Starting September 1st of 2011 and continuing until around October 22, I was in the hospital 6 times with what appeared to be TIAs or mini-strokes to some doctors, but to others they were thinking they were complex migraines.
Each episode I would feel very light headed to the point of almost the room going dark. In fact, it was like the clouds passing over the sun as far as my vision went. I would feel a sensation like a hood or veil being placed over my head, starting at the base of the back of the head at the neck and continuing up to the top of my head, with the clouds over the sun sensation in my vision. As quickly as it came it would leave.
Only the very first time did I feel any numbness in my face. It started with a feeling of my left wrist going numb for a few minutes and then dissipating. The paramedics said I had a left sided droop when they arrived at the house. The other 5 episodes I just had the feeling of the veil coming over my head but no numbness or droop.
My husband called the paramedics and a stroke code was called on me each time.
My blood pressure rose to about 180/90, but was back to normal within an hour or less. They would do the CT scan within 3 minutes of my arrival in the emergency room all 6 times. I also had every test you can think of except an MRI (I am extremely claustrophobic). Every test showed nothing. Absolutely nothing. Each time I was in the hospital 3 to 4 days going through all the testing.
A few hours after arriving at the hospital each time I would get a bad headache.
My neurologist put me on 325mg of aspirin a day which I took faithfully every morning since September 1st.
The hospital assigned internists each commented on how the symptoms were very similar to complex migraines. I had migraines many years ago when I was in my 20s after a car accident in which my head cracked the windshield. But by the time I was in my 30s those headaches went away. In May of 2011 I had my first migraine in a long time and again another one in the summer.
On January 31st of this year at about 11:30 at night, I was lying in bed reading as I couldn't sleep. My husband's good friend of 50 years had just passed away that day from a stroke. He was not saved and this was just making me so sad. I felt a funny sensation on my right side near my temple, which happened to be the side I was lying on. Almost like a blood vessel leaking or something. I sat up and told my husband something didn't feel right. At that point I was talking ok.
I got up out of bed and turned to tell him I was going to take my blood pressure, all of a sudden I could not say the word 'pressure'. It just wouldn't come out of my lips. My blood pressure was 127/72. Because I couldn't talk now without stuttering terribly, my husband called the paramedics and off to the hospital I went on another stroke code.
Once again, none of the tests showed anything. My mental function was absolutely normal. I did not have any numbness or droop, loss of balance, dizziness, pain, etc. I just couldn't form words for about 5 1/2 hours and then just as suddenly my ability to speak normally came back. They kept me in the hospital until the next morning.
My neurologists started me on 81mg of aspirin in the morning and one 25/200mg Aggrenox at bedtime. The first morning I woke up with a terrific headache, but since then I have had no problems.
Today I had my post hospital checkup. My doctor put me on Aggrenox morning and evening now (no more aspirin). He said that they still are not sure what has caused these mystery episodes, but to be on the safe side I will be taking the Aggrenox.
Strangely, I still get the numbness/prickly feeling around my cheeks, on my chin and above my lips. Not as much as I did after the first episode in September. Then I had that feeling almost daily for about 3 months. Now I occasionally get a fleeting prickly/pins and needles feeling in one of those areas and it is gone almost as quickly as it comes, almost like a butterfly flutters by that area ever so briefly. The same with in my left wrist.
In September I was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia. It has been my wonder if the TIA-like episodes were actually the fibro starting to rear it's head. I have had constant pain in my back, shoulder and neck from an injury I received in September of 2007. An x-ray has showed where the injuries are and that calcification/arthritis has started to set in. Now that I have been reading different websites on fibro symptoms, I see where I have had vague symptoms of it since I was a child. But it wasn't until this past fall that the symptoms came full force.
My daughter, Kym, also suffers from fibromyalgia. Her pain is stronger than mine most of the time and she suffers headaches also. We have a lot of similar symptoms, but also a lot of different symptoms. As anyone who has fibro knows, no two cases are the same. Fibromyalgia is as unique and different in each person as each person is unique and different from another person in this world.
The question still remains... were these episodes strokes or were they fibromyalgia?
Hmmmmmm... the mysteries of life.
The one thing I do know.... God literally knows what they are and I am in His hands. He is in control of my life. I pray He uses me to serve Him through whatever diagnosis/ailment I may have. As Paul suffered some form of ailment and remained strong in his service to Christ, I want to use my pain to His glory.
