According to the National Stroke Association, mini strokes and massive strokes more often occur abruptly. Stroke is the leading cause of disability in the United States and the third leading cause of death.

STROKE: Remember the 1st Three Letters….S.T.R.

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:

During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics). She said she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes.

They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. She had experienced some of the more standard signs:

Difficulty standing and walking, dizziness, loss of balance, loss of coordination

Numbness in his face, arm and leg weakness, particularly on his left side of his body

Confusion, difficulty speaking or understanding

Vision difficulty in both of his eyes

Severe headache

There are other signs that are less common stroke symptoms that include:

Nausea, fever, and vomiting

A brief loss of consciousness.

When these signs are only temporary and only last a few minutes it is commonly known as mini-stroke.

Ingrid’s husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00 ! pm Ingrid passed away.) She had not suffered a mini-stroke which resolves on it’s own but had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don’t die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition and in brain rehab.

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke (with proper protocol)…totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE

Thank God for the sense to remember the ‘3′ steps, STR .

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.

Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

S *Ask the individual to SMILE.

T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently)
(i.e. It is sunny out today)

R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

Ask the person to ’stick’ out his tongue.. If the tongue is ‘crooked’, if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

In room 508a there lay victim of stroke who was luckier than Ingrid. He had experienced a thrombotic (caused by a clot) stroke and had been admitted just months after our son’s admittance.

While recovery from strokes is relatively poorly understood, recovery has been theorized to occur by recruiting neighboring neurons (nerve cells) to serve new or additional functions. Brain MRI’s in humans have shown increased activity in both hemispheres as patients improve after a stroke.

In spite of conventional advancement in acute stroke care, the majority of stroke survivors remain permanently partially disabled with neurological symptoms and limitations. While most patient’s develop some improvement, it is rarely complete.

Those who have already suffered neurologic impairment caused by mini stroke or ischemic stroke may also consider several drugs. Unfortunately most of these effective drugs are not FDA-approved but are widely used in Europe. European drugs that are not approved for general use in the United States by the FDA can, however, be purchased from offshore pharmacies for personal use and may be obtained by physician prescription through compounding pharmacists.
The Life Extension Foundation maintains a list of offshore pharmacies that ship European drugs to United States citizens.

Or the list can be obtained by calling the Life Extension Foundation at (800) 226-2370

Many stroke victims can achieve a better quality of life with the right protocol and methods.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Stroke. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.