Comparison of two stroke types and how cope with the stroke: 

Hopefully you never had to endure a situation of someone close to you to suffer from transient ischemic attack (TIA), also known as mini stoke, or from a stroke. In any case, you should be familiar with both kinds of stroke as they both destroy brain tissue and can produce similar long-term effects. But there are important differences in what causes them and in the symptoms that tell you which kind of stroke is happening.

Ischemic Stroke:

According to statistics, 80 percent of strokes belong to the ischemic stroke kind. These mini-strokes occur when blood flow to the brain is blocked by plaque-clogged arteries or by blood clots. This means that blood is not circulating properly inside the brain causing brain cells to die if even for a few minutes no oxygen is transmitted to them via the blood.

– Symptoms: Sudden numbness or weakness, especially on one side of the body; difficulty speaking or understanding speech; trouble seeing in one or both eyes; dizziness and a sudden loss of balance; falling in and out of consciousness; chest pain and shortness of breath. These last three symptoms are less-brain-centered and are more commonly experienced by women.

Hemorrhagic Stroke:

These brain hemorrhages happen when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, spilling blood into the surrounding tissue. There are various causes of these bursts. The most frequent is the rupture of an aneurysm, a weak spot on the wall of an artery that happens to be in your brain-aneurysms can occur elsewhere in the body, too. Experts point out that women are twice as likely as men to have an aneurysm in the brain and are more likely to have multiple aneurysms than men. Two other causes for bleeding in the brain are: hypertension, which can create enough pressure to break an artery wall, and arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in the brain. This is a snarl of defective blood vessels and capillaries whose thin walls are prone to rupture.

– Symptoms: A sudden violent headache, as if cracking a fault like through the brain’s delicate architecture. The patient may also suffer from blurred vision or nausea.

If you ever suspect you might be having a TIA or stroke or believe you are witnessing someone else having one, make sure 911 (or your local emergency unit) be called immediately. Tell the dispatcher that, if possible, you want to be transported to a hospital with a stroke center. Do not attempt to drive to the emergency room yourself. Stroke patients who arrive at the hospital by ambulance are evaluated sooner by an ER physician, get the necessary testing and are admitted to the hospital or intensive-care unit more frequently than those who arrive by taxi or car. Most importantly, bring someone prepared to advocate for you or the patient. Be prepared by being informed and act fast!

New Brain Hemorrhage Guide Stresses Quick Action – Neurology …
Explains neurology (brain and nerve) conditions; includes symptoms, causes, medications, diagnosis, treatments, prevention, and prognosis information.  

 Kennedy’s absence at Campaign Diaries
South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson, for instance, suffered a dramatic brain hemorrhage in late 2006 that kept him sidelined for much of 2007, but he was back in the Senate by the end of the year.

Blood Thinning Drug Causes Increased Bleeding in Your Brain …
A new study shows that people who use the blood thinning drug warfarin may have larger amounts of bleeding in the brain, and an increased risk of death if they suffer a hemorrhagic stroke

Technorati Tags: brain hemorrhage, Hemorrhagic Stroke, Ischemic, thrombosis, transient ischemic attack (TIA)

Life after a stroke, recovery.
Thursday

I am home after three days and two nights in the hospital. my right arm is working at about 15 percent capacity after my suffering a stroke monday night. that explains the absence of capital letters. remember the lives and times of archy and mehitabel by don marquis? you will understand why i identify with the cockroach archy, who typed on marquis’s newsroom typewriter at night by hopping from key to key but of course was unable to operate the shift key. thus no words were capitalized in archy’s writings. i am typing with my left hand only and thus have archy’s restriction to lower-case letters. since i’m working on a computer and not a typewriter, apostrophes are available to me, though they weren’t to archy. a literary cockroach, c’est moi.

Friday

Progress! I can peck with the index finger of my right hand, so the shift key is within my command. Adopting the positive attitude that doctors, nurses and therapists have been prescribing, I now think of my little ischemic stroke as an incident of growth. My right leg and arm are suddenly about three inches longer than before. Heavier, too, which accounts for the foot always catching the edge of the stair it’s trying to mount. Obviously, the right hand with the fork will have a hard time hitting my mouth, which has changed shape.

