Mini stroke

[Anonymous 1]

Thank you so much! How are you so knowledgeable with all of this? I think you work at a hospital but just wondered how you know about this. I really appreciate it! I took a picture of this and will be requesting these tests. I am very overwhelmed but I made the first 2 calls this morning. One to an imaging place and they need a dr order for the MRI so then I called the dr to tell them that and also tell them how bad I felt yesterday. It's all I could handle right now. I will bring up the other things soon. And to add to all of this, I am also going through menopause or something...definitely going through changes so I have had extra dr appts for that as well along with the burning breasts and chest area. I feel like I can't handle all of these appts right now and I may cancel the ultrasound coming up for my bad periods and just focus on this possible mini stroke. I am just so overwhelmed. I went to the dentist the other day and even that was stressful (which normally it is not). My daughter has a cardiologist appt tomorrow and for the first time I feel that I cannot go. My husband can take her but it's hard for him because he has to use a motorized scooter and use hand signals to drive but he could do it alone if he needed to and this will be the first time alone if I don't go.

Once again, I am always hesitant to give medical advice, but i will give personal advice, if you were my loved one, and you described these symptoms to me, days later, I would contact your care provider with the following message via the patient portal or the phone::

I appreciate the referral to neurology, however they are unable to get me in for some time. I am very concerned that I had a TIA, could you please order an MRI of my brain to see if I have had a stroke; carotid artery duplex to see if I have any carotid arterial disease, and an echocardiogram with a bubble study to look for any sources of a clot and to re-evaluate my mitral valve, due to a history of MVP. Thank you so much.

And if that provider said no — I would take this list to another doctor.

No, unfortunately they can't get me in to see the neurologist until late june! And I googled the dr and he has horrible reviews so I am going to try to see if I can get a referral for someone else! I haven't had an echocardiogram in years. I just don't understand why the dr wouldn't have suggested this. Ugh! I also have had burning in both breasts and feels like it is spreading to my chest so I got a chest xray but that came back okay. The dr told me to make sure I mention this to the neurologist as it could be connected but not sure. Have you heard of this? At first, my primary dr had me go to a gynecologist for the burning breast feeling. I have it every single day on and off all day long and now it feels like it's spreading to my chest.

Will you be seeing the neurologist in a timely manner? Did she say why she did not order head imaging & carotid imaging? Did she not feel your symptoms could have represented a stroke?

I do not know your risk factors, and am not giving medical advice, however “mini-strokes” could (not saying it always means this) could be a warning sign of a problem that could cause a larger stroke. So I would want an evaluation done sooner than later, if you were my loved one.

There are several possible causes of ischemic stroke and although yes, atherosclerosis of our arteries caused by high cholesterol is a common cause of stroke, clots can also come from cardiac or the heart. This is screened for with an echocardiogram which I assume you have done occasionally to monitor the stability of your mitral valve prolapse.

[Anonymous 1]

That has to be so scary for you when your hand starts to go to sleep! The other day I was driving, and you know those speed limit things where it shows what speed you are going. Well, it must have not been working correctly because I was going 30 in a 25 but it said I was going 7! So then I immediately started feeling scared because I wondered if it was really saying 27 and that I just couldn't see the 2! Just like chunks of my vision were missing the day all of this happened with the possible mini stroke! And at the same exact time with the speed limit thing, my CD I was playing in my car started to skip. I wondered if it was my brain "skipping" or just the CD. I didn't remember that CD ever having scratches or skipping before so that scared me as well. It's making me more scared of driving because that's when it happened while I was driving. Now my daughter has her temps and wants to practice driving and I have way more anxiety about it than I did with my son because of all of this. Ugh.

How scary! I'm glad you are okay! It's so frustrating not to know what made this happen and how to prevent it. I have had several other times where I had this "strange feeling" and I'm afraid it's going to happen again because I had the strange feeling first and then I couldn't see chunks of things so my vision was weird and then I couldn't speak but my brain was able to think of things to say but it wouldn't come out and then it changed to my brain not being able to even think to form sentences. Then when I was able to speak again I wasn't making sense. I had been driving and thank god my son was able to take over and drive and he drove us home safely.

I lost my whole left side. It started with my left hand. It went numb, but I thought it was just asleep..then, my left arm went numb. Then, my dd ( 10 at the time) noticed the left side of my face was drooping). When my SIL got me to the hospital, my left leg went. My SIL said that from the time I hit the doors of the ER to the time I came out of the CAT scan was 6 minutes. They did a CAT scan and started yelling stroke kit as they ran me down the hall to a room with my SIL beside me as Dh had landed in DC 20 minutes beforehand and was trying to get back home after dd called him. They did CT scans, they did several MRIs with and without contrast.. The CAT scan showed the stroke in my parietal lobe on the right side of it. They were able to give me TPA and the ER physician told my SIL that they barely made it in time as they had about 10 minutes left on the "stroke timer" as strokes are timed for treatment.

Oh honey...that sounds like a stroke. Your parietal lobe manages your senses so if you are unable to speak or speak coherently that is not a good sign. Your vision is also affected by a stroke. I had 20/20 before my stroke. I got my eyes checked 6 months later and found out that I then had an astigmatism in my left eye and now have to wear reading glasses 6.5 years later. Definitely get checked asap. It baffles my mind that your physician is not being more proactive with the things that have occurred. I also have MVP. In additon, I have genetically high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Neither of those were the cause according to the tests I underwent. I would be strongly advocating for more testing like CT scans, CAT scans, MRI's, and maybe a TPE ( scope down throat to look at heart). I had ALL of that done while in ICU when I had my stroke. They left no stone unturned trying to find the source.
It was very frustrating not to know the why of it all. I do slightly freak if my hand goes to sleep now. I speak out loud to hear if my voice is normal, I shake my hand and then breathe a sigh of relief when my hand goes back to normal.

[Valentina327]

Have you considered going to the ER? You'll get your tests done right away that way instead of having to call around and wait for referrals and orders. It sounds pretty serious, what you're dealing with.

[Anonymous 2]

Yes, and unfortunately they passed away. It was a shock to the family to say the least.