Re: Advice Please

Hi Kez

I had my stroke about 11 years ago while at work, it was caused by a blood clot. But I had a number of very small strokes called Transient Ischaemic Attacks (TIAs) before the big one hit and caused the stroke damage. I recovered completely from each of my TIAs within about five minutes and the symptoms were quite mild. But I still went to see my doctor the next day who prescribed Aspirin and referred me to a neurologist.

I expect you might have seen the Government's FAST advertisements on TV recently - See http://tinyurl.com/cblqgu or http://tinyurl.com/bvppvp - FAST stand for Face Arm Speech Time-to-call-999, it's a medical emergency; so if a person's face drops on one side, or if they cannot raise both of their arms, or if they have difficulty with speech then those are common signs of a stroke and you should act immediately.

Nowadays the NHS is able to give a clot-busting drug,if it can be done within three hours of the onset of symptoms. But they need a brain scan first to tell them if might be a brain haemorrhage, if it is then the clot-busting drug will make things much worse and might even kill the patient.

Even so, what happens after a stroke is that all the things that predispose us to have a stroke are addressed very seriously - so blood pressure is kept low, cholesterol levels are reduced, medication to reduce blood clotting is used, and things like smoking, obesity, diet and exercise are all addressed (or should be).

There are very many people using this message board who are working hard to try to ensure they do not have another stroke - and in most cases they do succeed.

Having said that, memory problems and word-finding problems are not uncommon after a stroke - I have them to some extent myself.

If you're worried always see your doctor, none of us here are medically qualified, all we can safely talk about is our own experience and that is inevitably limited.

I think that probably the only really stupid questions are those that never get asked!

You say that your blood clot was from another part of your body. If it came from your heart it is sometimes caused by something called atrial fibrillation - there are drugs that can address this. If the other part of your body that your clot came from was in the venous system and the clot passed through your heart, that can be caused by something called a Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) - which is a hole in the heart. Some people who posted here have had that condition and had it repaired after their stroke.

But it all those need to be discussed with with your doctors.

Good luck and please keep us informed of your progress. Just about all of us using this message board have made progress after our strokes and intend to go on doing so.

Cheers, Peter
____________