My three days in the hospital

[JPhillips]

On Tuesday I was at my desk when I suddenly felt very strange. My right hand started tingling and when I went to my division chair to ask her to take me to the hospital I couldn't speak properly. I was thinking clearly, but the words came out as if I was mashing two words together. She called 911 and in a few minutes an ambulance arrived. The EMTs did the normal work up and got me into the truck, by which time I could speak again. The whole thing lasted five to ten minutes.

In the ER I went through a battery of stroke tests, but all my functions had returned to normal and there was no damage visible on a CAT scan or heart ultrasound. Over the next two days I underwent more tests, including a particularly nasty tube down my throat for a closer heart ultrasound. Everything came up negative and last night I was released not knowing what caused my attack.

I'm thrilled I don't have a hole in my heart or a tumor in my brain, but it's also very disconcerting to not know what happened. I spent my time in the hospital wondering about every slight head pain and now that I'm home I feel like I'm on high alert. I've even been a little worried about the spelling mistakes in this post. I assume that will gradually go away, but right now it's no fun wondering if my head is about to blow up.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Glad to hear you're ok. Sounds scary.

[DaddyTorgo]

goddamn jphililps - glad to hear you're okay, but yeah...that sounds freaky

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

There's far better ways to determine the impact of Obamacare on the health care system.

Glad you're feeling better. Might want to increase the frequency of checkups for a while, just to be safe.

[boberot]

Be careful Google-searching your symptoms / episode, if you go that route.

If you're anything like me, you'll convince yourself you have a half dozen godawful maladies.

Glad you're feeling better.

[Noop]

Happy to hear you are okay.

[sterlingice]

Good to hear you're ok.

Hate to say it but it sounds like the start of about a half dozen episodes of House

SI

[flere-imsaho]

Glad to hear you're released and feeling better. Let's hope this was just a one-time thing and you'll be 100% in no time.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by boberot

Be careful Google-searching your symptoms / episode, if you go that route.

If you're anything like me, you'll convince yourself you have a half dozen godawful maladies.

Glad you're feeling better.

Glad to know I'm not the only one.

[SteveMax58]

Glad to hear you're ok. It is very scary to not know what is wrong or what happened to you during a brief "spell" where you know you are just not right.

I had a similar experience (not the exact same symptoms) a few years back while driving home (coming from about a 2 hour drive). I had to pull over on the highway as I wasnt sure if I was going to blackout or wtf was going on. Went to the hospital and same thing...lots of tests and no diagnosis other than "stress" related.

[Swaggs]

Scary -- keep a close eye on things and don't be afraid to go back in (even if you think you are imagining it).

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by SteveMax58

Glad to hear you're ok. It is very scary to not know what is wrong or what happened to you during a brief "spell" where you know you are just not right.

I had a similar experience (not the exact same symptoms) a few years back while driving home (coming from about a 2 hour drive). I had to pull over on the highway as I wasnt sure if I was going to blackout or wtf was going on. Went to the hospital and same thing...lots of tests and no diagnosis other than "stress" related.

Same thing happened to my wife when we were driving, everything started shifting side to side and she couldn't see.

Glad to see you are OK J.

[Eaglesfan27]

Glad to hear you are ok. If this was a hypothetical case, I would hypothetically say this sounds like a classic Transient Ischemic Attack (sometimes called a mini-stroke by laymen), particularly if there was any weakness associated with the tingling. TIA's are brief attacks of stroke like symptoms that resolve on their own as the blockage clears spontaneously or collateral circulation takes over. I'd recommend that my hypothetical patient f/u with a neurologist and certainly their Primary Care Physician to talk about lowering their risk factors for further attacks.

Best of luck to you.

[KWhit]

Glad you're okay!

The exact same thing happened to me a few years ago. I only had to spend 1 day in the hospital, but had the same tests done (including the tube down the throat for the ECG heart view).

I had the same speech difficulty and crazy tingling in one side of my body. My tongue went numb and about 5 minutes later had the worst headache of my life - just on one side of my head. They thought it was stroke at first too, but all test came back normal.

So ultimately they diagnosed me with aura migranes. I've had one episode since then but nowhere near as bad (no speech problems for one thing), but the doctor did mention that I should probably cut back on caffeine as that can make migranes worse.

Of course, I am typing this from Starbucks, so...

[rowech]

Originally Posted by KWhit

Glad you're okay!

The exact same thing happened to me a few years ago. I only had to spend 1 day in the hospital, but had the same tests done (including the tube down the throat for the ECG heart view).

