Links Corner Forum

FOOOOORE! wrote: ↑November 11th, 2022, 7:05 am 69, just had a stroke 14 months ago. I've had a rough 20 last years or so, and don't expect to make it to 80. Still, that's better than my worthless father, who smoked himself into a hole in the ground at age 62 (2/3 of a lung left at 42). Over-all no complaints, all my problems will disappear when I'm gone :D

FOOOOORE! wrote: ↑January 25th, 2023, 8:44 am The key is knowing you're having a stroke, and it wasn't at all obvious in my case. I actually had two things going on, and that made it more confusing. My lower legs and feet started to be covered in red dots, and the inside of my mouth started to fill with large 'blood blisters'. So that was my first concern, to figure out why that was happening. The next day I was not able to get out of bed (I tried, and broke a chair). My wife finally decided to call an ambulance, but I was just going to wait it out and see what happened. It turned out my blood platelet count was down to 2000 (per whatever reference volume they use), when it should be in the 400,000 range. That explained the red dots on my legs and the blood blisters, blood was oozing out of capillaries and it wasn't clotting. This made the stroke worse than it should have been, there was bleeding in the brain longer than if I'd had a normal platelet count. My stroke was in the cerebellum at the base of the brain, and a little bit into the occipital lobe just above that. I now see two different images if I try to use both eyes, and one is even at an angle to the other. I can't bring those images together, no way to focus them. So I blacked out the left lens in my glasses and just use my right eye. I couldn't get out of bed for 3 months, and then it was by crawling into a wheelchair. My lower legs still don't get enough nerve impulse to, say, stand up from a squat. Everything I do down low is done mostly by bending at the hips with very little bend at the knees (like petting 8 cats!). I can walk 'ok' now, but I know anyone looking at me can see something happened. If I fall, which happened quite often once I ditched the wheelchair, I can't get up unless there's a chair or something nearby. I get tired quickly, lost sense of taste for many flavours, poor short term memory, make simple arithmetic errors, lose my temper more quickly than I used to.. many small things the doctors never mention. If I have another stroke (high probability in the first 5 years following the initial stroke), I'm guessing that will likely finish me off. That's just how it is, and I don't really worry about it for myself, only for my wife who's quite a bit younger. Buy all those symptoms they tell you to watch for: blurred vision, numbness, difficulty speaking, etc., I didn't have any of that, maybe because of the location of the stroke. Anyway, sorry for the ramble, and glad to see you're hanging in there. Keep on keeping on, as someone said.

rick

Slash02 wrote: ↑July 18th, 2023, 7:57 am Age 66, playing real golf with a 6 handicap after shoulder surgery, etc., etc.

I'm Dr Lomax from CSN and Links386 days (1994-6 or so)