Good email I received on stroke identification

Great post OP. 5 *****

Note: ask them to raise both arms with their eyes closed. Works much better because otherwise they compensate for mild weakness.

Strokes happen so fast and without warning, I thought some would find it useful.

I got this a while ago, and for about a month, every time I would get a migraine, I would be running around smiling, speaking tongue twisters, flapping my arms... Hell, that's what made other people think I had a stroke!

In all seriousness, my grandmother had a stroke, and the hospital failed to identify it. The simplest things can mean the WORLD in situations like that.

Hahaha!


Link plz...

Fantastic post Gradient, thanks.

Thanks, maybe it will help save some lives.

[link to www.snopes.com]

GRADIENT:
Good post!

It's good information. We printed off a copy last year and have it taped on the kitchen cabinet next to my father-in-law's list of medications.

TTT for evening gang

Be also aware that the ER docs might not believe your reports either. If so, be forceful, if needed, to be directly involved in the treatment and to be heard.

My SO suffered a TIA (minor stroke) and subsequent seizures and was taken to the ER via ambulance. The examining ER doc administered a MMSE (mini mental status exam), which SO failed. He thought it was 1984 while it was 2005, and he could only remember is first name.

SO had extremely slurred speech and an impairment in motor skills, but he could speak. Subsequently, the Dr. continued a verbal questioning while SO was cognitively impaired and proceeded to base the DX on this info. completely ignoring the info that I had provided.

SO reported that he had a problem with alcohol, which he doesn't...maybe in 1984 he drank a lot being a Brit who enjoyed his pubs but not in the handful of years I knew him prior to this event.

SO also reported he was an importer and just returned from Mexico the week prior. He has never been an importer, and the last trip to MX was 14 months prior.

The Dr. ignored the signs and ignored my info then DX and treated him for alcohol withdrawal with a differential DX of neurocysticercosis, a rare condition of tapeworm in the central nervous system that they were convinced he picked up in this imaginary trip to MX.

He was never treated for stroke, which was later confirmed with comparative MRIs.

I have provided the details of this experience to illustrate how important it is that caregivers become closely involved in what the doctors are doing. Do not, do not automatically trust your loved one is in good hands.

In our case, my SO survived the TIA and horrific treatment experience without disability. However, this inaccurate info is still in his med files WITHOUT the indication that he failed the MMSE. This info follows him wherever he goes in the US for treatment, and with new doctors, we have to explain the entire event and show proof of the failed MMSE and the incompetence of the doctors. We have been fighting for three years to have these corrections made.

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ing again for distribution of important info. thanks to Gradient

Good suggestion here