I had the same speech difficulty and crazy tingling in one side of my body. My tongue went numb and about 5 minutes later had the worst headache of my life - just on one side of my head. They thought it was stroke at first too, but all test came back normal.

So ultimately they diagnosed me with aura migranes. I've had one episode since then but nowhere near as bad (no speech problems for one thing), but the doctor did mention that I should probably cut back on caffeine as that can make migranes worse.

Of course, I am typing this from Starbucks, so...

Man...when I get my migraines I find that caffeine helps tremendously. I usually take two Migraine Execdrin and down a 20 oz pop. Tends to make it liveable for me. I usually get one a month with probably 3 or 4 a year just grinding me to an absolute halt in everything I do.

[lordscarlet]

Originally Posted by rowech

Man...when I get my migraines I find that caffeine helps tremendously. I usually take two Migraine Execdrin and down a 20 oz pop. Tends to make it liveable for me. I usually get one a month with probably 3 or 4 a year just grinding me to an absolute halt in everything I do.

Same. I actually get the aura as kind of a tunnel vision thing -- it allows me to do the above procedure and most times prevent the actual headache part. I actually just got over the aura about 10 minutes ago after it starting around 11:20 this morning.

[KWhit]

The way it was explained to me is that caffeine constricts blood flow to your brain which if you already have a headache will make it feel better. But a lot of caffeine can have the opposite effect as it wears off, increasing blood flow to the brain and possibly contributing to more frequent migraines.

So he said that if you already have a migraine, feel free to use caffeine to help, but if you're a habitual heavy caffeine drinker you may get them more frequently.

[DaddyTorgo]

i have always been told that caffeine dilates the blood vessels, thus if you have headaches dilating the blood vessels will enable things to start...flowing more smoothly again.

could we get an EF27 ruling on this? Or who's the GP on the board? I thought we had one...

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Glad to hear you are ok. If this was a hypothetical case, I would hypothetically say this sounds like a classic Transient Ischemic Attack (sometimes called a mini-stroke by laymen), particularly if there was any weakness associated with the tingling. TIA's are brief attacks of stroke like symptoms that resolve on their own as the blockage clears spontaneously or collateral circulation takes over. I'd recommend that my hypothetical patient f/u with a neurologist and certainly their Primary Care Physician to talk about lowering their risk factors for further attacks.

Best of luck to you.

That's it in a nutshell. There was no weakness that I recall as I was able to keep shaking my hand like I was trying to wake it up.

I'm now on aspirin, although the neurologist and primary care at the hospital disagree on dosage and left it up to me! I was on Zocor at the hospital, but didn't get a prescription and I'm trying to figure that out with the neurologist. In a few week I should have a followup with the neurologist where I'll find out about the massive amount of blood work done to check on blood thickness.

[terpkristin]

Wow, that sounds really frightening, I'm glad you're OK now.

Glad you're following up with what sounds like the right people.

/tk

[cubboyroy1826]

Wow good to hear you are feeling better. I actually went through a couple years with issues from a nasty concussion. I would lose an hour or two here and there or suddenly not know where I was. It happened 4 times over two years. My wife would call it my getting stupid times. I went through weeks of test with nothing at coming back other than i should lose some weight. The other option was to check me in to the hospital for a week where they would not allow me to sleep and would try to stress my system out to see if I would go stupid again. So after wearing a heart monitor for a week, having my brain looked at and every other test known to mankind they came to the conclusion that I am overweight but otherwise healthy as can be.

[MizzouRah]

That is scary stuff.. glad you are ok.

[Glengoyne]

Eaglesfan has already been here.

No need to page Dr. House.

[JediKooter]

Glad you're ok man. That would probably scare the crap out of me too, especially if I hadn't been hitting the moonshine previously to having that happen.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by rowech

Man...when I get my migraines I find that caffeine helps tremendously. I usually take two Migraine Execdrin and down a 20 oz pop. Tends to make it liveable for me. I usually get one a month with probably 3 or 4 a year just grinding me to an absolute halt in everything I do.

Excedrin Migraine is the only thing that works for my migraines. Well, there was the other medication that was awesome, but it was something like $20 a pill, and at the time I was having them 3-4 times a week, so that was out.

I don't get them that much anymore. I've cut soda out pretty much completely as well as cutting my morning coffee from 4-5 cups to about 2. I'll still have times where I'll get them a few times over a week or two, and then they go away for a few months.

