TIA mini-strokes... be aware they can happen to anyone

Jerry Bransford

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I hadn't mentioned this here yet but late March of 2022 while my wife and I were in the process of buying our Florida home, I had two TIA mini-strokes. No shit. I was stupid during the first one, I didn't know what was happening... I couldn't talk, I couldn't pronounce any words. I had been reading addresses of potential houses to check out to my wife to look at when I suddenly couldn't be understood. It was weird, I repeated the same address 5-6 times to my wife but I was unintelligible. I could make sounds but that was it. It scared the shit out of both of us but it subsided in under an hour. It was a stressful thing at the time since we were down to the wire on having to buy our Florida house within the next day or two since our house had sold and we had something like 25 days to get out. The speech problem cleared and I felt fine again. In hindsight I should have gone to the ER right then but did not since it never occurred to me I had just had a mini-stroke.

Then it happened again the next night and it was time to head to the ER at my VA hospital. They gave me hours and hours of tests, I was constantly surrounded by 6-15 medical professionals. Mostly neurologists. Then they finally gave me the diagnosis, I had had two TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack) strokes called mini-strokes. After a couple MRI brain scans they said I was extremely lucky to have experienced them without any brain damage or permanent damage anywhere else. They kept me in the hospital for another day, waking me every 30 minutes for more tests, and then finally sent me home to start permanently taking several drugs to help prevent it from happening again. Just before I had the second stroke we found the house to buy. So while in the hospital I'm electronically signing multiple forms to buy the house on my wife's tablet computer lol. I couldn't wait because certain things had to happen within 24 hours of the offer to buy including wiring them $25k earnest $$$ back to the Florida escrow company. Tough to do from a hospital room. I'm thankful I was able to do so.

So being 74 at the time I figured well shit it's old age hitting me but then after reading about TIA mini-strokes over the next couple days, I learned it doesn't really strike just old people. There are a shitload of young people getting them even in their 20's, it can happen to any adult age group. One memorable case study I read was about a 28 year old health club owner who was otherwise in superb condition only to have a couple TIA mini-strokes. He regularly ran, lifted weights, ate nothing but healthy foods, was a regular marathon and triathlon participant, but he had a couple mini-stokes too! They're actually fairly common.

So if you suddenly have one side of your face that isn't working (one sided smiles etc.), one hand that isn't working, arms you can't raise to the same heights, can't speak as happened to me, etc., get your ass to the ER poste-haste. If you do it might create permanent problems. As said above, I got very lucky on mine having not gone to the ER during or right after the first one! In my defense it didn't hurt and I was doing a lot of other stuff before figuring out I had lost my ability to speak.

I'm fine now and have been since I left the hospital just over a year ago. But I still have to take a statin, a blood thinner, and daily chewable aspirin every day. And the blood thinner makes me bruise easily and hoo boy if I cut myself even slightly it's gonna take pressure on the cut for a long time to stop the bleeding. At least that's the only left-over problem I have which is minor... but I can sure live with that so long as I won't have any more mini-strokes or heaven forbid a full-on stroke. So I have joined the ranks of the old guys with blue bruises all over our hands, arms, etc. from minor run-ins with something lol.

So the moral of this story is anyone can have a TIA mini-stroke. If you find yourself with my symptoms, don't delay going to the ER as I stupidly did. They have a special drug called TPA for short that can be injected that can halt a stroke if you get to the ER within 2 hours. It'll pretty much make most of them go away.

So it can happen to anyone even if they are in good health... including you. At least I am again in good health again with no after effects. The docs don't think I'll have another. Thankful I'm pretty much still good to go! Y'all be careful and don't ignore any medical symptoms. You might not be as lucky as I was... though I certainly hope you will be. :)

 
Consider yourself fortunate. Getting to an ER immediately is CRUCIAL when suffering a stroke. Being in healthcare profession, the acronym BE FAST is associated with identifying a stroke. Changes in Balance, Eyesight, Facial droop, Arm weakness, Speech, and Timing to get to the ER. Are you suffering any residual effects?
 
