Full Version: Stroke Warnings
From: Harvey only (HARVEY-ONLY) [#2]
12 Apr 2006
To: Engravin' Dave (DATAKES) [#1] 12 Apr 2006
I have had two strokes, a TIA and a hemorrhagic stroke.
The first, the TIA, was simple to diagnose. My right side started to get numb and weak section by section. I was on the phone with the doctor before the leg went. I told him I thought I was having a stroke. He said to call an AMBULANCE immediately and wait by the open front door. Great advice. My wife came home as I hung up the phone and drove me five minutes to the Emergency room. BIG MISTAKE! The triage nurse diagnosed a stroke, and I waited 5 1/2 hours to be treated. Only when I said that I was feeling better and was leaving did I get seen. They were worried about lawsuits.
CALL AN AMBULANCE! It may take longer to get to the hospital but they see you immediately, that cannot be postponed if you come in by ambulance.
The second stroke was due to a medical mistake, blood pressure still not under control and they prescribed a full aspirin a day. The neurologist said that was the definite cause due to where the stroke occurred. The problem was also that doctors are not trained at all about vitamins. I am taking 800 UI a day of vitamin E to prevent recurring vitamin b-6 poisoning. That is a heavy blood thinner in that quantity, add aspirin and the triple whammo. Only the neurologist had the latest research that showed that anything from 50mg to 1500mg of aspirin had the same blood thinning qualities, but as you went up the chance of stroke increased rapidly. I did not sue, they were doing their best to keep me well and knowledge takes a while to filter through.
The critical point is that I did not know I was having that second stroke. Wifey came home and said that my speech was slightly different, it sounded normal to me. Because of the first stroke I did not fight her when she took me to the, (different), hospital. They had a CAT scan done in 15 minutes and identified it. They finally let me out of the hospital three of four days later, I was going nuts because I felt fine the entire time.
I have been very lucky, the only residuals is a loss of my migraines and some memory problems that are more probably due to age.
From: Dee (DEENA-ONLY) [#3]
12 Apr 2006
To: Harvey only (HARVEY-ONLY) [#2] 12 Apr 2006
What Harv didn't say was that when I came home and found his speech "off" he insisted on walking up a full flight of stairs and combing his hair before he was willing to get in the car. All the way there he was telling me he was humoring me - that there was nothing wrong. He truly believed that he was fine and I was over reacting.
Dee