Originally Posted by JPhillips

now that I'm home I feel like I'm on high alert. I've even been a little worried about the spelling mistakes in this post. I assume that will gradually go away, but right now it's no fun wondering if my head is about to blow up.

That's how I was when I first started getting migraines several years ago. I had no idea what the hell was going on and was pretty much freaking out over it.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I'd recommend that my hypothetical patient f/u with a neurologist...

I'm having a hard time understanding what this really means because I simply cannot get past what I initially though is said...

(Oh, and I'm definately glad it's nothing serious, JP.)

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Dutch

I'm having a hard time understanding what this really means because I simply cannot get past what I initially though is said...

(Oh, and I'm definately glad it's nothing serious, JP.)

Sorry, f/u is doctor shorthand for follow-up.

[sterlingice]

That's an f/u to you, too, doctor

SI

[Dodgerchick]

Wow JPhillips, that's really scary. Glad you're ok!

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Sorry, f/u is doctor shorthand for follow-up.

Oh.

[Raiders Army]

Glad to hear you're doing better. I agree with EF27.

[BYU 14]

Very scary stuff, glad to hear you are doing well now and they found nothing wrong.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Glad to hear you are ok. If this was a hypothetical case, I would hypothetically say this sounds like a classic Transient Ischemic Attack (sometimes called a mini-stroke by laymen), particularly if there was any weakness associated with the tingling. TIA's are brief attacks of stroke like symptoms that resolve on their own as the blockage clears spontaneously or collateral circulation takes over. I'd recommend that my hypothetical patient f/u with a neurologist and certainly their Primary Care Physician to talk about lowering their risk factors for further attacks.

Best of luck to you.

Is it like a stroke in the sense that something is wrong? Or is this a random occurence that has no lasting effect?

Mini-stroke sounds scary too.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Is it like a stroke in the sense that something is wrong? Or is this a random occurence that has no lasting effect?

Mini-stroke sounds scary too.

If someone has a Transient Ischemic Attack, they are believed to be at risk for future strokes.

That being said, there are a bunch of things this could have been including an atypical migraine. Most important thing is that JPhillips follow-up with his PCP and a neurologist which is what it sounds like he is doing.

[Drake]

w00t! Dr advising JPhillips to use PCP!

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

Glad to hear you're doing better. I agree with EF27.

That's good to hear. I wasn't going to trust EF27 until someone else backed him up.

[duckman]

JP, glad you are doing okay.

[JPhillips]

Back in the hospital today for a second incident. Really depressing that I've been fine for almost two years and now I'm back to worrying about this constantly. I'm on a new drug now, Aggrenox, that's supposed to reduce clotting.

When I get back to NY I'll be back to the neurologist and my PCP. Shitty way to start Christmas break.

[lungs]

Damn, hope all goes well for you.

[EagleFan]

Hope all goes well.

[Antmeister]

Damn....hope it is something minor related to stress or lack of sleep. Wishing you good health.

[Eaglesfan27]

Sorry to hear that. Best of luck to you.

[terpkristin]

Ugh, hope you feel better soon, and that they can figure out what it is this time!

/tk

[BYU 14]

Wishing you the best, hopefully they can get this in check for good!

[JPhillips]

They're pretty sure it's small blood clots from the artery in the neck, but they can't prove that. I figure I'll be on thinners for a while, maybe the rest of my life. I just hope I get to see my daughter grow into a woman.

[Eaglesfan27]

My mother had a much more serious stroke when I was a teenager, and with appropriate treatment (i.e. anticoagulants and blood pressure pills), she is still doing well now. Good luck, I can imagine it is a very scary situation.

[corbes]

Best wishes J. As a father to a daughter I completely hear what you are saying.

[hoopsguy]

Very sad to hear this, JPhillips. Hopefully the doctors are able to provide some more clarity this time around than last time.

What would they need to do to prove their theory?
How big of a deal is it to be on blood thinners? Are you worried about that process, or the fact that you've now had two episodes in the past two years?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Dutch

I'm having a hard time understanding what this really means because I simply cannot get past what I initially though is said...

+1

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

They're pretty sure it's small blood clots from the artery in the neck, but they can't prove that. I figure I'll be on thinners for a while, maybe the rest of my life. I just hope I get to see my daughter grow into a woman.

Sounds like you're on top of this & aren't doing the most dangerous thing of all: ignoring it. I'd think that improves your odds exponentially.

If you're gonna check out early, I'd want it to be from something like apoplexy to an extreme conservative revolution, not some b.s. like this () so do what you gotta & keep this under control, then live long & prosper.