Michael Minch

My name is Michael Minch and I'm 33 Years old and the following is my story:

Hello All! This is my first Blog. I'm 33 years old and back in January I had a stroke. People have the misconception that strokes only happen to older people, but I'm living proof that it's not just older people who can have them. To tell you a bit about my situation, so maybe you yourself would be aware or know the warning signs of when someone is having a stroke.

To prep the story, I have A.D.D. and the drug Foclin wasn't working for me anymore, so my doctor changed it to a drug called Vyvanse. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vyvanse I was on this drug for about a week and noticed in the morning time when I took it that I felt very spacey and dizzy. After an hour or so, I felt fine. I started it on a Monday and it ws that friday morning when I knew something wasn't right.

Back in January of 2008, (on that Friday) I went to work and was talking to the foreman of the shop and all of a sudden my speech started to slur. I said to him, "I don't know why I'm talking like this" (I sounded like a mentally challaged person) "so you can have a better picture of what it sounded like". He then said, "your face is drooping on the one side". I still had no idea what he was talking about and I thought he was crazy to be saying that stuff. I went to the bathroom to look and I didn't notice my face drooping. He came by the bathroom, knocked on the door and asked me if I was ok and if I wanted him to call someone. At this point, I still didn't know what he was talking about, so I responded, "No thanks, I'm fine." Then all of a sudden my left arm got numb, kinda paralyzed like. My fingers were numb too. Then, a few minutes later, it went away and I ended up going back to work not knowing what had just happened.

On my way to the doctor's who perscribed the medication to me, I faintly remember the mirror of my car brushing against someone elses mirror as I drove by. I got to my doctor's and told him what happened at work and He said, "I believe it's a side effect of the medication". Therefor he took me off of Vyvanse and put me on Aderal. The next day, saturday, I couldn't pick up my perscription in time, so I took my normal dose of Foclin before school. After school, I took what was my "Afternoon" dose of Aderal.

That evening, I was over at my next door neighbors house with their whole family, my mother-in-law and my wife. There came a time when I said to my wife, "Let's go home" and when I said that, here came the slured speech again and my face was drooping. Fortunately, my mother-in-law and both the husband and wife next door neighbors are all nurses. I remember them having me sit down and try to cool off because apparently my face was sweating. I faintly remember the husband and my wife assisting me on both sides while I walked back to my house. I laid down on the couch and once again, I lost feeling on the entire left side of my body. I tried pinching my fingers, legs, face and couldn't feel anything. Then my throat tightened up and I could hardly swallow. I remember them talking about something called T.I.A." Transient Ischemic Attacks" aka mini-strokes. You can find information on them here. I had no idea what that was at the time. Have a look at the warning signs here. My wife called my internist and she said to get him to the hospital right now. So off I went.

When we arrived at the hospital, they did a C.A.T. scan and determined that I had what was called a Moderate Stroke. That landed me in the hospital for 4 days. During my stay in that luxury hotel called the hospital, I could hardly cut my food without spilling it everywhere. My speech was also impacted. I was starting to stutter. I was taken off of all the A.D.D. drugs, along with any stimulants

After spending my wonderful 4 days in the hospital, it was like I had to start a whole new life. I was scared to drive, go anywhere, pretty much do anything because I was afraid of having another stroke. My wife had to drive me to work for the first week because I was even scared to get behind the wheel again. My depth preception was all messed up.

For the first 2 months, having another stroke, where and when and what if, was the only thing on my mind from the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep. I would wake up in the middle of the night from falling asleep on my arm the wrong way and felt that my fingers were numb and immediately thought I was having another stroke. Then it was hard for me to even go back to sleep because all I thought about was that I was going to die in my sleep from a stroke.

Over the course of the next few months, I had been seen by my internist and my nuerologist. My nuerologist sent me to a stroke guru and between both of them it was determined that the stroke was caused from the A.D.D. medication, but keeping in mind they had no smoking gun.

Some time had passed and through frustration of feeling like we wern't getting anywhere, I went to another specialist called a nuero psyc "A nuerologist and a psychitrist all in one" Without seeing the films, his speculation from reading the reports was that I have something called Mastoiditis.

After seeing my ENT, it was determined that mastoiditis was not the cause and as of today, we are back at square one.

Since the stroke, I was fortunately able to get all of my motor back, but I'm left with occasional stuttering. In additon to this, my body now has an adverse reaction to ANY medication I now take. My body reacts to any medication as if it were a narcotic and gives me the spacey, tired feeling. It's to a point where I can't even function. Recently, I was sick and couldn't take any medications because of the type of stroke that was determined I had, meaning I can't have anything that is a stimulant. No Sudafed, nothing! The scary part is that one day I will need to take medication. My doctor is having me go for a Sleep Apnea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_apnea test because it is thought that the possible reaction is because the tests show my brain is now not getting enough oxygen, so that test is coming up shortly.

I hope that my unfortunate life changing moment will help educate other people.

Thanks to Michael for sending in his 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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