TIA at 29 - struggling almost 1 year after

Share your story
1

Hello everyone,

So on March 1st 2024 I suffered a TIA…
I’m 30 (29 at the time), married with two young children (youngest being 2)

I still remember that whole week leading up to it like it was yesterday…

The week previous to it my whole family had the neurovirus so there was a lot of sickness in my household!
The week it happened I had been feeling a bit unwell still, I described it to my husband at the time as i just wasn’t feeling my self, my neck felt so sore but i just thought i had slept on it funny or when i was being sick (from the previous week) I had just pulled my neck or something, only thinking back now my left arm had a dull ache for the 5 days leading up to it but aswell I didn’t think anything of it at the time…
The Friday came and I was feeling actually okay, we went out to do a bit of shopping, picked my eldest up from school came home and boom!

A wave of sickness came over me, I was sweating, I collapsed onto my husband and the dizziness hit me. Everything about me was being pulled to the left, my eyesight, my body, my head, I describe it now as when you’re on a roundabout and you put your arm out and it gets pushed back in - that’s exactly how it was.
I could speak, but I couldn’t see, my husband said it was the scariest thing he’s ever seen.
With all the dizziness I was constantly being sick.

The paramedics came, and there was absolutely no concern or worry of it being a stroke.
In fact, they were pushing me to drink water as they were concerned it was all down to dehydration (due to the virus the previous week)
The water they were giving me was coming back up, the anti-sickness tablets had no hope of going down either…
I think they finally thought they got me to a place they were happy with (I was still completely dizzy, couldn’t see, being sick) and said to my husband it’s his choice if he’d like to take me to hospital or not.

Luckily he chose too.
Waiting in A&E was one of the worst experiences of my life, I felt like I was in and out of consciousness, I couldn’t keep my head up, I could not keep awake, I couldn’t stay focused on anything - aswell as still being sick…
It felt like I had been waiting an eternity to be seen but when I was, everything seemed to happen really fast? I’m not sure if that was the case as I was so out of it but once I had a CT scan done, they came back to my husband and told him needed to be moved to a stroke ward. He was in such shock (as was I) he had to say it simply ‘so you’re saying my wife has had a stroke?’

I was in hospital for 3 days, until a bit of my balance returned and I could walk again.
Turns out when I was sick from the neurovirus I tore an artery in the back of my neck so the Tia was caused by the dissected artery.

I was lucky. I wasn’t left with any physical damage, but I have been left with the mental trauma of it all.
I guess that’s why I’ve joined here…

I’m terrified every day, and every day I live in fear.
I’m not sure how to just live my life when it’s always in my head, it’s always a constant thought.

I take my tablets yes, I try and live a healthy lifestyle, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke but I just panic it’ll happen again, and if it does will it be a full blown stoke this time? I’m honestly petrified.
And even saying that I feel silly because people have had it a lot worse than me.

8 Likes
2

Welcome to the club none of us wanted to join. Please come here to ask any questions or to have a rant if you feel like it.
Do try not to worry too much. That could spoil your life as much as another episode. You are doing everything you can to stay healthy. Sometimes these things happen without any obvious reason. They cannot always be prevented so all you can do is take any prescribed meds, eat well and stay fit.
Good luck
Janet

4 Likes
3

Hi and a big welcome to our community. Sorry to hear of your stroke at such a young age. We are a merry band of stroke survivors and their carers and families. We have all suffered different types of stroke and are all on very different roads to recovery.

There’s always someone here to offer advice and information, so jump on and ask away.

Everything you are feeling is absolutely normal, having a stroke is a traumatic experience and I’m sure everyone here will have worried about having another stroke at some point in their recovery. It sounds like you are doing everything possible to avoid this happening and that’s all you can do. Try too relax and get your life back on track.

Another website you might find useful is DifferentStrokes.co.uk a UK stroke charity providing a unique service for young stroke survivors.
Keep up the good work and look forward to getting your life back.

Regards Sue

4 Likes
4

Hi @StephC04 - Welcome to the community and thank you for sharing such a detailed account of your experience of having a TIA.

