Any advice on my mum's recent mild stroke diagnosis

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Hi there,

I’m looking for a bit of advice for my mother.. below is basic breakdown of what’s happened recently.. apologies for the long post.

Mid May my mum experienced a ‘funny turn’, her tinnitus went very loud, she went dizzy and the side of her face went numb. 10 days later we went for a run and we took a photo after, I noticed her smile looked slightly wonky and I told her.. that’s when she told me about her ‘funny turn’ 10 days before (she hadn’t wanted to tell me to worry me)

We went to A&E, she had some checks and they noticed her left leg and arm were slightly weaker so was treated as a suspected stroke - she had a brain CT and brain MRI scan and they said it all looked clear but they couldn’t explain her arm and leg weakness - she was discharged with suspected Bells Palsy.

I didn’t feel right about it so I booked her in for an appointment with a private stroke physician in London. We sent him her scans and explained everything to him, he said although he couldn’t see any signs of a stroke on her scans, going by what we had told him, he suspected she had experienced a mild stroke as Bells Palsy is gradual and not sudden like the episode she had experienced. He said because she had a scan 10 days later, evidence of a stroke wouldn’t necessarily show and sometimes, you still can’t see evidence of a stroke even soon after (the CT/ MRI doesn’t always pick it up).

He has prescribed her 75mg of Aspirin and sent her for further tests - something to do with her heart and some other tests. I’m still waiting for the follow up letter summarising all of the points.. I can’t remember everything.

My mum is understandably a bit shaken up as she really didn’t expect him to say she’d had a mild stroke. I was just wondering if anyone had been through a similar situation? My mum is really active, works out most days, she drinks minimal alcohol (a glass or two of red a week), she doesn’t smoke and she eats healthily.

Is there anything else my mum should be doing now to help prevent any future strokes? We will be doing every test that is recommended once we receive the follow up info. Should she push for statins and is Aspirin enough?

Thanks for reading this far and I appreciate any advice.

Jordan

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Hi jolo, welcome to the club no one wants to join! I had a mild stroke last june. As I was in hospital ( after and because of the stroke) they started me on aspirin for a few days only then on to clopidogrel,which continues as well as blood pressure medication and a statin. It would depend what caused your mum,s stroke to what she was given. I hope this helps.

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Hi @jolo

Welcome to the community, I’m sorry to hear about your mums stroke and the situation of the misdiagnosis.

It sounds like your mum is doing all the right things, follow up tests are going to be able to give you more information on anything else she might need to put in place.

I’m sure there will be some members along shortly to offer their advice which I hope will help. There is a wealth of knowledge on this community so please do tap into that whenever you need it over the next few weeks if you have questions.

Wishing your mum well on her journey. If you need anything whilst you’re using the Online Community, please don’t hesitate to tag me using the @ symbol and my username.

Anna

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Hi @jolo and welcome to the forum. Unfortunately there is no way to avoid a stroke, you can only keep the level of risk to a minimum with good diet and exercise etc. Aside from that, everyone on the planet is a prime candidate including babies still in the womb.

They can even be brought on by neck manipulations from an osteopath or physiotherapist causing vertebral artery dissection. And that’s the sort of thing they would look for in the scans and ultrasound checks.

Most stroke survivors seem to be put on aspirin initially and leading onto to the likes of Clopidogrel, BP tablets and statins. And that is about as much as can be done.

But its still very early days yet for your mum and her brain is busy doing any repairs needed, so she may find herself feeling a little more fatigued than she may normally would.

It sounds like she has gotten off very lightly, but she also needs to heed it as warning to take care. I don’t want to say it but it does need to be said, the next 6-8 weeks she’s at her highest risk of having another one. So she needs to be sure to take her meds, get plenty of rest and I’d refrain from doing anything more than light exercise, walking instead of running. At least until she gets the all clear for her doctor.

I showed all the classic signs of a stroke and still have deficits 4 years on, and yet all the scans and ultrasounds couldn’t find anything. My consultant said it could have been a blockage that cleared itself in the smaller vessels that are too small to show up on the scans. So he put it down as a TIA but said they’re all strokes and that’s definitely what I think it was.

