If I am not around for a while it is because my partner of 37 years has had a stroke. Happened last night. Am with family. We got him to the Hospital right away by ambulance and clot busters were given right away. Was in the MCA at M-1 branch. Knocked out his left side, so was a right sided stroke. Slurred speech and no swallow. Clot large and visible on scan. They were taking him for a procedure in cath lab to remove the clot when the busters disintegrated it and everything came back, speech and movement. Just a tiny vision blank in outer left eye. He will be touch and go to hope he doesn't bleed with the clot busters, and they can be tough on kidneys. At 84 he's no kid so he's in neuro-intensive. I will update here as this goes along.This is, of course, what all we elders lie in bed fearing will happen to one of the other of us. And it did. My DIL says "See, you TOLD us so....".
AS TO STROKES please listen to me now:No waiting around. It is 911 immediately to the ER. Addressing it with clot busters can leave you good as new and ignoring it can leave you in the nursing home. Your best change at quality life is to get to the ER as fast as you can. Never ignore symptoms of a stoke.
Hoping he has a good recovery and you are back home. As everyone has said, take care of yourself, too. (((hugs)))
You are so right. So important to call 911. Even if it's a false alarm
you'll have done the right thing.
Case in point. My DH's dad. He had a stroke. Did not go to the E.R.
Ended up paralyzed on his left side. Apparently crawled to bed
the night it happened. Woke up next day and the rest is history.
He was a doctor. What was he thinking?
You are in my thoughts.
😊
And thanks for the timely reminder about getting help immediately for a possible stroke.
beth
Thank you for sharing your experience and advice so openly..
i know I, for one, will take it to heart and remember it!
Readers, he is HOME. Neither of us can believe it and are more or less in shock. Followup begins tomorrow with appt with his Kaiser MD, but he is looking like it never ever happened, and seeing him almost dead on the Bed Thursday night, unable to move, and with a flaccid left arm and leg, neglect on left side, garbled up speech, confused--this seems miraculous (if you will forgive the atheist's expression when there seems no other). He has dodged a bullet in a way neither of us can imagine. I saw lots of stroke recovery, but never one this full. The clot was apparently sitting above the carotids at branch M1 of the MCA (which has pretty pictures online) and had not moved in to cut off flow to any portion of the brain, nor blocked that main artery completely. Just sitting there. During prep for embolectomy (thinking clot to big to bust from drugs) it did bust. Followup CT is totally normal. And HE is completely normal.
We both were in bed at 7 pm. We look and act like shock victims.
Frieda the dog was so happy to see him come in in hospital clothes, she was spinning and couldn't get her breathe. Then she was smelling all the IV wounds and bruises, rubbing any spot he left just to get his smell on her. I think the little thing is somewhat attached? What say you.
AGAIN, please all take this as warning for if it saves one of you...........just know CALL 911. YOU CANNOT WAIT. You have a window of 2-4 (6 max) hours to get the clot busters in. You must be by that time at a stroke center and have had a CT Scan. So no calling cousin Irma to drive you to ER where you will sit until you are dead, OK. It is 911. They know which stroke center can take you and they will know you are having a stroke. Most of us can't imagine calling them. But believe me, when you see someone you love having symptoms of a stoke, you WILL BE ABLE TO MAKE THAT CALL. Please do. You cannot delay. Neil couldn't even sit up or move, so knew right away that SIL saying "I will drive you right to Kaiser ER" wasn't good. Turns out they are not the best stroke center and were on divert anyway. Would have meant permanent debility. Happily Neil couldn't move or talk well enough to say "OK".
Just know two things. Call 911. Time is of the essence.
I am so happy for you and Neil. It's a miracle.
God apparently isn't done with Neil yet. I will continue to keep you both lifted up in prayer.
God must be a dog lover!
Such great news!
May God give you many more years together!
Thank you ALL for your encouragement, love, thoughts, prayers, wishes. You are an amazing community of VERY GOOD PEOPLE.
As anyone who reads here much has seen me saw on about, my mom had four strokes we know about, likely more we didn’t. She’d long death with high BP. The first three were from clots and none of those times, none, did she receive the clot busting med. I will live the rest of my days never knowing why, I wasn’t directly there for any of them, but it never made sense to me. She was sent home on the much hated Coumadin with no other real follow-up. This wasn’t in a rural setting, but a city of 350k with a “teaching” university hospital. We weren’t told anything, couldn’t understand her new apathy. We now know it was depression that so often comes after a stroke, but it was never mentioned. The fourth stroke was hemorrhagic and took every physical ability. It would have been far kind if she’d died. I so appreciate your inclusion of instructions and tips for all of us. How wise of you. I’m now the daughter desperately trying not to repeat the pattern. My doctor watches my BP and advises me to keep my weight down, I take both seriously.
I’m so glad for you and your beloved, getting this great news and chance at life again. Enjoy every day!
In order to get t-PA or the other "clot busters " you have to be in the hospital and getting it within hopefully two to four hours of your "incident". Now they say may work at 6 hours and give it, and if they actually have a clot that will visualize on the CT scan which must be done BEFORE the administration of clot busters, they may choose to try to go in and grab it by stringing in their catheters from groin to brain to grab it.
Most teaching hospitals of any size are stroke centers, but here in SF we have only THREE. General, Pacific and UCSF (university hospital). Had Neil been taken not by 911, left to sit a bit in an ER, and not taken by ambulance to stroke center (which isn't out usual Kaiser) and directly into cubicle, then directly to CT scan machine, then we would not have been "in time" for the clot busters.
But if your Mom was in by ambulance, to a hospital with a "stroke center", and into the cubicle, into the CT scanner, I don't understand why she didn't get the clot buster. For Neil it was looking not to work and they were preparing to do the embolectomy when suddenly, during prepping him, he came completely around. It works by an enzymatic action of going to the clot, "eating it up--it's fibrin" and destroying it. And he was lucky in that it did work for him. But it was all miraculously fast action.
We are just feeling a bit shocky. Off today to Kaiser for followup first time with their MD who will "follow him". We are kind of PTSD in some sense, but holding! And feeling so incredibly lucky. We are both atheists. We seem to have no gene for belief. Not a choice, just a fact, but sometimes our language only has so many words, and this does feel to us a bit "miraculous".
During the whole thing he didn't want to really be treated. Was in la la land mumbling away and "ready to go" and I told him "I will let you GO, if I HAVE to, but I won't let you sit mumbling in a nursing home for another few years if I can prevent it! You WILL have this procedure (embolectomy). Hee hee, Nurse Rachet drops the hatchet.
We are hopeful. We are PTSD'd a bit, and we are scared. It's hard to wrap your head around. I am afraid to let him out of my site. And oh, man, my stomach and bowel are SUCH a mess.