As a note of brevity Lea did recently come across the new definition of FAST
Ciao
Simon
And you need the energy focused on healing
and
while it would be easy to prove you didn’t have the best care in hindsight it’s very very hard to prove that that was either wilful or ignorant malpractice when all there was was an unfolding tale with incomplete clues as to what was happening.
on a deeper level maybe the medical staff should be trained in back casting from outcomes instead of relying fully on forecasting from symptoms. Overlaying back cast and forecast hypotheses often leads to greater confidence in a chosen solution and in business at least often leads to economies
Agreed Simon. I think they should be quicker and more keen to use their precious MRI machine. I didn’t get the MRI brain scan till the next day.
I didn’t have classic FAST symptoms. Back in June 2022 at the age of 57 I had a strange sensation in my right arm and reliased I couldn’t differentiate between hot and cold on my right hand side but other than a bit of a headache I felt ok. I went to bed but woke up having difficulty swallowing which I put down to a swollen throat and went back to sleep. When I woke up I didn’t feel quite right but took the dog out and realised I was veering to the left. I struggled home and after nearly choking on my breakfast I realised something wasn’t right. I managed to get an appointment with the doctor who told me to go to A&E. To cut a long story over the next 3 days after various trips to hospital for tests and scans I eventually had an MRI scan which showed I had had an acute ischaemic stroke of the left PICA territory. 5 days on the stroke ward where the consultant told me I’d been very lucky. With no obvious cause for the stroke I was referred to Cardiology and after various tests over coming back negative I was fitted with a loop recorder which after a month identified I had an asymptomatic issue with my heart, whereby it was occasionally stopping, though this wasn’t believed to be the cause of the stroke. I am now the proud owner of a pacemaker which was fitted nearly a year ago. Everything seems to have settled down and apart from managing the fallout from the stroke I’ve now come to accept the new me and am able to get on with things after having made the decision to give up work.
Hi @PaulWT
Quite a few parallels with my circumstances. It was 2 days between realising I kept bumping into furniture and finding that I couldn’t hold my toothbrush or do the back and forth motion to actually brush them .
Currently on the survey above we’re running at 85% fast was either irrelevant or misguided and 15% I was classic
Does anyone else think that as a community of #StrokeThrivers We have the opportunity perhaps even the duty to move the stroke association who are our representatives to represent our reality so that our community doesn’t expand (as fast as it would otherwise do)? In which case that requires that there is a consultative mechanism - which we don’t currently have.
Last week on the 30th I was in public transportation and Parmedic checked my blood pressure it was high they said it wasn’t my words gotta stuck
I called 999 at time of stroke. Told 5 hours. West Wales. Neighbours lifted my wife into car. At hospital excellent response. Immediate help at car. Into emergency. Drugs. Ambulance to Bristol for operation. Took straight into surgery.
Back local after two days……. Then 21 weeks of abysmal physio/rehab in hospital. Then home where despite promises nothing in place for next 5 weeks What government spend on lying promises not put in to action could be spent on staff.
The sweet consultant who first saw me recommended an MRI immediately - he was a locum and obviously hadn’t read his introduction to the hospital properly as they don’t have a machine and it took nearly a week and a lot of hassling from my nurse daughter to arrange it - did it make a difference? I’m not really sure, it didn’t really make much difference to my care which was basic but very kind and clean in our rural local hospital.
I feel the same about the initial symptoms - they were missed and ascribed to something else (a cricked neck and then vertigo) but since the first person responsible for the misdiagnosis was me there’s not much point going over and over it.
I think things like heart monitors, blood and blood pressure tests etc. after the event are very important to reduce the chance of further problems and I am very lucky to have good access to an excellent, remarkably accessible, general practice but I’m trying to concentrate on getting on with things rather than speding time on “what if”.
For what it’s worth, no I didn’t have classic FAST symptoms but BE-FAST might have been more helpful
Oh, if we could only go back. I’ve heard of so many who have been saved by the clot buster.
I just read an article in today’s Times about Anthony Bundy, who sadly died from a stroke after waiting over five hours in A&E in Glasgow. His family believe that the medics relied too heavily on the FAST test and failed to spot that he was having a stroke, thus leaving him to wait for an assessment. They’re calling for the Scottish parliament to support a review of the UK-wide test.
I applaud and fully support that .
I wonder how I make contact…
I’m just trying to get the stroke association to move its message on.
2¢
The son’s name is James Bundy and he’s a local councillor in Falkirk. You might be able to find him that way?
I’d post a link to the article but I think it will be behind a paywall.
I didn’t have any FAST symptoms. Went to bed with a migraine, woke up in an ambulance. My husband said I had fallen out of bed, but I had a TIA years ago so he called an ambulance to be on the safe side. I was given a thrombectomy when I got to the hospital which cleared the majority of the clot. This is the reason I have very few physical impairments. Why aren’t more hospitals doing this ?
Two quote re UK SF 23 which was in Birmingham last week
From a speaker subsequently tweated
Less than 1% of people who would benefit get thrombectomy
From the website advertising it
Lived experience experts (stroke survivors) are not permitted to attend UKSF23 !
There were a lot of quotes about how important it is to talk to the community of survivors from the speakers - go figure!
I had 3 tias last week and nobody wasn’t paying attention was going on with ears ringing
Migraine is common so not unique to stroke but wonder if this might be one of the things that might feature on a warning list ie increase in migraines.
My ears started ringing about a year ago and are still going.
I keep getting ‘spacey’ spells - I wonder if their TIAs
I’m reticent to go to a&e and spend a day sitting in a corridor to be told afterwards take aspirins over the next month and we don’t know what it is
Bit of a quandary
I have filled in the e review form on the GP’s website you can’t even bring them these days
That’s Great - onwards and upwards. Long may your improvements continue.
In fact there is no limit - if you get told about plateaus then discount the true understanding and knowledge of the person who’s telling you. They are launch pads for further capability development. You’ll find recovery in the first 5 to 7 months is different to from 6 months for life-long (there’s more in the welcome post)
Ciao
Simon
I was sat, playing an online competitive game of backgammon. When I had my stroke my arm dropped then my right leg lost most of its power (I started to slide off my chair) and I would say it took about 3-4 seconds before I said to my wife “run and tell the neighbours I’m having a stroke” and I don’t know how I knew. I just thought “what else could this possibly be?” About 15 seconds after that I lost my speech. Altogether it took 25 seconds from my arm dropping, to losing my speech.