I am sorry you are struggling almost a year after having the TIA and hope that sharing it with the community and others will help you to come to terms with what has happened.

I concur with the advice given by Janet and Sue @Janetb and @Susan_Jane.

Have you talked to your GP about this and did you get any post stroke support advice from the hospital? Perhaps you can get your GP to get you a referral to get help with the mental trauma.

Other than the fear of having another TIA has your life returned to normal? You have a young family - how are you getting on with bringing up your children?

Do you talk about this with your husband? Maybe it will help if you go through this with him?

I can’t think of what else to say, so for now, I wish you and your family all the best and if it helps, pop by on this forum to share your thoughts or just to talk it through.

Just one thing came to me as I wrote the last sentence and that was journaling or writing it down. I have come across this on several occasions and they say it helps if write things down. Getting things out onto paper or electronic note is said to help.

Below is a link to a podcast on the subject by one of my favourite doctors, Dr. Michael Mosley (RIP - sadly no longer with us).

Please try this and see if it helps you. Just takes a few minutes each day and it may change your life :slight_smile:

Namaste|
:pray:

3 Likes
5

Hello and welcome.

I am 33 and had a stroke in September 24. It was mostly vertigo, nausea etc like you. And some weakness at the time. I still have the dizziness (a little, at times) but everything else sort of just cleared themselves up after about 2 weeks.

You were in hospital for a few days - did you get an MRI to ensure it wasn’t an actual stroke?
How quickly did you return to feeling normal?

Re the anxiety - totally relate. I went on anti depressants which really helped however I do feel myself getting back into my old ways of worry, overthinking etc.
talk to your GP, maybe try anti depressants for a bit to see if they help. I’d usually be the last to recommend them but I know for sure they helped me.

4 Likes
6

Hi @StephC04

Welcome to the community, I’m sorry to hear about your TIA.

It’s very common to have anxiety after a TIA or stroke, we do have some information on our webpage regarding anxiety which you may find helpful to read. You can find it here.

Please don’t feel silly, everyone has a different journey. This is a place where you can share those worries and get support from each other. I hope some of the answers here have helped a little.

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

1 Like
7

Hi @StephC04 and welcome to the forum :people_hugging:
Last March you went through a life threatening trauma and that is scary! That’s not being silly, that’s being human! There’s no time line for getting over this experience, it can be days, months, years for some. You’re being treated for the physical trauma but you can get help to cope with the emotional trauma of it too. That often gets overlooked in the height of the aftermath because it’s all about treating the physical aspects to keep you alive. Speak with your gp about the emotional trauma, PTSD and get the help that you need.

image
image570×239 27.7 KB

You lived to tell the tale!
Every single one of us here, who have been through TIA’s/strokes have all been just that scared, terrified in the same way. We were all scared of it happening again, we still are, we just have better coping strategies in place now. And time heals too.

You are coming up to your first post stroke anniversary in a couple of months. That’s to be celebrated :partying_face: because you’ve survived without any further incidents. And why wouldn’t you survive? Your TIA wasn’t due to any underlying or ongoing health condition was it? It was a very unfortunate accident. Just as my broken ankle several years ago was an accident. That happened just walking down the stairs and my heal slipped off a step. You probably have as much chance of having another stroke as being hit by a number 9 bus in the morning :slightly_smiling_face:

I’m saying all this to alleviate some of the “what if’s” that are spiralling around in your head. We could waste our lives worrying about the “what if’s”, when what we should be doing is getting on with our lives, celebrating that we live to tell the tale. You are young, you have the advantage of youth on your side when it comes to making a good recovery. Concentrate on the positives because you have so many of them.

