i think it is super important to be able to ID stroke symptoms.

vash · vash's Garage

just saying.

i wont air my family laundry, but i am damn happy i paid attention in my mandatory first aide class (for work).

just wanted to put this out there as a public service announcement.

STROKE: remember the acronym F.A.S.T.

F: Face. ask the person to smile..does the face behave the same on both sides?
A: ARMS. weakness or numbness on one side?
S: Speech. slurred speech..or drunken speech.
T: TIME! get on the phone and CALL 911.. that hesitation where you dont want to make a emergency call and get it wrong where the person is not having an emergency? forget it..call? apologize later, if you pulled some hair trigger and did a false alarm..

our parents are getting older..we are getting older..etc.

jus sayin.

sand_man · 10-13-2014, 12:09 PM

Great info!!! Thank you for sharing this. My sister-in-law just suffered a "mini" stroke two days ago. Luckily, her boss recognized many of the symptoms you just posted, and EMS was deployed immediately. Thus far, she's made a full recovery, but now all the root cause analysis begins. Scary stuff!

sand_man · 10-13-2014, 12:10 PM

She's only 45 and was born with a heart defect that required surgery when she was 5. So this might be rearing its ugly head...

look 171 · 10-13-2014, 12:12 PM

I had a minor one at the age of 42. The emergency dr. gave sea sickness pills because I was complaining about a spinning head ache. I normally do nto get head ache and do not drink( a beer with Mexican food, that about it). They wouldn't scan me, based on his findings and experiences. My sister fought it and I went for a CT scan but was clean. She pushed for a MRI and they found a tiny dead spot the next day. I have no symptoms or deficit from it. Thank goodness. After a week of testing, they found nothing, and that I was healthy. they all seem to think it was caused by stress. It happened in my sleep. A bad dream might have driven my Blood pressure way high pushing a tiny piece of plaque through. No one knows. I tell people it was a wet dream and I was working too damn hard.

look 171 · 10-13-2014, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sand_man

She's only 45 and was born with a heart defect that required surgery when she was 5. So this might be rearing its ugly head...

I was told that there might be a hole on the back of the heart and that's where the stuff is getting through. They did that damn test on me, I had to swallow a camera to see if the hold is there. No hole, so....

Rikao4 · 12:20 PM

he can still shoot..
create art from that abused spoon of yours..
play his beloved bass..
and chase that Lady of his..
but man was he hard-headed that night...
thankfully we were able to convince him...
go to the ER now..

Rika

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

One day when my dad woke up he did his standard bit of shower and shave. As he was winding the clock he noticed his left had was not working right. Knowing the signs of stroke he walked to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and smiled. His smile was not right. He went right to the phone and called 911. When they asked him what the emergency was he tried to say I need an ambulance but he discovered he could not talk. He sounded like the monster in Young Frankenstein just uggghhhh. Since 911 deals with that as routine they sent the police, fire dept & and ambulance.

A cop knocked on the door and asked if everything was OK and if he needed the police. My dad just shook his head and pointed at the ambulance. The cop waved the ambulance guys in and sent the FD away. He had my phone number pulled up on his cell phone and handed that to the cop as the EMTs stated their process. The cop called me and said they were on the way to the local hospital that specializes in stroke. Talk about a "aw 5hit" phone call!

I zipped to the hospital and dad was already starting to talk a little. They had given him the proper drugs and he was fine. Virtually no residual damage and dad died two years later with 100% of his mental facilities of heart failure.

Bill Douglas · 10-13-2014, 12:30 PM

A lot of us are in the 50 to 60 age group. My GF who is a registered nurse calls that age group "snipers alley" as it's a dangerous age group to be in. Thanks Vash for the stroke warning.

I've lost a few friends recently, who were seemingly fit well people, from heart things.

I've had ECGs (I think that's what you call it, eletronic heart monitoring) and recently a colonocopy as a huge number of people die from cancer of the arse

A good test for heart and artries is an ECG test while resting then an ECG while doing heavy exercise. This is to measure how hard your heart is working to force the EXTRA blood around the body and the resistance from (possibly) blocked up artieries.

BlueSkyJaunte · 10-13-2014, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rikao4

he can still shoot..
Create art from that abused spoon of yours..
Play his beloved bass..
And chase that lady of his..
But man was he hard-headed that night...
Thankfully we were able to convince him...
Go to the er now..

