Strokes in the optic nerve are caused by a microscopic clot in a tiny artery blocking the blood supply to part (or all) of the nerve, or a small blood vessel rupturing in the nerve and causing damage to it.
Recovery from any type of stroke occurs mostly in the first few weeks after the incident. Probably 95% of the recovery will have occurred by six months, but some further improvement can occur up to two years later. With this type of stroke there is really nothing that doctors can do to correct the damage that has already been done, but anticoagulant medication may be prescribed to prevent any further blood clots developing.
The damaged nerve will recover if there has been only pressure damage and no death of nerve cells. Unfortunately time is the only treatment and you wi just have to wait to see just how much long term disturbance you will have to your vision.

Question: Recently I suffered a mild stroke which left me with a weakness in my left leg and hand and a feeling that part of my mouth and tongue are anaesthetised. Will any of these symptoms disappear with time? Is there anything I can do to help them recover?
A stroke is usually caused by a blood clot or blockage in one of the small arteries in the brain. The area of brain supplied by this artery can no longer obtain any blood, and so dies. The effects of a stroke depend upon the area of the brain that is affected, so that one patient may be totally paralysed down one side of the body, while another may have the relatively mild symptoms that you describe.
After a stroke, there may be recovery of some brain cells that have been damaged, but not killed, by the lack of blood. Other parts of the brain may also learn to perform some of the tasks originally undertaken by the cells killed by the stroke.
The damage caused by a stroke usually stabilizes within a few hours or days. Aspirin is used as soon as possible, and lifelong after a stroke in most patients, to prevent any further blood clots from developing, and prevent the clot that is present from enlarging.
Sometimes a stroke is caused by bleeding from an artery that bursts in the brain. In this case aspirin is not used.
After a stroke, most improvement will occur in the first few weeks, some improvement after a few months, and virtually no improvement will occur after a year.
Physiotherapists, speech therapists and occupational therapists work with doctors to maximize improvements in the brain’s capacity to learn new ways to Perform tasks.
In your case, there is very little that can be done to improve the mouth and tongue feeling, but continued therapy for up to a year after the stroke may result in improvement of your arm and leg function. Regular exercises and physiotherapy after a year may be necessary to prevent you losing skills that you have learnt.