My wife, Liz, died of a haemorrhagic strokein Feb 2023. She was 69 and relatively healthy with none of the usual risk factors.
After going back through her diary I believe there were warning signs many months before.
Eight months earlier, she had her first ever migraine, and had 3 more in the following months. I’ve had migraines since I was 14 so it was regarded as ‘one of those things’.
A couple of times she separately noted a stabbing pain behind one eye. A check by her optician could find no reason for it.
Two months before the stroke she had a severe episode of vertigo lasting for over a week which, when checked out, was assigned to BPPV, an inner ear problem.
I have since found that her blood pressure was around the bottom of the hypertension range.
In July/August 2020 her diary records a series of 6 headaches – she never had headaches before.
I have also found out that, way back in May 2019, her optician referred her to the local eye hospital. All I know about that is that her lens prescription was unchanged, but she was advised to “optimise control of her blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar”.
A month before the stroke she forgot my date of birth despite knowing me for 50 years and it being used in several passcodes.
Are these symptoms just isolated events or could they be connected and even related to her stroke?
Nothing will bring my wife back but, if such relatively available information can save even one person, this needs further investigation.
I mentioned this several times to the SA and even wrote to a professor doing stroke research but don’t see anything happening in relation to early stroke prediction and, perhaps, prevention.