DAVID’S STROKE - Christine version:
Thursday – stopped some work early as felt strange.
Friday – insisted was OK to go to Kent to see my niece. 1 hour down the motorway felt dizzy and headed for next services. Go home? No, be OK – I took over driving. (Hmm…) Hever Castle for afternoon began to feel tired – thought it was the heat, as very hot day. Had to get car and drive it to him in the car park. Hotel – shower, change and feeling a bit better – out to Pizza Xpress. Back at hotel still feeling strange.
Saturday – thinks must have some bug as feeling sicky. Stays in bed while I meet niece – get him some M&S food. Check on him and has started to be sick.
Sunday – feeling better. Stays in bed, but manages a chat to niece and hubby. I head back out with them – phone call 2 hours later, is feeling really bad. Decide I need to get him home. Can hardly walk to car. Is sick twice before motorway (not very far) – have to stop and let him out. Kent to Malvern – M25 on Sunday afternoon - accidents/jams and David being sick in double carrier bags.
Reading Services – staggers to loo with walking pole and hanging on to me. Struggling back to car lovely man offers to help and takes over from me before he has me over. (Big hug from me!)
Home and bed. Monday and Tuesday in bed. Have to feed him. Finally on Wednesday am he says he seems to be collapsing on his left side as if it is weaker - !! Phone 111 and they organise ambulance. Paramedics mystified, but thinks he should be checked out.
A&E – lots of similar prodding and testing by at least 3 different doctors. CAT scan and finally
shows “something” in the back of his brain. He waits for bed on ward and I go home. Stroke ward – no consultant until late afternoon (Thursday) – he wants MRI as there appears to be “a group of little clots” in D’s brain. MRI Friday afternoon – results late and tell him Saturday am that he has had a stroke. No consultant on weekend and first consultant has disappeared by Monday and new consultant tells David something that he does not understand. I ask to speak to him and he is never available and disappears, never to be seen by me. David wants out ASAP, so I persuade them he will be OK at home with me and we escape on Wednesday.
REASON FOR STROKE.
Different consultant we see 12 weeks later for follow-up says David is a mystery. Only 61, doesn’t smoke or drink, not overweight and still active. No blood pressure issues, cholestrol normal and no family history. I tell him my theory:-
2 months prior to stroke David was working in the loft in a very confined space that involved him squeezing himself under a roof joist repeatedly. He began to feel sore, but was determined to finish so carried on despite the pain. Later that evening he had a lot of pain on his ribs – 111 sent ambulance and spent all night in A&E. X ray showed ribs not broken, but “something – maybe infection?” Blood clot test showed slightly raised clotting, but borderline enough to let us go home.
What if the “something” on the X ray was some kind of internal graze – small spots of blood – that 2 months later have turned into tiny little clots that come away and start to travel around the body?
Consultant asks if David had been given an Echocardiogram? As my theory would only work if he had a hole in his heart, otherwise the clots would have ended up in his lungs first. Eventual Echocardiogram results show “nothing significant” – but if he has an insignificant hole in his heart then a group of tiny little clots could well have travelled through, bit by bit over a period of several days. This is the only thing that makes sense. The only other different information is that his brain stem is affected which accounts for the feeling giddy and nauseous.
. Good speaking David.