Hi. I’m a 44 year old healthcare professional who normally leads a busy and active life. In 2015 I had an episode where I lost control of my right arm, then followed by my legs- I collapsed and briefly lost consciousness, the whole thing lasted around 2 minutes. I went to A&E and had a CT scan which was clear and around a week later an MRI was also clear. The doctors said this wasn’t a TIA, although afterwards I had new light sensitivity and feel very dizzy after being in lifts and things. Last Saturday morning I was lying in bed and my right arm went floppy, then I went really dizzy and tried to get up, my whole right side was gone and my head kept flopping onto the bed- I could talk perfectly fine and rang an ambulance- by the time I got to A&E I was ok, just a bit foggy. This time MRI showed a tiny (drs kept stressing ‘tiny’) lacunar stroke on the left centrum semiovale. I felt absolutely fine until a couple of days later when I started to have periods of dizziness, loss of balance and when I talk, I sometimes have to pause before the next word comes. A couple of times my right side has gone funny again. Last night it started at night, my right arm wasn’t behaving as it should and I was really dizzy, I went to bed but a couple of hours later I woke and my whole right side was pins and needles, I felt like my right side of my face was dragging down. However when I looked in the mirror it was ok. I was really dizzy and both my legs felt heavy. I decide to go back to A&E, where my symptoms had again resolved. The team were happy that there was nothing acute happening and referred me to TIA clinic. I was wondering has anyone else’s recovery felt like this? I felt like the drs were a bit dismissive, like I shouldn’t be feeling this way with a ‘tiny’ stroke like that. I don’t want to be back and forth to A&E all the time, but at the same time, it felt very much like it was happening again and that’s what they said I should do. I now can’t drive for another added week as they classed this as a TIA. Thanks for listening to me 
Hello Hannah - nice to meet you and welcome to the community.
I don’t have any experience of this and would suggest you go along with the doctors as best as you can. I say this without knowing the exact circumstances and your own personal situation. It is important to note, and I believe whilst there may be similarities with others, our own situation is very much our own and we should a) listen to our own bodies as the body does tell you a lot of things and b) listen to the doctors as they have access to your medical history and current situation as well as equipment they can use to help diagnose.
That said, I would also caution that doctors don’t always get it right and they will often err on the side of caution (they essentially protect themselves in case of come-back from patients). This is important as we then must make sure we are looking out for ourselves which is pretty much the best thing you can do. I would say that I believe this is what you are doing by coming on this forum and seeking some information that may put you in a better position.
You can search for other posts on this forum and they may help you.
For example, search using the word lacunar and you will see several articles as shown in the below graphic.
You can then choose to read any that may interest you.
As it happens, I myself saw an article on lacunar stroke earlier this year and posted it on here. You can read it using the below link - it may help you or it may not.
I am sure other members of this community will soon pop by and offer you some words of wisdom based on their experiences.
For now, I wish you all the best.
Namaste|
I’m not a doctor by any stretch of the imagination, but I have had this discussion before with people who have had lacunar strokes, I had a cerebellar stroke and dizziness or I like to call giddiness is usually more typical with cerebellar and brain stem strokes because these areas are central to the vestibular system. I was initially told I had six TIAs and a stroke. Six years later the neurologist confirmed I had had four strokes. It’s a confusing conversation with medics at times and difficult to get a clear picture or answer because they are so run off their feet. I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes. However, if you could describe more about your dizziness, it might help. General dizziness can be a result of many conditions, many unrelated to stroke, but it also means strokes like brain stem and cerebellar get misdiagnosed a lot.
It sounds like you had a TIA in 2015 which is a sign a full stroke could follow and this current stroke looks like the follow-up. I’m surprised they didn’t put you on any preventative meds back then, they usually do for TIAs or silent strokes. At least that is what I am to understand.
Hi @Hannah & welcome to the community. Sorry to hear of your stroke.
I had a completely different sort of stroke but dizziness was a big feature of mine & like you in the early days I went to A&E a few times. I would always say if unsure you must get checked over. Better to be told multiple times that all is ok than miss the one time it isn’t.
But also see your GP. There has to be something causing your symptoms so if not your stroke then you need checking for other things. But it could well be your stroke causing it. Even a “tiny” stroke can have a big impact. All strokes are major events. i had what drs termed as a minor stroke but it has left me with some significant affects. So please don’t let them make you feel like you shouldn’t be feeling like you are.
Rest up loads & hopefully your symptoms will start to ease. It may take a while so don’t expect an overnight improvement.
Best wishes
Ann
Hello @Hannah and welcome
I’d say keep pestering them, especially TIA clinic. You’ve got no answers yet.
But, I guess, my situation is very different and now I’ve got a direct pathway to the TIA clinic, avoiding A&E because I’m not an emergency as such.
M
Hi @Hannah Sorry to hear of your stroke at such a young age but welcome to our community, I hope you will find this a useful place to be. We are a merry band of stroke survivors and their carers and families and between us we have a wealth of experience and information to share and there is always someone here to offer information and advice.
Another website you may find useful is the Different Strokes charity, which is aimed at working age stroke survivors. Look forward to hearing from you as your road to recovery begins.
Regards Sue
Welcome Hannah,
Sorry regarding your stroke. I too just over 3 months ago had exactly the same as you but on my right side of the brain, causing left side issues. I’ve since been back on the stroke unit two more times with suspected stroke, however scans clear. Horrendous vertigo, balance, hearing problems and sensory changes on my left from nowhere.
I agree you should get checked out if unsure. The nursing staff mentioned better to be sure rather than experiencing another stroke.
