Stroke or Migraine. Advice please.

[Fingerscrossed11]

Thank you firstly for reading. Apologies if it’s long, I’ll try to keep it as short as possible.

yesterday morning I woke up and thought my voice isn’t right, the left side of my face also felt strange as I’m wasn’t quite right. I looked at myself in the mirror after noticing my left foot seemed to take longer to hit the floor than my right and seemed it didn’t really know what it was supposed to do. So when I looked in the mirror I noticed the left side of my face wasn’t drooping but didn’t have same symmetry as the right. When I smiled it looked like I just come out the dentist after an injection on my left side. the foot thing did panic me as my body just wasn’t in sync at all.

I went to a&e as the first thing that did worry me was is it a stroke with my left side not working. When I arrived I went straight though to triage and was sent to resus. I was told it gave the same symptoms as a stroke. Whilst there my left leg didn’t have same strength as right and from what i gathered for a while my left eye wasn’t same as the opposite one. After being there a short time I then found it difficult to speak, I had to think about what I was saying and I started to find difficulty speaking and stuttering my words too.

I went for a CT head scan which came back okay.

I was then transferred into a room in A&E where I was being monitored until there was a room in the admissions ward to see the stroke specialists. Must also say at this point all the staff were so lovely. Rather hot doctor in resus but let’s not go there 😂

up to admissions ward and saw the stroke specialist/consultant who was also lovely, she said ct scan was fine but would be referred for an mri. As it’s the weekend would have to wait until next week but to stay in that night. She asked me symptoms from when I realised things weren’t right so I started from when I got out of bed that morning and my voice was odd until I got to that ward.

she said she didn’t think it was a stroke but mri would show either way. Mentioned that it could be a migraine as sometimes they show stroke symptoms without a headache.

stayed in overnight and saw consultant next morning, she said she’d be happy for me to go home and go to clinic outpatient next week for mri. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go home as obviously scared after what happened and especially as don’t know why it happened.
I thought about it for a few hours and decided to go home as she had no worries about this.

whilst in the ward I spoke to another patient who said they had a mini stroke or tia I think it’s called and he had same symptoms as me but little less.

also on discharge I noticed it wasn’t my consultant who wrote discharge letter but a trainee doctor who had seen me at initial
dosvussion with consultant day before but whom i didn’t speak to. On this letter it says very briefly that I was admitted with voice disturbance and mentioned when I smiled in Mirror. This all happened before I got to hospital. Nothing is mentioned from when o got there like the not being able to speak, the high blood pressure, the leg weakness, the mouth not being symmetrical, nothing at all.

also says I declined admission over the weekend for an mri due to childcare commitments which also isn’t the case, childcare wasn’t an issue and the reason I left was due to being told they couldn’t see any problems and to visit outpatient for scan. I at no point asked to go home.

sorry for long thread. Thanks for reading and any advice would be appreciated.

Sounds like your getting a really good MOT. I'm sure if they pick up one or two things ( like your cholesterol) that are risk factors, they can be treated and then your risk comes down. You didn't know about the cholesterol before, bit now it's getting fixed so overall, your risk is going down. I bet it will take ages to get over the shock, and that's OK. It's ok to not be OK. It's a big event after all. You need to take your time and look after yourself in every sense.

Could I get more advice please.

last night behind my eyes were painful and my head just felt fuzzy, it then turned into the most awful pain in the back of my head and I really didn’t feel right at all. I was terrified, it wasn’t like a headache, it was awful.

today I called the stroke nurse and she asked what happened. Said it sounded like a post stroke headache. This was not like a headache to me, I honestly can’t explain.

got blood pressure taken by arm restriction and stethoscope at gp practice and was okay 138/80
GP said what sounded like Is vein bursting or whatnot at back head but if that happens people usually collapse.

indont know what to think and I’m now a nervous wreck. Has anyone else experienced this?

head still feels fuzzy and one of my eyes were sore earlier.

thank you

Your stroke was a clot wasn't it? Sorry I think it was? What dose aspirin are you on?

My cardiologist told me that if thought he was having a stroke then his BP would be high too so try not to worry about those readings. It is difficult to get over something like this thinking that you may have died or die and it is perfectly normal to worry about things. I have been on clopidogrel and mini aspirin combination for nearly 21 years now as well as a statin. Doctors have discussed me doing off it but due to a family history of strokes they have decided against it. I had a suspected TIA which was later downgraded to hemiplegic migraine. I had white lesions on my brain MRIs originally but they said I could have been born with these. I had follow up MRIs in the last 21 years and no change to those white lesions.

Just to add it took me a long time to physically get over that episode plus all the new drugs. They initially had me on an anti epilepsy drug too - think it was sodium valproate which gave me hideous dreams. When I say a long time I think about 6 months or so. Once I had every test under the sun done the neurologist told me to stop worrying and get on and lead my life knowing that I was protected under the drug regime.

Op I don't know if you can take propranolol but that lowers your heart rate when you feel stressed you just pop two of them. I'm a firm belive in wanting a medicine to work, works for my stress. I do think they help.

I was also on anti epilepsy drugs. Amitriptyline. Stopped my migraines completely twice now.

However if I was you and it got worse I'd go back to hospital. Hopefully it's stress.

I'd maybe go back to A&E OP. I really hope it gets better for you. My mum had a stroke at 34 due to a compressed vein in her neck.
She fully recovered now but is on medication for life.

Strokes at a young age are much less common but need attention ASAP. Based on what your GP said, I wouldn't be waiting at home until I collapsed. I'd be going to hospital.

Sorry I didn't see this earlier as I'm away atm.
Yes he does take clopidogrel indefinitely. It's to stop platelets clumping together and forming a clot (as I understand it. I'm no medic). Aspirin works in a different way, I think.

He had various trips back to A&E at first and had what was termed a mini epileptic 'event' a year later which was all related to the specific area of his stroke (which was focal mainly). He now also takes a v low dose of anti epilepsy medication and is fine. He couldn't drive for a year (it's the law around anything epilepsy however minor) which was a bit of a pain but is back now.

The first few months after the stroke were a series of hospital visits, some of which were really for reassurance as it turned out. He's got a consultant who he trusts and answers his questions and gives advice as needed.
I'd say that any new symptoms, get them thoroughly checked out but they may be part of the same thing iyswim.

I hope you've got someone who can give you some moral support and a bit of TLC