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I Had a Stroke at 33

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Re: I Had a Stroke at 33

#141

Post by weddpros »

300bps wrote: post #124
xtinehlee wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the writer of the story--thank you so much for reading. I'm glad to know that my experience helps people gain further understanding of strokes/brain injuries. I hope your girlfriend is in a better place, now.

Thanks for writing the article - it was well written. One item to point out to any fellow migraine w/ aura sufferers that are worried right now they're going to have a stroke... http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/patent-foramen... Generally, a patent foramen ovale doesn't cause complications. But, some studies have found the disorder is more common in individuals with certain conditions, such as unexplaine…

A migrainous infarct is a rare complication of migraines with aura, and you should probably not worry too much about it.

But make sure you'll NEVER take vasoconstrictors during the aura... Migraines with aura have two phases :

- first vasoconstriction, which cause the aura. Should not last more than 30-60 minutes. Take NO anti-migraine vasoconstrictor at this point.

- next comes vasodilatation which causes the pain. That's when vasoconstrictors can be used.

Find my comment bellow to learn more.

Re: I Had a Stroke at 33

#142

Post by div0 »

xtinehlee wrote: post #65
ohquu wrote: post #6

What a beautiful article. My girlfriend had three strokes, in succession, two years ago (when she was 22). The night before these strokes occurred, she had a transient ischemic attack (TIA). She began speaking gibberish to her friends. She texted me later that night explaining what happened. Her friends had laughed about it because they thought she was just acting like a goofball. I had no idea these were signs of a…

I'm the writer of the story--thank you so much for reading. I'm glad to know that my experience helps people gain further understanding of strokes/brain injuries. I hope your girlfriend is in a better place, now.

Thank you for writing it down. Especially the "hugging" part.

Re: I Had a Stroke at 33

#143

Post by 300bps »

weddpros wrote: post #141
300bps wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for writing the article - it was well written. One item to point out to any fellow migraine w/ aura sufferers that are worried right now they're going to have a stroke... http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/patent-foramen... Generally, a patent foramen ovale doesn't cause complications. But, some studies have found the disorder is more common in individuals with certain conditions, such as unexplaine…

A migrainous infarct is a rare complication of migraines with aura, and you should probably not worry too much about it. But make sure you'll NEVER take vasoconstrictors during the aura... Migraines with aura have two phases : - first vasoconstriction, which cause the aura. Should not last more than 30-60 minutes. Take NO anti-migraine vasoconstrictor at this point. - next comes vasodilatation which causes the pain.…

The two phases you detailed of "Migraines with aura" match my experience precisely. Dark spots in vision are typically the first sign at which point I have about 30 minutes before tunnel vision and blindness kick in. Then I gradually get my vision back with an equal measure of pain in my head.

Interestingly, I have literally never taken prescription migraine medication. I don't have severe ones often enough to warrant needing it. The only thing I take - and I take it at the first sign of aura - is two Excedrin. The active ingredients in Excedrin (aspirin, tylenol, caffeine) are identical to the active ingredients in Excedrin Migraine so I generally take either. It seems to lessen the severity and duration of the headache.

As a neurologist once told me - there is no medication you can take that will reduce or eliminate an aura. So to your advice that it is dangerous to do so, apparently it's not effective either. So there is no upside and apparently plenty of downside to taking vasoconstrictors during aura.

Re: I Had a Stroke at 33

#144

Post by xtinehlee »

shekhar101 wrote: post #125
xtinehlee wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm the writer of the story--thank you so much for reading. I'm glad to know that my experience helps people gain further understanding of strokes/brain injuries. I hope your girlfriend is in a better place, now.

This is extraordinary writing! Gripping to the end. I'm very _very_ curious to know how you are doing now? I hope you've recovered well.

Hi. It took about 2 years to recover (I went to occupational therapy, and stumbled through 18 months), and then I was able to have a very high functioning life. I can exercise to full exertion, I had a very normal pregnancy, and am overall doing physically well. I'm very very very lucky.

There are still gaps in memory. My friends, since this essay was published, have told me how they visited in the weeks and months following my stroke, and I am floored by how I don't recall their visits, whatsoever. Like, nada. But I know I felt their love, so there is that.

Again--thank you all for the amazing response to my essay. I am overwhelmed in the best way. We writers don't get a lot of kudos, so when the love does come around, it matters very very much. I know it holds me through the darkness and keeps me going. So, thank you for keeping me going!

Re: I Had a Stroke at 33

#146

Post by jianshen »

offbrand wrote: post #47
ryanSrich wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my question as well. I'm not only afraid of something like this happening but that I'd be ruined financially if it did (and it really doesn't have to be something this big. Simply going to the emergency room would cost me thousands).

Is health insurance not an option?