+1 !

vash · vash's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

One day when my dad woke...................

your dad is a bad ass!!

this "event" happened to my mom. i just knew something was not right. everyone else was saying she was OKAY..i trusted my gut..and got my wife moving.

never been so scared in my life. T.I.A. (aka, mini stroke)..just like sandman's story.

this happened right when they passed out the delicious PRIME RIB at HOUSE OF PRIME RIB. staff was awesome..other patrons, awesome. emergency response..AWESOME!!

never eating there again. bad juju for me.

plus all that fatty food........

J P Stein · 10-13-2014, 04:15 PM

BTDT.
Musta happened while I was asleep. Got up & couldn't walk a straight line. Bounced off door jambs & walls getting to the head. Couldn't read & my typing & speeling was even worser than it is now. The wife got me to the hospital & the MRI showed a 9cc dead spot in my brain. The Doc said that my brain would do a work around.

He was right but it's no great comfort. My balance is not what it was....but not much else is. How long will an asprin a day keep that wolf at bay? That's about as good as my poetry gets.

look 171 · 10-13-2014, 04:31 PM

JP,

My balance is a tiny bit off once in a long while when I am super tired and lack sleep, like 2-3 hours only. For most days I am fine without any symptoms. I even ride a bike ( bicycle)one or twice a week and I push like hell trying to hurt the other on it. That competitive fire never really completely burn off for me. I couldn't draw a complete circle with my left leg but that went away the next day and I was back to normal. I do know there is a tiny dead spot in there. I am very lucky. No more fatty foods.

berettafan · 10-13-2014, 04:58 PM

Good thread. Need to stay sharp on this.

Thanks for posting.

John Rogers · 10-13-2014, 05:15 PM

Yes stroke symptoms are easy to talk yourself out of. When I had mine in September a little over a year ago, I had banged my head pretty hard the day before and thought the trouble walking was because of effects of that. Then my right hand did not want to work right when I went to use the phone as I was calling 911. I was in the hospital for a week and even now have a bit of trouble writing at times. After the last visit with the "brain doc" she suggested I see a heart specialist which led to my total bypass surgery this past May!

She felt the stroke (non hemorrhagic) was due to the large amount of low level radiation I got as a nuclear machinist for over 20 years in the Navy. Hello VA claims........

Steve Viegas · 10-13-2014, 07:43 PM

Couldn't be more timely...Thanks for this public service.

Willem Fick · 10-14-2014, 06:03 AM

Did this and managed to get my dad to hospital within 30min from his first showing symptoms, and therefore managed to contain potential damage.

Interesting note is that the first hint the stroke gave was that my dad in conversation suddenly seemed distant and started to ask the same question repeatedly, which made me do the FAST check.

In my case it was FASD though - drove like I was posessed.

J P Stein · 06:57 AM

Talking to the brain doc convinced me (and him) that I had had a few "mini-srokes" over a couple years.

One was bad enough to make me pull over into the emergency lane of the freeway. Several deep breaths and a WTF was that and I was again OK......ayup, it's easy to talk yourself into a "no big thing" and carry on.

Dunno any way around that attitude....it is probably a guy thing.

BTW, did a stress test a while ago. My ticker is fine says the heart dude.
I really should quit smoking.

sammyg2 · 10-14-2014, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by J P Stein

BTDT.
Bounced off door jambs & walls getting to the head. Couldn't read & my typing & speeling was even worser than it is now.

Now yer worryin me ......

Rikao4 · 10-14-2014, 07:00 AM

of course it is..
but to often 'you' know it's different..
and 'you ' still blow it of..

lot's of CPR situations I attended too..
started out as just heartburn a few hrs before...

Rika

John Rogers · 10-14-2014, 09:57 AM

Here's a suggestion that I learned several years ago and it especially applies to a stroke and/or heart attack person, either you or someone you love. Call 911 and have the EMTs take care of the transport. This also bypasses the entry wait time when you go in and in my case the treatment was started on the way. The lady that handled my initial ride to the hospital when I had mine saw it right away even though I was thinking it was something else. In her case she had been a combat medic with the Marines for 8 years and had actually treated Iraqi civilian stroke patients and a couple of military ones also. She said we are going to the UCSD Medical center stroke emergency room and you don't have a choice in the matter! She was an angel!!