Hi,
my name is Jimmy and am 46 years old,had a stroke on the 1st of July,2022 on the plane on my way to Madrid to the funeral of my father in law.
Sat down in the plane and had a nap and when I woke up my vision was blurry and couldn’t stand up.
Flight attendant came to ask me if I was ok,told him I can’t move and can’t see properly.I didn’t know what was going on.He gave me some water that’s it and left me to get it on my own.
Somehow even though I couldn’t walk properly and see,was able to walk and meet my family outside.They as me didn’t know what was going on and being on a funeral we just went home and I went home and went to bed.Next day I managed to go to funeral but still couldn’t see properly so we decided to go to hospital where as soon as they saw me sent for MRI and told me I had a stroke and admitted me same time.
The doctors in Madrid were amazing,really appreciate their help.Was in hospital 8 days as my blood pressure couldn’t go down for a long time .
Spent 3 weeks in Madrid to get better then took a train from Madrid to Paris and then to Dieppe ferry to Newhaven,decided it was better not risk it on the plane .
I was very lucky according to all the doctors I have met,Numbness on my right hand side is what am left with, and feels like still my brain has something on it,like it’s being worked on and when I went for MRI could see the blood in my brain and arteries do look that they did burst.
As someone who was in the gym 5 to 6 days a week,and ex military guy it was very hard to take this.
Am still off from work.
Shwmae @Jimmy100, sorry to hear that you’ve been struck, and that you had to deal with it under those circumstances. Stroke is undiscerning and indiscriminate, which is often converse to what is, generally, shared as part of the public perspective. I am the same age as you but had a stroke two years ago, a cerebellar stroke, and a clot. Mine was trauma caused to the neck and I’ve heard of active-duty pilots and soldiers having incurred the same. It’s a real shock, literally, to the brain and emotions.
Welcome Jimmy. Unfortunately, fitness does not exclude stroke, especially if you have high blood pressure. However, your age and fitness does mean you should make a good recovery. Please take things steadily,though. You are likely to feel fatigue after stroke and this is made worse by overdoing things. Please take care of yourself.
Hi Jimmy, welcome to the club that nobody wants to join !!! That’s some story.
Unfortunately as many of the contributors have said, stroke does not discriminate. Most of us were fit and healthy before stroke hit us. It’s a long, slow and at times very frustrating road to recovery. This is a great forum to chat, ask questions or to have a good moan or rant when you need to.
Take it easy and be kind to yourself.
Regards Sue
@Jimmy100 welcome to the forum. Wow you went through it a bit. Stroke is life changing & it can take a while to absorb the news. Sounds like you had good care in Madrid. Wishing you well on your recovery journey. You’ll find lots of friendly people here if you need any advice or sipport.
Best wishes.
Ann x
Welcome to the forum @Jimmy100 and sorry to hear you had a stroke. As I’m sure you’re already finding it takes quite some time to come to terms with what has happened. Seems like you’ve not been too badly affected in a physical sense but unfortunately it is the things that others can’t see that will take some time to learn how to cope with.
I’m sure you will have had a look through some other posts on here and seen many talking about fatigue. This is probably the most common theme among us survivors. People will probably look at you and think everything is fine now, but you will need to learn to manage it (especially as you were very fit). It is quite different from the tiredness after a gym session and can really knock you for six. I find it is worse from mentally challenging tasks than from physical ones so you will need to take some time to learn how this affects you.
Most of all remember to listen to your body and rest when you need to.
I wish you all the best with you recovery and remember there is lots of information on my stroke guide and loads of people on here that can help answer questions from their own experiences .
Mark.