Be careful: Headache at Stroke Onset..?
A strange headache experienced by a 32-year-old freelance ghostwriter was actually a stroke warning sign, as she discovered it 5 days later. One day, when she got up, she lost her balance and "suddenly experienced double vision" after suffering from pain that "radiated from the back of her head to the front of her face for five days," according to the report.
She reportedly began to see duplicates of everything and instantly texted her husband to ask for assistance. Nothing on her left side could be felt, she said. When she got to the hospital, she was unable to move her hands, her face was sagging, and her symptoms were getting worse. She struggled to breathe correctly and was unable to speak.
Her vertebral arteries were found to be obstructed by a CT scan, and a clot buster was administered to clear the blocked arteries. She was eventually transported by helicopter to Cleveland Clinic's main campus when that failed to help, according to the article.
Although I couldn't sit up or see clearly, she claims that she was still conscious. "Physically, I was being affected by my brain damage because it was all in my cerebral cortex and pons (a region of the brain stem). I was still fully conscious mentally," she said. Her vertebral arteries received stents. One artery only could be opened out of the two. "The left one is totally closed off. It is irreparably destroyed. My right vertebral artery had three stents, she told the media.
Her stroke was caused by fibromuscular dysplasia, according to doctors. The arterial walls in this disorder exhibit atypical cell development, which has an impact on how the arteries contract or expand.