Each episode I would feel very light headed to the point of almost the room going dark. In fact, it was like the clouds passing over the sun as far as my vision went. I would feel a sensation like a hood or veil being placed over my head, starting at the base of the back of the head at the neck and continuing up to the top of my head, with the clouds over the sun sensation in my vision. As quickly as it came it would leave.
Only the very first time did I feel any numbness in my face. It started with a feeling of my left wrist going numb for a few minutes and then dissipating. The paramedics said I had a left sided droop when they arrived at the house. The other 5 episodes I just had the feeling of the veil coming over my head but no numbness or droop.
My husband called the paramedics and a stroke code was called on me each time.
My blood pressure rose to about 180/90, but was back to normal within an hour or less. They would do the CT scan within 3 minutes of my arrival in the emergency room all 6 times. I also had every test you can think of except an MRI (I am extremely claustrophobic). Every test showed nothing. Absolutely nothing. Each time I was in the hospital 3 to 4 days going through all the testing.
A few hours after arriving at the hospital each time I would get a bad headache.
My neurologist put me on 325mg of aspirin a day which I took faithfully every morning since September 1st.
The hospital assigned internists each commented on how the symptoms were very similar to complex migraines. I had migraines many years ago when I was in my 20s after a car accident in which my head cracked the windshield. But by the time I was in my 30s those headaches went away. In May of 2011 I had my first migraine in a long time and again another one in the summer.
On January 31st of this year at about 11:30 at night, I was lying in bed reading as I couldn't sleep. My husband's good friend of 50 years had just passed away that day from a stroke. He was not saved and this was just making me so sad. I felt a funny sensation on my right side near my temple, which happened to be the side I was lying on. Almost like a blood vessel leaking or something. I sat up and told my husband something didn't feel right. At that point I was talking ok.
I got up out of bed and turned to tell him I was going to take my blood pressure, all of a sudden I could not say the word 'pressure'. It just wouldn't come out of my lips. My blood pressure was 127/72. Because I couldn't talk now without stuttering terribly, my husband called the paramedics and off to the hospital I went on another stroke code.
Once again, none of the tests showed anything. My mental function was absolutely normal. I did not have any numbness or droop, loss of balance, dizziness, pain, etc. I just couldn't form words for about 5 1/2 hours and then just as suddenly my ability to speak normally came back. They kept me in the hospital until the next morning.
My neurologists started me on 81mg of aspirin in the morning and one 25/200mg Aggrenox at bedtime. The first morning I woke up with a terrific headache, but since then I have had no problems.
Today I had my post hospital checkup. My doctor put me on Aggrenox morning and evening now (no more aspirin). He said that they still are not sure what has caused these mystery episodes, but to be on the safe side I will be taking the Aggrenox.
Strangely, I still get the numbness/prickly feeling around my cheeks, on my chin and above my lips. Not as much as I did after the first episode in September. Then I had that feeling almost daily for about 3 months. Now I occasionally get a fleeting prickly/pins and needles feeling in one of those areas and it is gone almost as quickly as it comes, almost like a butterfly flutters by that area ever so briefly. The same with in my left wrist.
In September I was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia. It has been my wonder if the TIA-like episodes were actually the fibro starting to rear it's head. I have had constant pain in my back, shoulder and neck from an injury I received in September of 2007. An x-ray has showed where the injuries are and that calcification/arthritis has started to set in. Now that I have been reading different websites on fibro symptoms, I see where I have had vague symptoms of it since I was a child. But it wasn't until this past fall that the symptoms came full force.
My daughter, Kym, also suffers from fibromyalgia. Her pain is stronger than mine most of the time and she suffers headaches also. We have a lot of similar symptoms, but also a lot of different symptoms. As anyone who has fibro knows, no two cases are the same. Fibromyalgia is as unique and different in each person as each person is unique and different from another person in this world.
The question still remains... were these episodes strokes or were they fibromyalgia?
Hmmmmmm... the mysteries of life.
The one thing I do know.... God literally knows what they are and I am in His hands. He is in control of my life. I pray He uses me to serve Him through whatever diagnosis/ailment I may have. As Paul suffered some form of ailment and remained strong in his service to Christ, I want to use my pain to His glory.
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