Missing the early warning signs

looking back i can now see i missed early warning signs of having a stroke
first was leaving work and struggling to do up my shoe laces doing up my coat and my hand slipping on the gear stick and my i could not use my indicator leaver and also struggling to use a fork and having to think to say something and make myself understandable
i wish i known that then and got help sooner

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I too missed early signs of my stroke although I would never have imagined that’s what they were.

A couple of weeks before my stroke I had an episode where I felt really spaced out. It only lasted a short time and never thought any more of it.

I also had a pain across my right cheek which went up behind my eye & went into my head. I mentioned the pain on the day I had my stroke & was told it was likely connected

I don’t dwell on any if it though as I am notvsure I would have done anything differently if I had that time again & I can’t undone what is now done.

It does show the importance of not ignoring anything that is out of the ordinary.

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We all have regret in life. If only I did X differently, Y may not have happened.
Like most people I think I had a warning sign of stroke two days before I had one but it might not have been. Also I’m 33, if I went to hospital saying I felt a bit off they’d shrug me away :man_shrugging:t2:

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In my case , I had no early warnings at all prior to my stroke last September, I woke up in the morning with a mild headache, not unusual for me as I also suffer from mild migraines occasionally, but this headache was a bit worse than normal, I took 2 migraleve tablets but it did not disperse it as usual.
I sat down to watch the news on TV while having my breakfast, it was then that I realised that my eyesight was all wrong, any thing stationary was ok, but anything moving WBA’s seen in an unusual fashion, the actual movement was seen in a totally different way, ie a gliding motion, that was when I realised some thing was wrong.
The upshot of it all was that after my wife drove me to ER the next day, it was confirmed
I had had a stroke in my sleep, and was later told I had a possible focal seizure as well, but still to this day is unconfirmed, DVLA has banned me from driving for 6 months which has been very hard, as I enjoy driving, especially my classic 1957 Chevrolet Be Air, and especially as the seizure is still unconfirmed, still waiting for MRI results.
Sorry to be so long winded and deviating from the subject, but my case just shows that the typical FAST symptoms don’t always manifest themselves.

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I started getting migraines a couple of weeks before my stroke. I asked my doctor to be seen but that was declined. I can’t help but wonder if they’d have seen me if they’d have taken me off the contraceptive pill that caused my stroke. I try not to dwell or feel angry about it but it’s a question I know will never be answered.

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So many stories about the pill causing stroke in young women. It’s so dangerous in many ways yet so ‘normal’ to be taken

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My husband’s stroke happened in his sleep too.
When he got up his right side was weak but he still managed to get around our small home and even had his shower.
I am a retired nurse and looked very carefully for signs ( FAST ) etc but we both concluded his hours of digging the previous day had caused a nerve issue which would wear off shortly :confused:
I will never forgive myself for not acting immediately and getting him to the ED but thankfully he was seen very quickly when I did insist we go to ED a couple of hours later.
He had quite a big stroke though the doctors didn’t think he had until the MRI results.
He is 78 and has always been fit and well and physically active.
Unfortunately not everyone gets the obvious signs.

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So, looking back, I did have warnings of my impending stroke. I was seeing multi-coloured “lightening strokes” in my right hand vision. But the day before I had flown back from India and on that day I had driven back from London to Devon and I just put it down to being tired. But, to be fair, even if I HAD realised I was having a stroke it would have taken AT LEAST and hour to get an ambulance and then triage and the scans, basically it would have made no difference.

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Before covid I had to have a pill review every 6 months or they wouldn’t prescribe me anymore. Then along came covid and they gave them out without seeing or speaking to me. That continued right up to my stroke.

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Unfortunately my husband’s stroke happened after i left for work in the morning and i discovered him at 5.
Ambulance called and they were brilliant and phoned the stroke ward direct to get him seen to asap.
The nurse on duty refused him on the grounds he should go to A&E to rule out sepsis!!!
They did argue he had previous stroke history but to no avail.
Does make you wonder…

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