So the wheels were in motion, well apart from my stubborn ass informing a by now very concerned family, that i am not going until i have showered. I'll be damned if I was going to hospital to be examined with sweaty pits & nuts and bed head still going on. Stroke, possibly, Vain, definitely.
So after a brief contra temps about the shower, we decided to jump in the car and head straight to Cedar Park hospital.. this is one of those areas where we should have probably called 911, but the time difference was measured in minutes, probably in our cars favor.
Plus I was fully functional, lucid, in no pain, and we did not have medical insurance so car versus a 500 buck cab ride for 3 miles on potentially a non emergency, well we went car. If I ever have an issue again, I would definitely rethink, but to be honest at this stage I was exhibiting the signs of a Transient ischemic attack, or TIA, and without an MRI the ambulance crew couldn't have done much more than strap me on a stretcher and give me oxygen without a physician seeing me first.
So I arrive at the E Room at CPH, and they start a barrage of tests on my functions etc. From the arrival to the point they decided to transfer me to Seton Williamson County (SWC), which has a dedicated heart and stroke center, I started to get better. All hands, feet, fingers, toes working etc, just the pins and needles, Novocaine feeling on the left was still niggling me.
For the first time in my life I got to ride in an ambulance... very exciting, but then I am a nerd.
They cart my tail off to SWC and get to emergency. Its now around 11.50, basically onset plus 60 minutes give or take, but still within the 3 hours for the stroke wonderdrug, which I will talk about a little later on.
Once again they give me the can you feel this, can you feel that, look at this flashlight, move your eyes here, there, everywhere treatment. The neurologist was a young Asian (near east) guy, very bright lad, if a tad bedside manner deficient... he did the tests again, and by now I am (almost) normal. They are thinking TIA, want to keep me overnight for observation etc.
The one thing I haven't mentioned in all of this yet was my Blood Pressure. I AM AN IDIOT. I have struggled with hbp/hypertension for over a decade. I had been off any meds for over a year. I am STUPID.
In the immortal words of Skid Row, I had "Kept my motor running, but I never kept it running clean"
My BP was something like 198 over 170... yeah... I know... this caused a potentially major hiccup, one which we will never know if it could have helped or not.
The miracle drug T-PA, with a stroke, if given within 3 hours and combined with blood thinners like Warfarin can help offset many of the side effects such as paralysis etc. Here is the rub, if its a hemorrhagic stroke, which is a brain bleed, you cant use it as it is designed to thin the blood and destroy clots, so if you are bleeding, T-PA increases the bleed and can be fatal.
At this stage 1. I was seemingly getting better, on the surface suggesting a TIA not a massive bleed, 2. they had nor MRI'ed me yet so they could not tell if there was any bleeding, and most importantly 3. My BP was so high, they explained that giving me T-PA without knowing what was going on, with my BP that high, it could actually induce a massive bleed and cause more damage than otherwise, or indeed even death.
I will never know if T-PA could have done anything, but I doubt it, and thank god the hospital staff were on the ball enough not to just shoot me with a "cure all" based on our web MD ill-informed demands for it, and which had it been administered could have in all likelihood killed me or left me a vegetable.
more to follow...
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