You will all be in a state of shock at the moment but the sooner you can all relax into this news the better it will be for her to keep stress levels down. I hope you find some reassurance here and good luck with her investigations :people_hugging:

Lorraine

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This sounds very familiar to my wife’s situation…she had a “slight” stroke in early April, and pleased to say, is recovering well…she was put onto Aspirin to begin with, and then changed to Clopidogrel, along with her existing BP tablets…her only problem since the stroke, is short term memory loss, and not being able to walk so good, like your Mum she was very active before the stroke, and now gets very frustrated that she can’t do the things she used to do…Wishing your Mum all the best, and a speedy recovery…

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@jolo hi & welcome to the community. Sorry to hear of your mum’s stroke. I am sure she will be struggling to take the news in at the moment (as you all will be) but in time you will start to come to terms with it. It is something that happens so suddenly we all experience that moment of disbelief.

It sounds like all the necessary referrals are being made and hopefully these will help provide some answers but they don’t always find a cause.

The aspirin she has been prescribed is probably fine for now & this may be changed later to clopidogrel if they think it is necessary. Yoh may want to look at something like lansoprazole too as aspirin can irritate the tummy. Speak to the GP about this. There may be no need for a statin but the GP would probably do a blood test to check her levels if you’re concerned.

Apart from that it sounds like your mum is doing all she can to lower her risk. We can never remove it completely.

Hopefully you get some answers soon. Ask away if you have any more questions.

Best wishes

Ann

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Greetings Jordan - welcome to the community.

I note that you have received a very good response from some of the regular contributors to this community.

I have nothing else to add as I believe all your questions/concerns have been addressed. I would say that you and your Mum should be pleased you have “nipped this in the bud” and be assured you are doing as much as you can/should be doing to prevent another stroke.

Namaste|
:pray:

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There’s a lot of sound advice here already on living with the realisation that your mother may have had a ‘mild’ or ‘small’ stroke, so I won’t add to it. Just one quick clarification on Bell’s Palsy:

It’s not really true to say that it doesn’t come on suddenly. It does - as i know from my own experience of BP as a youth - though the symptoms do then get more pronounced.

But they are different to those of a stroke, (see AI summary bellow). Hope this helps.

  • Symptoms:

Sudden onset of facial weakness or paralysis on one side of the face, including the forehead, eyebrow, and corner of the mouth. Difficulty closing the eye, drooping of the mouth, and changes in taste or sensitivity to sound can also occur.

  • Forehead Involvement:

Bell’s palsy typically affects the entire half of the face, including the forehead.

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@RobbieJ thanks for your quote;

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Hi Jordan,

I am so sorry to hear about your mum and I wish her a good recovery. Its such a shock when a stroke happens and it sounds like your mum is lucky to have such an observant and caring daughter.
I am still on early into my recovery so can’t add anything to other peoples good advice and comments, but I found you post very interesting as your mums palsy symptoms are strangely similar to what I experienced.
On the 25th May I had what I thought was a stroke, severe dizziness, nausea and sudden bells palsy which all came on very quickly over 30 minutes. I went straight to A&E and was initially treated for stroke with clopidogrel (allergic to aspirin), however all the tests including scans came back clear and I was diagnosed as having had an Heamaplegic migraine with Bells Palsy which they say can mimic a stroke. The palsy initially improved but then got worse on the day I had my stroke (29th).
I am recovering now but what you wrote in your post does make me wonder if the first episode was in fact a small stroke or undetectable TIA. Whilst this is water under the bridge now and does not change where I currently am, it does make me think I should have asked more questions at the time.

All the best for your mums recovery and I hope you have been able to get the answers you sought

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Hello @jolo.I like your mum was active drank very little a gin and tonic once a week, and a vegan, plant based diet. I can’t relate to your experience of nothing showing up n the scans. My scan showed a burst aneurysm which could be congenital or as a result of falling out of a. Car in my 20’s I’m now 50! I’ve had 3 children and am very suprised that the aneurysm didn’t burst while pregnant as blood pressure rises to make sure blood is flowing down the umbilical cord to the placenta. The only thing I was doing differently was I was stretching my neck in this cradle but I used it often so I have no idea why the aneurysm burst when it did, and I suppose I will never know.

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