You are so right about being aware of the signs of a stroke. A friend sent this list in an email recently.
Neurologist say if they can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours they can totally reverse the effects of a stroke, totally . The key for success really is in getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and medically cared for within 3 hours.Recognizing A Stroke
Lack of awareness can spell disaster so please read and remember these '3' steps in the form of questions, S * T * R
S Ask the individual to SMILE
.T Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE Coherently. Such as: 'It is sunny out today'
R Ask him/her to RAISE BOTH ARMS
.If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call 911 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.
Also, one additional sign, Ask the person to - Stick out Your Tongue. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other , that is also an indication of a stroke.
I see you are spelling out the nuerological tests — I was doing all of them and some more today. My daughter noticed yesterday when she arrived and we were eating that one of my pupils was smaller than the other. Which is definitely a nuerolgical signal - but as I do not have any of the other symptoms it is possibly a micro clot or some small internal bleeding. This morning it was not really noticable but she gave me all the nuerolical tests.
The tongue the finger gripping raising the arms following her finger with one eye covered closing the eyes and standing feet together and observing how I swayed. This morning slightly to the right but just now no sway at all. She said my right and left grip were about equal with slightly stronger on the right which is normal.
I suppose I will have to go to the doc and have a few tests. I just don´t like going to the docs with no apparent problem.