What type of stroke did I have?
Early this year on a day when it wasn't torrentially raining, I went bushwalking with my husband and our dog. The sun was warm on our backs, the birds were grateful for a break in the rain, chirping happily but the soil was sodden and there were leeches everywhere. We both thought it was both revolting and hilarious that these leeches were reaching up to hitch a ride on our shoes. Yuck, I screamed like I was getting attacked by miniture monsters. I reached down to flick one off my shoe with a stick, turned my head to see where my husband and my dog were and felt something strangely odd in my neck. I stood up to what felt lilke I had moisuriser leaking into my eye. There was no sting; only blurr, like my vision was pixilating in my left eye. This was the exact moment my left artery in my neck tore in the middle section, there were no other symptoms - Yet. Stroke type - Middle Cartoid Arterial Dissection
From bushwalking to uneasy feelings.
We ditched leeches, the endless mud and slippery moss for stable ground on the bitumen road back to the car. With a slight etherial feeling filling the air (acutally my brain but I didn't know it) a mild headache began to build. I thought nothing of it, put it down to the experience of fighting muddy minature monsters. Both hungry we stopped at a cafe where our labrador was welcome to join and sit under the table with a bucket of water and a good sleep. My breakfast burger was greasy yet yum, I put the sickly feeling in my stomach down to the bacon and a sugar filled bread roll. My headache was still present but not too bad, I have a very high pain threshold so thought nothing, literally nothing of it. My left eye was still blurry, no pain, no sting, nothing. I commented on it to my husband while rubbing my eye testing to see if it would just right itself.
A nanna nap could have been the end of me
Headchaes are not uncommon for me neither is tiredness or lethargy. Naps are a daily routine and a ritual that is predictable. I mentioned when we arrived home that I was going to have a rest. Swallowing 2 nurofen I lay down with my left eye still blurry and fought my body to rest. Something, no, someone much bigger than me I'm sure of it, stopped me from falling asleep that day. I rose off the bed because our youngest had mentioned that she wanted to spend her hard earned money at the shops before school the next day. She had been asking for days to go so I couldn't let her down. I pushed myself passed the lethargy and growing sense of dread. Hopping in the car I drove us to the shopping centre and we walked and walked. I was getting more exhausted by the step.
Mum, why are you limping?
I have a tendency for pepetual optimism. It is a great trait although it can lead to ignoring danger. While buying tank tops, disassociation had well and truly set in. That feeling that you are here but not here, I knew then that this was the beginning of something awful. My steps were slowing down, my daughter in her excitement took off with my instruction. "I'll meet you there, I'm just a bit tired." Dreamy thoughts, slow movements and steps, starring into nothingness, I made my way to her destination. I sent her a text, wait, why can't I use my fingers properly. My fingers started to feel numb. My daughter reached me puffed and showed me her purchase. I looked at her and whispered, "We have to go now, I'm not feeling very well." We made our way toward the stairwell to the carpark.
"Mum, why are you limping?"
"I don't know." From that moment my young daughter had to assist my every move until we reached the car.
Miracles are interventions
The fact that our eldest daughter had studied the stroke pathway in her university nursing lecture the week before my own stroke is I honestly believe, no coincidence. I intsructed my youngest daughter to phone my husband, she put it on speaker and I tried excruciatinly hard to tell him what was happening but what I said and what he heard were two different things. Our eldest was home at the time, "put her on speaker, mum say that again." I said what I thought I said, "that's not right, she's having a stroke." with that very instant she was on the phone to the ambulance service. They both drove to where we were parked. Bolting out of the car, my amazing daughter, took my obs with her knowledge, used her phone light to check my pupils, asked me lots of questions and told me to complete a bunch of physical actions all while on the phone to ambulance service. Arriving in what seemed like a flash, they took over what our daughter had started. I couldn't walk or talk, the right side of my body started to fail.
The end is not nigh
The journey from now on is hectic, without medication stroke survivors may not survive at all. There is a 3 hour window to avoid permanent disability or death. I am at the mercy of everyone, the only thing I have control over is the decision to recieve immediate thrombolysis that could save my life. I will continue to blog about my journey to help those who are survivors, carers, health professionals, allied health practitioners alike. The aim is to encourage, inform, educate and inspire for the promotion of stroke prevention. Please be kind with all comments and responses.
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