Last time I was discharged with complex migraine being the cause. I now have brain stem and vestibular migraine together. My neurologist said having SVD small vessel disease is definitely a factor to a stroke. I feel for you as it can be very distressing on top of everything else. Hopefully some vestibular therapy will help if you can get it. You are not alone and we are here to help where possible.
Take care of yourself and be kind to yourself. It is a journey with lots of bumps in the road.
Sorry if I’ve missed anything out. Have you been referred for a scan at this stage? Until you know for sure what’s going on. It’s best to be cautious.
Hi @mlewis5241 Welcome to our community, I hope you will find this a useful place to be. We have a wealth of experience and information to share, so feel free to jump on and ask away if you have any questions or just need to have a rant, as we all do at some point.
Looking forward to hearing from you as your road to recovery continues.
Regards Sue
Hi @mlewis5241 just popping by to say hi & welcome to the community. Ask away if you have any questions. Hope you’re getting on well.
Hi @Hannah
Welcome to the community, I’m sorry to hear about your stroke and the ongoing difficulties you’re facing with dizziness and loss of balance.
I can see you’ve been given some great support from our members and I hope this has been helpful for you. We do have some information on our website about balance issues after a stroke which may be helpful to have a read of too.
As others have said, if you’re concerned about any new feelings, it’s important that you do get it checked it.
I hope you’ll find this community helpful. 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
Hi @Hannah sorry to hear about your stroke. After my Lacunar stroke I used to get kind of nauseous dizzy feeling and tingling in my arm and face which was the side that had been affected. Would last no longer than 2-5mins. This went on for over a month, stroke Dr said it shouldn’t be happening but I still maintain those episodes was the brain re wiring itself. They put mine down to undiagnosed type 2 diabetes. Hope your recovery goes well.
Stevie
Thank you. I did see that article so thanks for posting, I found it to be very interesting. I do find it hard to trust the drs explicitly and I think it’s because I work in healthcare so I see certain things like, new doctors on rotation having little experience and being expected just to know what they’re doing, differences of opinion between doctors, operational pressure influencing decisions and drs who absolutely don’t listen. When I went to the tertiary stroke unit, I felt totally reassured and really feel that they gave me excellent care. I don’t get that reassurance from my local unit- maybe that’s because I believe something was missed all those years ago. Thank you for your kind welcome into the group- I can see it’s a very supportive network 
Thanks- that’s one of the things I struggle with- explaining what I mean by dizzy- all I keep saying is- it doesn’t feel normal or it’s weird which doesn’t really help the drs 
I suppose I feel slightly disconnected from the world, like there’s a layer in-between me and it which dampens everything like a muffler- so I’m ever so slightly behind time. But then when I say it like that I don’t know if it would make sense to other people.
Makes perfect sense to me. I get dizzy spells when I stand up (quite a difficult process) and when I try to walk (also difficult).
Well, that’s a decent enough description. For me, I had to describe my giddiness as if I was an apple bobbing about in a barrel. This is all very different to the textbook description of dizziness being the room spinning. These are useful distinctions.
So, let’s just say this sensation you have is a symptom of the stroke. From a quick dive on the centrum semiovale, it seems this part of the brain acts like a telephone exchange for the rest of the brain. 
It relays sensory information like movement and sensation, and because part of that network is damaged, it is possible you are experiencing a lag effect, meaning your body and brain are slightly behind each other when sensing the world around you and moving. This could be giving you the sensation of disassociation, not quite up to speed with the world around you.
Okay, so this is speculative, but it makes sense if the sensation is from brain damage, however, with speculation it is beneficial for your wellbeing to rule out any other reasons why you might be feeling this way. We can never rule out conditions that are not stroke related because in life, we are going to experience those too and, unfortunately, having a stroke makes it harder to isolate those.
Another speculation could be anxiety related, you have a twinge of a sensation, then anxiety takes over and amplifies it, creating an echo chamber of fear. This can make symptoms worse and even cause lightheadedness and derealisation.
I always recommend observing patterns after stroke. How often something occurs, does it pass, what are the circumstances when it arises, is it typical of my condition, is it possibility connected to the function of my brain where the damage is, is it possible to reverse or buffer it with Mindfullness techniques or some other distraction, does it happen when I am fatigued, could it be from something else entirely, and is there anything acute about it or are the symptoms the same I have felt previously when it has happened.
I wrote a post about feeling unusual or peculiar on the forum, since then I have done a lot of research on my condition and arrived at dysmetria of thought and prediction error signalling mismatch which is actually what is behind this peculiar feeling I have. Having a neuroscientific reason, means I can work on rehabilitating it and also it removes the unknown quota which can be cause for panic and distress.
Good analogy - I remember well the crossed lines on the analogue telephone networks 
I think they kept stressing tiny because lacunar translates to a tiny or small cavity. Lacunar strokes are small strokes because they affect small blood vessels.
Hello Hannah, Check out the Post-stroke recrudescence discussion, I’m glad I did!
Hi Hannah,
I had very much the same things happen to me for over thirty years!
I had my first episodes like you describe just after my second child in 1991
It appeared as a full left side stroke but as it lasted less than 24hrs, I was told likely TIA
The weaknesses kept sporadically happening for many years with various other diagnosis but they finally settled on a form of epilepsy, stuck me on medication and left me to it!
Then Christmas 2021 I had a heart attack!
No explanation, all arteries clear, no stent required but obviously the heart was now damaged. Discharged six days later with more medication and rehabilitation
November 2023 I had a stroke!
This spurred the professional’s to really investigate!
They discovered I had a hole in myself heart and blood clots were escaping intermittently, and likely causing all my problems.
I then needed heart surgery to repair the rather large hole but my chances of another major incident have only halved
Perhaps an investigation regarding your heart would provide some answers for you as it did me xx