Friday 6/9/2023, the day that changed my life!
I worked from home Friday and felt a little off all day. Had symptoms of a sinus infection and took Tylenol Sinus hoping the symptoms would subside. Around 7 pm, I couldn’t feel my right foot. Then it traveled all the way up to my face. I had to think really hard about moving my foot to be able to walk and do things on my right side. I did call my mom and sister because it really didn’t feel right and I was actually concerned. I initially thought, once I get Taylor in bed, I will go to bed and feel better in the morning. My parents and my sister insisted I go to the hospital because this is not something to play around with. My dad came to pick me up and took me to the ER and Bama got Taylor. I was terrified at this point because I couldn’t feel my right side and had to think about breathing. To check if I could feel on my right side, I went to the bathroom and grabbed the mouth wash and swished it around some. I could feel it on my left side but not on my right. That is when panic set in. I arrived at the ER was taken straight back to a bed and had bloodwork done and within a few mins 3 different types of CTs. I was also on with a tele-neurologist during the CTs and had the Pharmacist in the room if it was determined that I needed to have the emergency clot buster medication. I was not able to lift my right arm and leg. I also had no movement in the right side of my face at this point. The first 2 CT scans came back clear but the last one the CT perfusion concluded I had an approximately 11 cc of penumbra on the left side of my brain. I immediately was given TNK aka clot buster and was told I was having a stroke. After being told I am having a stroke the flood gates opened and I couldn’t stop crying and saying to myself, I am too young for this, I exercise 4-5 days a week, I’m very active and always on the go. This can’t be real.
The neurologist said that if it was indeed a Stroke, the medication would work immediately and I should begin to regain movement and feeling on my right side in about 30 minutes. He was correct and slowly the numbness turned into pins and needles. I was happy to have sensation on the right side again. Still couldn’t move much but throughout the night, I started to regain mobility. I was admitted to the ICU and had to have neurological checks every 30 minutes, I was never able to fall asleep inbetween visits, but my head was in 1,000,000 places, even if I tried to sleep, it was going to be restless. I had more bloodwork done during the night. First thing in the morning I had to have an echocardiogram with bubble study done. This test was performed to see if anything in my heart could have caused the stoke. It turned out that the test was positive for shunt with Valsalva. This affects around 20-25% of people, so it is not that uncommon. It basically means that when you are born, you have a small hole in your heart and almost immediately after birth it closes. I am one of the 20-25% where the hole didn’t close. This could be the culprit of the blood clot.
My lipid panel came back and my numbers were awful. High cholesterol, another part of this perfect storm for a stroke at a young age. Unfortunately, my cholesterol being high is hereditary. Next up was an MRI. At this point, I’m so exhausted that I was happy to just lay there and not be poked and assessed for 45 mins. The MRI results came back and I had another tele-neurologist consult with me. This neurologist said he was confident that it was not a stroke and that the penumbra was a false positive. He said the MRI showed no signs of a stroke and he also said it showed no signs of any neurological disorder. Another relief. (My mom has primary progressive MS so a neurological disorder is always concerning). The neurologist said he is fairly confident that what I experienced is a Hemiplegic Migraine. A hemiplegic migraine is a migraine that presents itself as a stroke with one sided numbness/weakness. It is also a migraine that doesn’t typically have traditional migraine symptoms associated with it (no head pain, sensitivity to light, nausea, etc) all of which I didn’t really experience. I had a slight headache due to what I thought was sinus pressure. This was a huge relief and I felt I could breath again and I didn’t have a stroke. At the same time I had so many questions. Why did my CT show a penumbra and a fairly significant one at that and why was the other neurologist confident it was a stroke? I am still questioning it and I will certainly follow up with my PCP, a cardiologist and a neurologist and go from there.
The 2nd neurologist said I absolutely did the right thing by going to the hospital and that when this happens again because with the hemiplegic migraines, it will happen again, that I need to go straight to the ER.
As it sits today, I have regained full function the right side of my body and I am home. I am still very scared and still have a lot of questions but I am okay! I am thankfully to my family and friends that have provided support throughout this scary experience. Very thankful to my sister who forced me to go to the hospital because let’s be real, I hate hospitals and I am stubborn. I’m also very thankful to the nurses in the ER as well as the ICU nurses. My day ICU nurse even requested to have me today. They were all amazing!
Nic of Time - Travel 