[tet68]

I post this because today at lunch I watched one of my oldest friends have a stroke right before my eyes. He is now in hospital and we have not heard a prognosis as yet. He knocked over his waterglass and began slurred speech, it was as though he was drunk and I knew he didn't drink. He fumbled his money paying the check while continuing to speak in a slurred voice, all the while denying that anything was wrong with him and wouldn't let me call 911 insisting we drive home. We got in the car and he thought he had it in reverse and was turning the wheel but his left hand was just jiggling in his lap. I told him to let me drive and to call his wife to meet us at home. Which we did, on the way I asked him to touch his nose with his left forefinger and he said, "sure", but when he tried he could only put his hand to his nose kinda off center and by then he realized something WAS wrong as he was having trouble walking. His wife came and I told her what had happened and she drove him to hospital. I talked with her a little while ago and they are keeping him over night but thats all she was sure of. I had read about stroke symptoms many times and it's a good thing I did, but it still took me several minutes to tie it all together.

So ya'll say a prayer for my friend and his wife. Hopefully this was a small transient stroke as he recovered his voice after ten or fifteen minutes but still was wobbly.

[darkwing104]

Prayers sent...Thanks for the info

[Arizona Carolyn]

My husband died from a massive stroke in October and nope... the last thing on my mind and his was he was having a stroke... each one is different, but it seems they ALL are sudden and some worse than others, in my husband’s case it was a massive bleed of a vessel in the center of his brain and the damage was sudden, severe and deadly... the night before he was telling all of us at a dinner how great he was feeling... he ate healthy, took his vitamins, didn’t drink or smoke and watched his blood pressure. Bottom line when it’s our time to go.. we will.

[Nervous Tick]

Thanks for the insight.

I don’t know why but I’ve been thinking about strokes (& the possibility of having one) the last couple days.

Prayers for your friend.

[LilAngel]

Prayers for your friend. He was lucky to have you with him.

[bcsco]

Prayers for your friend. I had a stroke back in ‘95 and still have a few remnants of behavior at times. Also a TIA about 3 years ago. Hopefully, your friend will recover more of his skills as time progresses. Depending on severity and skills affected, it does not have to be that limiting an issue with proper medical help.

[bannie]

My brother wasn’t able to put a sentence together, and he walked around “lost.” Luckily, his wife took charge and took him to the hospital.

His was caused by a mushroom shaped clot in his heart. Pieces had begun to break away. He had open heart surgery, and he’s now perfect. He didn’t lose anything anyone can detect.

Prayers for your friend.

[Man50D]

So ya'll say a prayer for my friend and his wife.

They and you are in my thoughts.

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

This was the cause of my sister in law's fatal stroke three years ago. She was the picture of health at 47 prior to the stroke. She was on the phone with her mother three days before Christmas 2006, one minute, the next minute she was complaining of a severe pain in her head. She immediately called 911. Paralysis had set in one side of her body by the time the EMT's arrived. She was unconscious when they arrived at the hospital. The medical staff induced coma to reduce brain activity but it was too late. She was taken off life support a week later. It was later determined the cause was congenital(existed since birth).

[Qwackertoo]

My father had a stroke before Thanksgiving. Luckily my brother from Austin was visiting and realized and they called 9-1-1 with first ten minutes. Dad wanted to take a nap and see IF he felt better, brother said NO. Since it was within first 3 hours, they gave him that shot, forget the name, med-flighted him over to Fort Worth from Arlington, kept in hospital a week, was in ICU for a few of those days and he made a pretty much 100% recover. Time makes a huge difference. I’m sure with Obamacare, they wouldn’t have given him as much care since he was turning 74 a few days after that.

[Revelation 911]

prayers for your friend - watch for brain swelling in the next 24hrs -

[Jemian]

Thank you for posting this. I am suffering with a very bad headache now and the medico last week looked for these very warning signs. Fortunately, no stroke, but I realized I needed to review these signals and become very familiar with them. Thank you for posting that accronym: FAST (face, arms, speech, time).

Prayers up for your friend. Thank you for recognizing the signs.

[tommix2]

Good you posted this. I had a stroke several years ago, and I did not know what a stoke was. I was typing a reply on FR and I mentioned that I had to type with one hand and people told me to get to the hospital so I did. Occupational therapy restored my hand and now I type wth both hands as well as ever. There are good books on preventing stroke

[davetex]

Our prayers are with your friend Tet. My wife had the same thing back in July. We didn’t realize what was happening, and waited (unknowingly as there is more to the story, but would make it quite long). The bottom line is, she was admitted to the hospital the next day. We have learned alot since then, and she is doing well.

She has some short term memory issues and is a little more fragile than before. But for the most part is back to where she was.

Your post is very informative, and we can really appreciate it. The main thing I took away from the experience is just what you are doing. Making people aware of the sudden symptoms. We/me just did not know. It will hide itself, and it is very subtle. Thanks for posting this. It might save a life.

[Gator113]

Prayers up for all concerned.

I woke up to find I had suffered a stroke during heart surgery and I also contracted MRSA. Prays helped me get back together, mostly.

Your friend may end up just fine.... but there could be a bunch of work ahead.

[mojo114]

Bless you for helping your friend.
Prayers your friend will heal.
Thanks for your informative post.

[JRandomFreeper]

A great reminder that time is critical in a health emergency. If someone doesn't want to call 911, too bad, I'm calling anyway.

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

[rintense]

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.

[azishot]

Excellent post. Call 911 or get to the hospital FAST!

[Figment]

SMILE

[rep-always]

I have said a prayer for your friend and his wife. May the Lord be with them.

[Waryone]

My mother had an extremely mild stroke nine years ago. I took her to the doctor the next day because I did not realize what it was. Her only lasting problem is a limp. She speaks clearly and has all of the faculties she possessed before the stroke. I know now how fortunate we were.

Someone sent me the following in an email. I am including it here in the hope that others won't be as clueless as I was then.

I will continue to forward this every time it comes around!
STROKE: Remember the 1st Three Letters....S.T.R. 

My nurse friend sent this and encouraged me to post it and spread the word. I agree. If everyone can remember something this simple, we could save some folks.

Seriously... Please read:

STROKE IDENTIFICATION: A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE: Thank God for the sense to remember the '3' steps, S-T-R. Read and Learn!

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.

Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

S *Ask the individual to SMILE [normal smile good, crooked or droopy smile bad]

T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (I.e. It is sunny out today.)

R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS. [Raise arms straight out in front if both arms straight and parallel good if lopsided or uneven bad.]

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

New Sign of a Stroke ------ Stick out your Tongue

NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue.. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.

A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved. I have done my part.  Will you?

I hope this helps someone.