Posted on 01/25/2010 5:40:31 PM PST by tet68
STROKE HAPPENS. To you. To those you love. Know the signs. Act fast.
A stroke happens when a part of the brain dies from lack of blood, usually because one of the arteries that supply oxygen-carrying blood to the brain has been damaged. There are two ways this can happen:
Clogged vessel or ischemic stroke: Caused by blockage of a blood vessel in the brain, usually by a blood clot or by fatty deposits on the vessel wall. 85% of strokes are ischemic. Burst vessel or hemorrhagic stroke: Caused by a ruptured blood vessel, preventing normal flow and allowing blood to leak into brain tissue, destroying it. This occurs in 15% of strokes. Stroke is a common and often misunderstood condition and its early symptoms are often ignored. Some brain cells deprived of oxygen die within minutes. Others may take a few hours to die depending on the nature of the blockage or hemorrhage. The loss of physical and mental functions is often permanent and can include motor-function disability. The most effective treatment for stroke can be administered if it is within three hours of the onset of stroke. Although strokes can occur at any age, most stroke patients (two-thirds) are over the age of 65.
A Transient ischemic attack or TIA is often described as a mini-stroke. Unlike a stroke however, the symptoms can disappear within a few minutes. By definition, a TIA resolves within 24 hours, the majority of TIAs resolve within 60 minutes, and most resolve within 30 minutes. A TIA happens when blood flow to part of the brain is blocked or reduced, often by a blood clot. After a short time, blood flows again and the symptoms go away. With a stroke, the blood flow stays blocked, and the brain has permanent damage.
A TIA is a warning: It means you are likely to have a stroke in the future. If you think you are having a TIA, call 911. Early treatment can help prevent a stroke. If you think you have had a TIA but your symptoms have gone away, you still need to call your doctor right away.
WARNING SIGNS
WALK (Is your balance off?) TALK (Is your speech slurred or face droopy?) REACH (Is your vision all or partly lost?) FEEL (Is your headache severe?)
If you recognize any of these signs – even if they go away – call 9-1-1 immediately and tell the operator, paramedics, or emergency room staff, “I think this is a stroke.”
FAST
FAST stands for face, arms, speech and time, and is being used as part of a campaign by the Stroke Awareness Foundation to educate the public about warning signs of stroke and seek proper medical services immediately. If you think a person is having a stroke, call 9-1-1, especially if the person has trouble with these basic commands.
Thank you. Much about this has been an eye-opener for me... I’m finally out of my walking around in a trance phase... but no one is ever prepared for this.
Bless you for helping your friend.
Prayers your friend will heal.
Thanks for your informative post.
My life was saved early in December because of quick reaction by my friends. I was bleeding internally (badly) and was near death by the time they got me off the mountain and to medical care that met us. Minutes mattered.
/johnny
Thank you all so much.
I posted this because knowing the symptoms is
very easy. Even so it took me several minutes
to put it together, all while questioning my
diagnosis. But after a bit it was very plain
and even my friend had to admit something was
wrong.
Will check out the thread in the morning
and post updates as
soon as I hear.
Tet.
Great information! Thanks for posting, especially now. I’m waiting for blood work results to see if I have temporal arteritis. The women in my family have all had issues or passed away from brain aneurysms/tumors, so I’m keenly aware of a potential time bomb in me.
As to your question about how I'm doing... it's been a shock, we were very close and had been together for 36 years... we each had our role in our daily lives and now I'm having to do both or find people to help me -- things like hanging something on the wall, which I took for granted in the past... I feel he is still around me, watching out for me. I am very glad the holidays are over, they were difficult. In general I can't change what happened, everything happens for a reason in God's own plan and clearly it was my husband's time... doesn't mean I don't miss him, I do...
I think people need to know more about strokes, but even if I had reacted faster, the location of my husband's stroke was such that nothing would have saved him.
We didn’t have an autopsy to determine the cause, but my husband had headaches his entire life and no one ever knew why. Interesting the morning of his stroke he didn’t have a sharp pain — probably due to the bleed being in the center of his brain — but the CT Scan showed the blood had actually moved his spinal column to the side and blood had leaked into the spine itself. Interesting thing is only a few weeks prior he had an MRI of the brain and it didn’t show anything.. but the neuro had played around with some new headache medications and like all strange things they tried on him over the years it gave him severe side effects that were worse than the headaches...
So sorry to hear of the loss of your husband.
God bless you and your husband Carolyn. We all just never know. Thank you for sharing your story.
God,how sad. She was younger than a couple of my kids.
Needless to say,at my age,strokes are a very big fear.
It’s all in God’s hands.
My condolences.
Excellent post. Call 911 or get to the hospital FAST!
I am so sorry to hear this. Please accept my condolences.
My deepest sympathy. May the Lord give you the peace in your soul and spirit that only He can give. God bless you.
SMILE
I have said a prayer for your friend and his wife. May the Lord be with them.
I came on shift and was doing vitals in a 4 bed ward when I looked over at a young man with sheer panic on his face..I went over to see what he wanted (I knew he had a stroke from the midnight shift report and he was only in the hospital a hour when shift change came on). He could shake his head yes or no, thats all the communication he had...
I ask him if he knew where he was, shook head NO. I sat with him and explained he had a stroke, what a stroke was and that there were therapies to assist him in regaining what stoke had damaged.
That is the worse situation to be in, when you don't know where you are or why you are there and suddenly you cannot communicate with anyone..its like being dropped into the middle of another country and you cannot talk..
This patient was in his early 40's. No one thinks that strokes can happen at those young ages.
The youngest stoke patient I had was 16 and on the rehab. unit..She had a heart valve replacement because of Rheumatic fever several years earlier and threw a clot that resulted in a stoke...
She did great on rehab and come back to see the staff the night of her senior prom.....
I was not being facetious or unsympathetic in saying SMILE. It is taught in Red Cross emergency training. It is an early indicator in a stroke. A person suffering a stroke will either be unable to smile or not able to smile normally. Also talking will be affected. My prayers go out to the stroke victim and their loved ones
Patricia, prayers up for you and your family.
FReepers are some of the most courageous people I know.
Everyone on this thread is brave and heroic to one degree or another.
goatgranny, God bless you for your compassion as you go about your daily work.
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