Shwmae @Sham1, great to hear you have soldiered on with a good attitude. I was 44, and if I had a Penny for every time people would say, “You’re too young to have a stroke.”, I could spend months playing games in a Penny Arcade. My knee jerk response was to retort, “I thought I’d get it out of the way, so I can look after you lot.”.
Seriously though, it’s an issue we have in the general public education that stroke has been stereotyped. Many fit, healthy, young individuals have strokes for various reasons and it’s not widely accepted. This creates all sorts of problems. Medical professionals will misdiagnose patients due to their age. Employers have little protocols for managing young employees who have had strokes. Family members may have little understanding of why their loved one cannot function like they did before.
Hi and welcome to this great chat forum.
I have a similar story. 53 and pretty healthy. My TIA with small lacunar infarct came totally out of the blue 7 weeks ago. I spent the following week terrified that I was going to have another. 7 weeks down the line I am feeling in a much better place. I cycle 10 miles every morning. I’ve made small changes to my diet to increase my plant stanol intake (my cholesterol was normal anyway) but I want to keep it that way. I have just completed 6 counselling sessions which have really helped me to sort my head out. I am determined that this episode in my life will not define me. Please be kind to yourself and use this time to think about what’s important for you going forwards. I am returning to work next week (I’m a Practice Nurse) on very reduced hours and duties. I’m not sure at the moment if I want to remain in nursing as my TIA was possibly caused by work stress. But I won’t know that unless I try to go back.
Take care and I wish you a speedy recovery. Use the time to catch up with people who are important to you.
Sending you best wishes and positive thoughts.