Joanne Ireland
It was an ordinary Tuesday morning in May 2008, my husband woke me to kiss me goodbye on his way to work. I said goodbye and thought that it felt strange to talk, but put it down to still being sleepy and went back to sleep. When my 9 month old baby woke up I got up to go and get him and I noticed that my left arm wouldn’t fully co-operate, it had pins and needles from my shoulder to finger tips. Not wanting to think that anything was wrong and having a full day ahead with a trip to the farm, it wasn’t until I was giving the kids breakfast that I noticed that I couldn’t get the spoon in the babies mouth, my hand and arm had no co-ordination. Putting that together with the fact that my 3 year old said he couldn’t understand what I was saying to him and that my cereal kept falling out of my mouth whilst eating it, I knew that something was wrong. Having been a First Aider at work for 8 years I had been on enough First Aid courses to recognise, what I was hoping were not, the symptoms of a stroke.
I panicked, called my mum in tears, who tried to convince me that it was a trapped nerve in my shoulder, all the while believing that it was a stroke but not wanting to upset me further. I managed to get myself and the boys washed and dressed and took us off to the doctor who confirmed my worst fears and shipped me off to the hospital for more tests.
I was lucky, although I had a blood clot on my brain, it was small. After lots of thorough tests we found out that I had been born with a hole in my heart and a blood clot had passed through it straight to my brain causing the stroke. The side effects from my stroke were minimal, I regained full use of my speech, and left arm after just several days. My memory, even with a “baby brain”, is worse, I often have to ask if people want cups of tea 3 or 4 times before I get to the kettle and remember what their answer was. After a long tiring day I begin to sound like I’ve been on a drinking session and I have trouble remember words, but nothing that I can’t live with. I have two young children that need me and I am so thankful that I can look after them myself, although it took 6 weeks of people living with us and helping out. One year on I’m back on my feet, I’ve had the hole in my heart closed, the only medication I now take is aspirin and to look at me you would never know.
Update - June 2010
It's now 2 years since my first stroke and whilst still feeling well, 18 weeks ago I suffered a TIA. I had just come back home from dropping the children off at school and thought I'd have a cup of tea before starting any housework. I made the tea and sat down with my feet up, all of a sudden I felt very dizzy and strange. I got up from the sofa to take my cup out to the kitchen and I walked into the opposite sofa and then the door frame, by this time my head was feeling even worse and I couldn't concentrate properly. My left arm felt weak and uncoordinated and my left leg felt heavy and weak. I immediately went to the doctor's and was sent straight to the hospital for more tests.
After an unbelievable experience with a "stroke" consultant who told me that there was nothing wrong with me, that it was just residual weakness from 19 months earlier (despite the fact my first stroke did not affect my left leg at all!!) I was discharged the same night from the hospital, feeling unwell and extremely worried to say the least, to await an appointment for an MRI. A week later I was given the MRI but it showed no further damage other than that left over from the first infarct. I was finally seen again 6 weeks later by a different much nicer consultant who confirmed that given the symptoms I was being treated as having suffered a TIA.
I have since had further echocardiograms which show that my PFO device is still in place and not leaking. The stroke consultant is at a loss to what caused my episode this time round so decided to discharge me as I "looked well" and if I take 1 aspirin every day for the next 70 years, (I would be 100), it won't happen again – less than encouraging as it did happen again but I'm putting it behind me trying to get back to normality for the sake of my children, husband and my sanity - wondering if today will be the day it will happen again.
Thanks to Joanne for sending in her profile. Anyone else who would like to share their story can send it along with a photograph (if you're not shy!)
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