There will be things that your insurance plan will just randomly decide not to cover or worse, you just don't have the right kind of insurance for what you need.

Both my parents have suffered strokes. My father had to go to a step down unit which requires Long Term Care Insurance, something that I'm willing to bet most people aren't familiar with. Even that, due to changing regulations, your LTCI that you purchased decades ago most likely no longer covers today's prices. Unfortunately you just can't prepare for everything.

Re: I Had a Stroke at 33

#147

Post by freehunter »

wdewind wrote: post #133
weddpros wrote: post #57

I was 32 when I had a stroke (March 4th, 2003). It was a different kind of stroke, affecting a different part of my brain, essentially related to vision. I was half blind, but I only realized something was "strange" when I saw myself in the mirror: I had only one eye. My brain knew I should have two: I was half blind. The first diagnosis was migraine with aura (blindness in my case). But the aura should have lasted n…

> Before that, looking at trees (and other complex objects) was "painful" You are the only other person I have ever heard describe looking at complex objects as sometimes painful. This happens to me sometimes, mostly with very complex and disfigured cartoon faces. Very strange. I have never had someone understand what I'm talking about when I try and describe it. Do you have any idea what causes this effect?

As a layman who has read up a bit on how the brain processes stimuli such as visual data (my mom has severe migraines and I'm afraid someday I will be told this information by a doctor on her behalf), what I understand is that if the part of the brain that would normally process these images is damaged, the brain has to be rewired to use another part for this activity. So it's "painful" because that part of the brain isn't used to processing this data, so it's inefficient at it. Looking at a static image is easy, looking at something with a complex physics system such as a lot of individually moving leaves would require more processing power. The more sprites/polygons on screen, the harder it is to render, to use computing examples.

I might be wrong, and I would love to be educated further if my understanding is incorrect. I hope I never need to use this information in my life.

Re: I Had a Stroke at 33

#148

Post by weddpros »

300bps wrote: post #143
weddpros wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A migrainous infarct is a rare complication of migraines with aura, and you should probably not worry too much about it. But make sure you'll NEVER take vasoconstrictors during the aura... Migraines with aura have two phases : - first vasoconstriction, which cause the aura. Should not last more than 30-60 minutes. Take NO anti-migraine vasoconstrictor at this point. - next comes vasodilatation which causes the pain.…

The two phases you detailed of "Migraines with aura" match my experience precisely. Dark spots in vision are typically the first sign at which point I have about 30 minutes before tunnel vision and blindness kick in. Then I gradually get my vision back with an equal measure of pain in my head. Interestingly, I have literally never taken prescription migraine medication. I don't have severe ones often enough to warran…

Actually, I had that stroke the first time I tried anti-migraine treatment (eletriptan). I have no medical proof that there was it was a cause though.

Before that, I was usually taking 1000mg of aspirin too.

My advice if your migraines occur in high stress times (mine did): learn auto-hypnosis or find anything to lower that stress level...

Re: I Had a Stroke at 33

#149

Post by Cass »

GuiA wrote: post #32

Will smartwatches with heart rate/other health sensors be able to detect strokes right when they happen? Or maybe even slightly before they do?

A smartwatch with a pulse sensor could easily detect an arrhythmic pulse, which can be a symptom of atrial fibrillation, one of the most common causes of strokes. You couldn't diagnose a stroke itself just from heart rate and blood pressure, though. There's way too many other factors that can cause variations in those.

Re: I Had a Stroke at 33

#150

Post by k-mcgrady »

romaniv wrote: post #131
pllbnk wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think many people that haven't personally faced what a stroke is in one way or another don't realize how dangerous and life changing the disease is. Also, they don't understand how to detect it. I have seen it several times. The first time it happened to my grandfather, nobody in the family realised what's wrong only that he seemingly was losing memory and repeating things he just said. Several hours passed until w…

Problem is, there are tons of other diseases that look like stroke. Migranes, epilepsia, etc. IF you have one of those, going to ER every time you have something weird going on will suck you dry of money and your doctor will probably start treating you like an hypochondriac. There is no subsystem in US health care to handle this. Your primary care physician probably sucks and not available when you need them the most…

>> "Problem is, there are tons of other diseases that look like stroke. Migranes, epilepsia, etc. IF you have one of those, going to ER every time you have something weird going on will suck you dry of money and your doctor will probably start treating you like an hypochondriac."

But shouldn't the doctors have though, "Ok, this man has had two strokes. These symptoms could be of something much more mundane but as he has had two strokes we will take very precaution"? I don't want to start the free health care debate but is that a problem? We have free health care and doctors seem to be willing to admit you for a night even if there is a very high likely hood you're fine. Do finances come into it more in the US and actually effect patient care?

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