Lessons to be Learned from this Stroke

LESSONS

I decided to write this article to make people aware of the importance of that early arrival at a major hospital with a CAT scanner and also to give my local medical practice and the hospital some feedback on my experiences.

Without doubt I now know that I should have made more fuss about the possibility of atrial fibrillation, if only I’d known what it was, back in the mid-nineties. If it had been identified earlier I may not have had to have been on warfarin for the rest of my life. Whether the medical practice needs to consider its procedures to extract such information from individuals with similar symptoms differently, I don’t know, but I hope this article will be of use to them when dealing with people who report similar symptoms.

The lack of providing me with a full understanding of what was happening to me has only been partially resolved with the arrival of a stoke nurse at my home who was able to answer many of my questions.

About two weeks further on my doctor has answered more questions and I want to know more about my prognosis when I meet the stroke consultant in December. Some people live for decades after a stroke. Which people, and do they have my on going symptoms? What is my personal prognosis?

On 28^th September I reported to my doctor that I was still having these flutterings in my heart and he increased my Atenolol to 100mg. This seems to have reduced them to an occasional flutter and thump which will no doubt be the cause of ongoing anxiety.

The application of the warfarin has seen my blood clotting level vary quite considerably and we are still not quite in a stable position.

Warfarin effectiveness can be affected by many other factors such as the eating of large numbers of green vegetables and the consumption of alcohol. A regular couple of glasses of wine seems to be fine, but advice seems to be that the drinking should be every day or not at all. This needs resolving. I don’t want a drink every day, but don’t want to give up the very great pleasure a couple of glasses of wine provide.

What about the green vegetables? I don’t want to eat broccoli every day or never have spinach. I like variety in my diet. With the statins I’m taking I must not eat grapefruit (although we discovered this quite by accident) and no cranberries with the warfarin. I have no problems with certain exclusions, but it is the woolly nature of the advice that is given which made it all worrying.

At last things seem to be settling down and my energy levels are improving all the time so hopefully I am fully on the mend.

My StrokeAttack.com website will provide updates.

Tony Harmsworth

21^st November 2007