My TIA was 4 years ago on Christmas day and I’m still here! I go to gym every other day, out walking, shopping, household chores, gardening, driving here, there and everywhere having fun, etc etc etc. Yes I do still have some minor deficits but nothing I can’t live with, frustrating at times but nothing I can’t live with. I’m 62, you’ve just turned 30 with a young and beautiful family, choose to let them distract you. Every time you think of your stroke and “what if…”, turn to your family to distract you, ask your children to do something silly to make you laugh and forget. Mine were 2 and 4 when my mum died and I found them a great distraction, I used them to distract me from my grief. They were my greatest coping mechanism :blush:
But do speak with your GP too. Mindfulness and cognitive therapy can help a lot for you too :people_hugging:

Lorraine
Stroke Improvement Group

4 Likes
8

@StephC04 Hi & welcome to the community. Sorry to hear of your TIA & the subsequent anxiety it is causing.
Most of the others have already said what I would say so I won’t repeat it.

I had a stroke caused by a tear in my carotid artery although a reason for it tearing has never been found. I was initially terrified that it would tear again and that they were doing nothing to repair it. That fear did eventually ease although I still get a bit nervous when I do something that causes a pain in my neck or I twist it awkwardly. I did ask for a carotid scan in the end so i knew it had healed & maybe that’s something you could request to help ease your worries.

Other than that try & live your life. None of us know what’s around the corner. Hopefully the circumstances leading up to the tear won’t happen again.

Best wishes

Ann

4 Likes
9

Hello and welcome. I’m less than 2 months into my recovery, so it almost goes without saying I am still struggling with anxiety.
I have just self referred for talking therapies via the NHS. I’m having a telephone assessment next week so a quick service in our area.
We all know what will help, “thoughts are just thoughts”, one day at a team, stop overthinking and catastrophising, slow your breathing, mindfulness, but sometimes we just can’t do that.
I would suggest tell your husband what a struggle you are coping with, also friends. Once I admitted to myself anxiety is not a weakness then I managed to tell a few people and that really helped.
There is an element of grieving too, for the loss of how you were and how you felt before your TIA and that needs help to work through so you can be your old self in time.

4 Likes
10

Hi @StephC04 ,

I note you have had a tremendous response to your post and hope you are finding ti useful.

At the risk of overwhelming you, I came across another post on the forum which you may find helpful as it has been well received and written by someone of a similar age group to you.

Jordan had a stroke at 25 and is positively thriving at age 31 :slight_smile:

Take Care.
:pray:

2 Likes
11

I had a TIA in 1991, I was 26. No repercussions whatsoever and after a while, I forgot all about it. Wish I’d been more mindful as I had a full stroke in 2023, that one I didn’t come away from so easily. Looking back I wish I’d insisted on taking blood thinning medication and avoided all the issues I now have to live with. A TIA is a warning, please make sure you heed it.

4 Likes
12

I had a TIA 15 months ago. In hospital for 5 weeks and left with severe left arm weakness. Can’t walk very far either. I don’t agree that everyone who has a stroke fears another one. I’ve been a hypnotherapist for 40 years and fear is the most damaging emotion, especially if it’s constant. I absolutely would never take an anti-depressant. You could well be suffering PTSD so see a qualified hypnotherapist and in the meantime thank your lucky stars you don’t have any physical consequences, instead of worrying.

2 Likes
13

Hi @Manny38 ,

I am not sure everyone who has had a stroke fears having another one, but I think that advice from the medical profession is that once you’ve had a stroke, the chances of having a second one is “high”. I could be wrong, but that is something I recall coming across. The medical profession is always going to play safe and put you on preventative medications e.g. blood thinners with the explanation that it reduces the risk of having another stroke.

I always ask myself, "But what does this mean for me?"

What I find interesting in all of this is how the “risk” is measured and how “high” is defined.

Just as an example, they might say there is a high risk but in percentage terms this is 25%. To me 25% is not high. In other words, there is therefore a 75% chance you will NOT have a second stroke. So then you have to think what exactly is the risk?

The below is the result of a “Google search” I did using “chances of having a second stroke” and response in the form of an AI overview

The risk of having a second stroke is high, especially in the first few years after the first stroke.

Within 5 years: The risk of a second stroke is about 26% in the UK and 30% in one study
Within 10 years: The risk of a second stroke is about 39% in the UK

Factors that increase the risk of a second stroke include:

So looking at the above, with in 5 years, 26% chance and within 10 years 39% chance.