Consider yourself fortunate. Getting to an ER immediately is CRUCIAL when suffering a stroke. Being in healthcare profession, the acronym BE FAST is associated with identifying a stroke. Changes in Balance, Eyesight, Facial droop, Arm weakness, Speech, and Timing to get to the ER. Are you suffering any residual effects?
Fortunate indeed, no residual effects whatsoever.
 
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So glad you are doing well, having to take some meds is just a minor inconvenience compared to what could have happened.
 
I wish you the best of luck with this Jerry. My mom suffered TIA's for many years. Fortunately they never did any permanent damage even though a couple of them had extremely serious immediate effects. They treated it pretty much the same as you are doing. There was no pattern to them to indicate anything that would cause one to occur. Mom passed away 2 years ago at 92 in pretty good health and the meds really helped manage the attacks. Thanks for posting about this, It's a far more common problem than people realize. Best of luck!!
 
Did they go in through your veins and remove the clot?
It's amazing what they can do.

They can do that but often for smaller clots they will just push anti coag meds and clot buster meds which will help dissolve the smaller clots. Especially if the clot is in one of the smaller blood vessels.

What makes these signs and symptoms of small strokes scary and easy to miss, is that often people with TBIs (traumatic brain injuries) can manifest some of the same symptoms. TBIs can occur even with no visual trauma. A lot of Vets are having stroke like symptoms due to being close to IED, mortar explosions, hx of concussions.

@Jerry Bransford if you are on blood thinners/anti coags please be very careful if you fall and hit your head. They can cause an intercranial bleed.
 
They can do that but often for smaller clots they will just push anti coag meds and clot buster meds which will help dissolve the smaller clots. Especially if the clot is in one of the smaller blood vessels.

What makes these signs and symptoms of small strokes scary and easy to miss, is that often people with TBIs (traumatic brain injuries) can manifest some of the same symptoms. TBIs can occur even with no visual trauma. A lot of Vets are having stroke like symptoms due to being close to IED, mortar explosions, hx of concussions.

@Jerry Bransford if you are on blood thinners/anti coags please be very careful if you fall and hit your head. They can cause an intercranial bleed.
Yes I'm on Clopidogrel, I wish I wasn't lol. Even minor cuts bleed for way too long and I get bruises way too easily. My frigging arms and hands generally always have purple splotches on them from even minor impacts. I'm still completely steady on my feet so while it's not inconceivable I might trip and crash my head against something I don't feel it's too likely. And thank you!
 
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Yes I'm on Clopidogrel, I wish I wasn't lol. Even minor cuts bleed for way too long and I get bruises way too easily. My frigging arms and hands generally always have purple splotches on them from even minor impacts. I'm still completely steady on my feet so while it's not inconceivable I might trip and crash my head against something I don't feel it's too likely. And thank you!

Clopidogrel and sporting clays / big bore rifles absolutely don't mix. After a day of shooting my .45 - 2.5" or several rounds of sporting clays my shoulder looks like someone beat me with a hammer.

Getting old sucks balls.
 
Yes I'm on Clopidogrel, I wish I wasn't lol. Even minor cuts bleed for way too long and I get bruises way too easily. My frigging arms and hands generally always have purple splotches on them from even minor impacts. I'm still completely steady on my feet so while it's not inconceivable I might trip and crash my head against something I don't feel it's too likely. And thank you!

Unfortunately I see that with a lot of my patients (I do CT Imaging. Every weekend I am scanning someone that is on blood thinners who fell and bumped their head. No visible injury but about 15% will have a small cranial bleed)

One of my regular patient's is a car guy. Used to build and race cars at the local race track. He swore by coban wrap and gauze for those nicks and small cuts. It will put pressure on the site without need adhesive. Which can cause a skin tear which means more bleeding.
 
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Unfortunately I see that with a lot of my patients (I do CT Imaging. Every weekend I am scanning someone that is on blood thinners who fell and bumped their head. No visible injury but about 15% will have a small cranial bleed)

One of my regular patient's is a car guy. Used to build and race cars at the local race track. He swore by coban wrap and gauze for those nicks and small cuts. It will put pressure on the site without need adhesive. Which can cause a skin tear which means more bleeding.

lol, Vetwrap! For the win... Cheap, comes in all sorts of entertaining colors, and works great. A non-stick pad and vetwrap and you're good to go.
 
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