It is the morning of the fifth day since the wee embolus detached itself from somewhere and flew upward into my cerebral arterial tree. I was alone in the house, my wife being away on business. I had gone to bed early. I woke for a bathroom visit and discovered something was amiss with my right leg and arm. "Must have slept on it wrong," I thought. "It will clear itself up."

I’m unsure about the succeeding events. I broke two drinking glasses at different wake-up times. I couldn’t seem to get them up to the kitchen counter before they slipped from my grasp. One glass I had used to take analgesic PMs, foolishly thinking that sleep would rectify my mystery malaise. Those pills were a major mistake.

I awoke again in the wee hours still refusing to admit what was happening to me. I had had some cholesterol and hypertension problems, but they were under the control of prescription drugs. Seeking activities to avoid unthinkable reality, I dressed and lurched downstairs to the garage to put out the recycle baskets and garbage can for the early morning pickup-a chore I’d forgotten to perform the previous night. I had to lean against the wall of the stairwell going down and coming back up. The right leg and foot were not performing well. I attempted to sweep up the broken glass in the kitchen. My right arm couldn’t work the broom.

Keeping busy, I hauled laundry downstairs to the machine. I kept dropping items during my labored descent, leaning on and sliding down the staircase wall. Upstairs once again, I tried to brush my hair, but my right hand and arm wouldn’t cooperate. Finally I brought the cordless phone to my armchair and sat down to think.

I read carefully the telephone book’s warnings not to dial 911 unless it was a true emergency. By this time it was 6:30-not so early that I would seriously disturb anyone, I thought insanely. I unlocked the front door, sat back down in my chair, and dialed. I was embarrassed at the difficulty I had enunciating that I thought I might be having a stroke. Minutes later the paramedics were in the driveway along with a fire engine. The crew worried about getting me down the slippery outside stairs and into the ambulance. I hoped the sirens hadn’t wakened my neighbors.

At the hospital, blood pressure off the map, I grew weary of telling people what month, date, and year it was; who was President, and how many fingers they were holding up. I politely and accurately responded to their inquiries wondering why they couldn’t answer those questions for themselves. When evenings came along, I turned on the TV so I could feel similarly superior to the candidates on Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. They sent me home the third day.

Stroke plus one month.

My thrombosis was not massive. I am recovering with a speed that seem undeserved given my idiotic refusal to accept what was happening and my eight-hour delay in calling the paramedics. Sure, I knew about strokes, but I had had no headache, no loss of vision, and being alone there was no opportunity to discover my inability to speak clearly. I have much to be thankful for.

Everyone should learn about stroke symptoms and treatment of the various kinds of   A drug called rt-PA (recombinant tissue-plasminogen activator) can virtually wipe out the effects of a stroke, but the patient must get to a hospital within 90 minutes of onset. (Recent medical developments have extended that time limit.) Tests will determine whether one is a candidate for rt-PA. I waited too long and may spend the rest of my life with problems that could have been eliminated by this miracle clot-dissolving therapy.

By: Kerry Wood

Body Care Books: Life after Stroke
Life After Stroke: The Guide to Recovering Your Health and Preventing Another Stroke. Author: Joel Stein. In this compassionate guide, three expert physicians who treat people [....]

Physiotherapy in stroke rehabilitation – five productive steps
Check out Physiotherapy in stroke rehabilitation website for ‘how to package’ Life After Stroke – a Guide For Survivor, Families & Caregivers as well as the accompanying audio download..

Depression, Anxiety Hinder Quality of Life After Stroke
Rehab efforts should focus on personality, coping styles to boost outcomes, study says.

PR: wait…  I: wait…  L: wait…  LD: wait…  I: wait… wait…  C: wait…  SD: wait…

Technorati Tags: clot-dissolving therapy., High Blood Pressure, life after a stroke, stroke victim's story, thrombosis