I had an MRI recently and my Neuro guy was going over it with me. “All normal except this little scar from your stroke, so…”
I interrupted, “What stroke?”
I had a bit of a stroke in my right temporal lobe. This happened sometime ago; I’m guessing two years. This explains the weakness on my left side. And dizziness, and endless searches for the right word.
Nietzsche was wrong; what doesn’t kill you can make you weaker.
That happened to a cousin of mine. She was getting scanned for something or another and they mentioned her stroke…her stroke that she didn’t recall having. Her best guess was that it was an ‘episode’ she had a while back when she had to pull over because she suddenly didn’t feel right, but it cleared up soon enough after that she continued on her way home and never gave it a second thought.
I think she just thought she was dizzy for a few minutes.
I was diagnosed with epilepsy last year due to a stroke at birth. Now I know what it is I can see it running back forever. It explains an awful lot.
My ex-gf’s father had a number of small strokes that he did not know about until getting an MRI years down the line. Seems to be more common than I would have thought.
Oh, man. I’m sorry. OTOH, you seem bright intelligent.
Take care, Mikey.
(;))
You just described what happened to me about 20 years ago. My GP was shocked when I told him about 6 months later. But not shocked enough to check it out. He just took me to task for not going to the ER. Oddly enough, I had to drive by it to get home, and by the time I thought maybe I should go, I was past it and continued on home.
Anything like that happens again, I PROMISE I’m going to the ER.
So don’t feel that you’re the only one DZ, but be sure to follow instructions should there be a next time.
Yeah, once a cardiologist looked at my test results and asked, “How long ago was your heart attack?”. Turns out he was wrong.
About a year ago, my husband commented that he had gotten up at work and his one leg felt funny. We figured he’d pulled something, we’d recently had a bit of heavy snow and he’d been shoveling. A couple days later it still wasn’t right, he went to see our primary. Our regular doc wasn’t there, not sure if that makes a difference, but the doc he saw sort of blew things off, told him it was probably a nerve issue and suggested he see a specialist. That night his arm began to bother him. I took him to the ER and he was diagnosed as having had a stroke. He still has trouble with his leg frequently, but I cannot believe the bullet we dodged, it could have been so much worse. Lesson learned, don’t blow it off, take it seriously.
I had a co-worker who often had to go in to work hours earlier than normal occasionally. He’d get up while his wife and daughter were still asleep and just go to work. He got to work and discovered he’d forgotten the key to the office. He went to the security guard to get let into the office and discovered he couldn’t talk! Turned out he’d had a stroke. But he was otherwise youngish and healthy, so he didn’t suspect it (although he’d had a bad headache). He had one of those problems – probably since birth – that is basically a weakened blood vessel in the brain. Fortunately, the guard called an ambulance asap, and he was able to recover almost fully. He did have a months long convalescence though. Scary.
That’s why it’s so important to know the signs of a stroke. Even if it’s relatively minor it can still affect you long term. Depending on the type they can reverse some of the effects if treated immediately
I get an MRA every year because of two small aneurysms that were discovered during an MRI for something else. A couple of years ago, the neuro said “Well, the aneurysms look fine, but I see you’ve had a tiny stroke.” WHA?? Very tiny, out at the end of some distant capillary in a galaxy far, far away, apparently. I think it probably happened when I was hauling my suitcase up the endless fucking stairs at the fucking antiquated subway stops in fucking New York City.
Decades ago my MIL awoke feeling dizzy and uncoordinated. She did nothing, not wanting to bother anyone. At noon, she called my husband at work, but of course he was out havig lunch. (Way before cell phones.) She left a message and he called her back an hour or so later. Being equally clueless, he told her to wait and he would come and take her to a doctor. His office was about 2 hours away from her home. Then he took her to the ER, where she was diagnosed as having had a stroke. Of course since it was by then over 9 hours since the symptoms started there was absolutely nothing that could be done. She was lucky she was left with only some weakness in one arm, and had physical therapy for it for quite some time. I scolded them both. Obviously, she should have called 911, or at least a taxi, to get to a hospital right away; if she’d done that she probably could have been treated in a timely manner and had no residual effects. She was lucky it wasn’t more serious.
Similar to what happened to my stupid brain. I woke up and my arm wasn’t listening to me. Took me 3 months to get back to work.
The thing is that I didn’t notice the first time. Eight years ago at this time there was so much going on in my life, including falling down some stairs and being passed out on the floor, but the assumption was that I fell cuz I was drunk and had a seizure brought on by my drunken state, but I wasn’t THAT drunk, especially not enough to pass out between 11PM Fri and 8AM Mon. Was the fall caused by my stroke? I dunno, and when you’re a drunk that’s the automatic explanation for everything.
And then there is the weakness and severe shaking under load of my left hand. (Note how my complaints are all about my left side when the stroke was on the right side. It figures, considering the fucked up wiring in the human brain.) The shaking limits what I can do with my tablet and makes [del]typing[/del] entering a short reply take a half hour. It also makes my photography hobby nearly impossible.
I should tell my doctor but I can never remember to do it. Maybe they have a printer in the front office that I can use when I assemble a list.
We were eating duck that had been taken out of our swamp, when my grandmother choked. After a few minutes of coughing, she recovered and was fine. Six months later, she had a chest x-ray, and the doctor said to her, “Mrs. Cadfael, you’ve been shot!”. The x-ray showed that she had a piece of birdshot lodged in her bronchial tubes, apparently since the dinner incident.
My BIL went from an independent guy about town that had survived 2 heart attacks to a 60 year old man-baby because of 2 strokes in 3 days. He can’t talk, swallow, or write. He can walk a bit with a walker. His memory is just about gone. He uses adult diapers, he can’t control when he has to pee. My wife has run herself ragged trying to get his affairs in order. Yesterday we sold his beloved gun collection to pay for his care. It would likely crush him if he found out. Depending on how he recovers, my wife has stated that our retirement plans are probably shot to hell.
Yes, strokes are no fun. When I had mine my right arm and leg stopped working. Well, the hip sorta worked. You’d be surprised how badly that can mess you up. “Modesty” became just a fond memory. I spent 8 days in one hospital getting tested, evaluated, and medicated. Then I was sent to a different hospital for “Intense Rehab” for 3 weeks. There I came up with the term “small victories” I came out of that declared to be “Modified Independant” and was sent home with a wheelchair, a quad cane, a transfer bench for my shower, and a large lunch bag filled with bottles of pills. That was almost 3 1/2 years ago.
I had PTs and OTs each coming to my home 2-3 times a week for 8 weeks. A nurse came by once a week too. I graduated to outpatient rehab for maybe 6 months. PT and OT back to back twice a week.
Today, my leg is maybe 85%. My ankle is a bit, well, just not the same and sometimes I forget to remember to bend my knee when I walk. I take a cane with me when I leave the house but I don’t use it at home. My arm is maybe 95% back. It’s my fingers. Ring and pinky often miss the desired key on the keyboard. And my handwriting which was never great before is worse now. I just opened accounts at a new credit union Monday and I asked the woman to fill out a form for me. I can sign stuff, but not fill in forms legitably. If I didn’t remember when I could not pick up a pen or hold one, I’d be a lot more upset about my fingers.
If you’re 45 years old or more and haven’t had a stroke do yourself a favor and take an 81 mg aspirin daily.
Scary, hearing what some of y’all have been through.
Aspirin for prevention is certainly controversial, but I’m sure everyone has studied it, and have determined what choice they think best for them. Not easy making these decisions, but wish all of y’all the best of luck.