I have a terrible fear of a second worse stroke.Its constantly in the back of my mind and holding me back in my continuing journey of recovery.It has been made worse when i recently flew to Turkey to have some dental work completed.I told the dental clinic i was on Apixaban and they reassured me that the actual drilling and surgery was finished.When i got to the clinic i was given injections and they continued to work on me.When the injections wore off the pain was off the scale.It had wore off the next day and they told me they had drilled my jaw because the posts werent deep enough.
However my point is i didnt bleed,my stroke was brought on by a DVT in my leg as my BP and Colestrol have always been checked and maintained.So what if my bloods are rare and stay sicky?? How can i be sure that i wont have another DVT??? Its continuingly at the back of my mind
You can’t be sure, but the worry is probably worse than another stroke. As long as you are doing everything you can to minimise your risk then why worry.
Personally I would prefer to leave this world via a major stroke rather than linger for years with a degenerative disease.
It’s a matter of learning to trust the drugs that you’re on. Think of it in the same way as flying, you’d never get on a plane if you didn’t trust the pilot. If you’re anything like me you probably get small reminders that it’s working, too, every time you get a little cut or scratch that would have healed in minutes previously but now bleed copiously. As an enthusiastic gardener I get plenty of those and a bit of blood pouring down my hand has become strangely reassuring.
It’s niggling sometimes panicky fear response we many stroke survivors have had to deal with. Using Mindfullness methods and other psyche/physiological techniques can help get through the fear. I find practicing VKD (Visual/Kinaesthetic Dissociation) useful, I have written a post on it here. You can also start noticing the pattern of your thought, it comes into your mind, nothing happens, you don’t have a secondary stroke, and then move on to the next thought. This disarms the thought. Another technique I like to use is to think about what is going on like a scientist examining something, you take on the role of scientist and pick apart the feelings and emotions, this can also remove the emotion from the equation.
Along with relaxation and mediative techniques, this can all achieve a beneficial ways of dealing with the fear. I was checked for sticky blood conditions, do you have a condition that causes sticky blood? Anti-platelet meds are the first line of treatment.
Fear of a second stroke is natural. However you need to try not to let it overtake all your thoughts as this will increase your stress levels which also isn’t good for someone who has had a stroke. None of us know whether we will have another stroke or not but we have to trust that the medication we have been given and the lifestyle changes that we have probably made will all reduce that risk. As you mentioned your fear is hindering your recovery and it therefore may be worthwhile speaking to your GP about how you are feeling to see if there is anything they can do to help. Distraction and finding things to do that you enjoy or one way of trying to get those thoughts out of your head. I would imagine after your stroke you have had a multitude of blood tests and one of those probably included a test for sticky blood and therefore if this was the case I imagine you would be being medicated for this. However if you haven’t had this test then the GP could organize this for you and then hopefully that would help put your mind at rest.