But all this is relative …

Given the above information (which in my experience is typical of the sort of advice the hospital consultant will likely give and indeed has given to us), how do you take that and apply it to your personal circumstances?

Let’s do a hypothetical scenario.

Three people (random ages chosen by me):

  • One aged 40,
  • One aged 55 and
  • One aged 80.

All three survive a stroke and are given the above information about risk of a second stroke.

What should they consider when given the advice. Should they take preventative medication or looking at the statistical chance of a second stroke, choose not to?

This is the challenge we as individuals face. And we all have different views, some of us are happy to take medications, others (I include myself in this - but that is not a recommendation) prefer not to.

In the end, how much difference does it make?

It is very much a personal choice and you have to be happy with it.

To address any fears, there are things you can do e.g. hypnotherapy etc. But again, it is a personal choice.

Just my tuppence worth, not a recommendation, just charing my experience and my views.

Listen to your body.

Wishing you all the best.

Namaste|
:pray:

3 Likes
14

Was it a TIA or a full stroke? Did you have an MRI?
To be kept in hospital for 5 weeks sounds like a full stroke to me, and to have lingering weakness reinforces that. For context I was in hospital for 4 days with a mild full stroke.

Most people who have a stroke do indeed fear having another. The odds are against all of us, hence the preventive meds you usually get for life after. Up to you if you decide to take them. But those odds obviously fluctuate based on age, health etc etc so I don’t think there’s a lot of value in the % you read.

Also I’m sorry but recommending not taking ‘anti depressants’ but recommending hypnosis is straight up dangerous. I wouldn’t usually recommend SSRI’s but in the case of stroke and anxiety after the fact…. 100%. At least for 6 months then wean off.

1 Like
15

Hello Steph,
I think you’ve made a great decision joining this group. I had a stroke 24hrs post triple heart bypass, i like you havebeen lucky with no impairment of movement, just a peripheral vision problem, and slight facial droop. My only advice would be to try to live in the moment, enjoy your family, appreciate everything you have, rather than the pessimism of all the negative outcomes that your mind is focusing on. Read this forum, and be inspired by all the positive posts. I wish you well on your road forwards
Jan

4 Likes
16

This is great advice Jan. I love everything about it, so succinct and so worth doing.

:smiley: :heart: :+1:

:pray:

3 Likes
17

I honestly don’t know how you define a “mild full” stroke. Read the side effects of anti-depressants one of which is suicidal thoughts. I didn’t say hypnosis I said hypnotherapy and you obviously know nothing about it if you think it’s dangerous.

18

I worked for a mental health and suicide charity and have personal experience of different types of mental health issues, I know all about the side effects of SSRI’s.

What I know for sure is hypnosis was never recommended to people with severe depression or severe anxiety. ‘ Hypnotherapy , also known as hypnotic medicine ,is the use of [hypnosis] in psychotherapy.’

Mild - not severe.
Full stroke - permanent brain damage, not transient (TIA).

1 Like
19

A bit off topic but reading the response to one post here reminded me of how easily one can be misunderstood in what I think of as 2 dimensional communications on a forum.
You don’t get the body language or the inflection and emotion that is present when speaking to someone face to face.
For that reason I guess respecting all opinions is important especially when there is the possibility of misinterpretation, after all we are all paddling our canoes as best we can

3 Likes
20

Hi Wendy - you make an excellent point, and it is a timely reminder that we are all here trying to help each other. Sometimes the written format can be easily mis-understood or mis-interpreted.

I think we would all agree that it is fine for us to have different views and that views are based on personal experiences. I don’t believe anyone is necessarily trying to impose their views and opinions upon others, but rather to share with a view to helping others make a choice that may suit their personal circumstances.

Sometimes we can be passionate about our beliefs, but we must respect that others can choose what is or is not right for them.

Thank you everyone for your contributions and let us keep this community a safe, happy and informative place to visit.

Namaste|
:pray:

4 Likes