Interview 33

Age at interview: 69

Brief Outline: She had a stroke due to a clot aged 67, which caused weakness of her left arm and face and some initial speech problems. Medication' perindropril (blood pressure) simvastatin (cholesterol), aspirin, delayed release dipyridamole (antiplatelets).

Background: Is divorced with 4 adult children and she is a retired carer. Ethnic background/nationality' White/Scottish.

More about me...

This woman had her stroke at the age of 67 she is now 69. Her stroke was due a clot preventing the flow of blood to the right hand side of her brain. Her daughter noticed her stroke because her voice was slurred when the spoke on the phone. 

Her stroke was caused by high blood pressure and she has been told that smoking and high cholesterol were probably the main cause of this. She has reduced her smoking since the stroke but is finding it hard to give up altogether. She has also changed her diet to reduce the amount of fat that she eats. She also takes perindropril to control her blood pressure, simvastatin to reduce her cholesterol and aspirin and delayed release dipyridamole to prevent another blood clot. 

She has recovered well from her stroke and has been able to go back to live on her own after an initial period of staying with her daughter. Her family are very supportive although she sometimes feel they can be a little over protective of her although she knows they are only trying to help.

Her daughter heard that her voice was slurred on the phone and got help. She felt okay and was...

Well, I got up in the morning and I was feeling OK' and my daughter phones me every morning of course and she phoned but I'd, I got up, been to the toilet, put my dentures in, came through, put the kettle on and I was fine. And then my daughter phoned, I answered the phone, she said, 'Are you feeling OK the day, mum?' I said, 'Yeah.' She said, 'Your voice isn't right.' I said, 'Well, I feel OK'. She said, 'Have you got your dentures in?' I said, 'Yeah'. I said, 'Yeah'. She said, 'Mum, there is something wrong with you, your voice is just not right at all' so that was all I knew' but oh I forgot to tell you this. I have a chain on my door, which I always put on my door. Anyway, my daughter phoned my son and he came right down and on the, his road down, he phoned the ambulance to come and he was only two minutes in but he came to the door and at that time, they didn't all have keys' so , he buzzed of course and I let him in, came up and I tried with my left hand to open, I opened the door, the lock with the right hand, tried to get the thing out, the chain off, just couldn't, couldn't use this hand at all and by that time, he thought, I started crying and I'm saying, 'Oh, there is something wrong here', you know, but he said, 'Mum, can you not open the door?' I said, 'No, it's just the chain'. He said, 'Well, just take your time'. I said, 'OK'. 

So then of course the door was open but I managed with this hand but no way was I ever going to get the chain off. So, and of course, by the time I came through here, and I felt this was a bitty different and I looked in the mirror and I saw and of course he told me that the ambulance was coming and I said, 'Well, I'm not going any place'. He said, 'You're going to the hospital mum, there's something far wrong with you' and whenever the ambulance man came in, he said what was my name and that, [my son] said, '[Mum]', ken. 'Mum, [Mum]' and he said, 'Well, Mum' and he said to the other, 'You'll have to go down the stair and get a chair'. I said, 'What for?' I said, 'I'm not going any place, I'm fine.' He said, 'No you're not, I think you've had a stroke' and then of course the tears came and all the rest of it but they were really awfully good, you know. But it was going down the stair, I was like in a push, a push chair like a baby [laughs] but anyway' I still, in my mind, I felt OK but in the ambulance, I felt there was something here, you know, that just wasn't, because this side, there was not a thing but then that was because the nurse said, 'Well, that was because there was nothing here', you know.

When she had her blood pressure checked at the surgery it was very high. She was sent home with a...

And how do you find your GP?

Oh, she's lovely, yeah. Very good. 

And has she given you any information about stroke?

Not really, no. You just get weighed and they take your blood test and' what was the other thing? There was another thing oh, I had to take a urine test only the once and it was alright and blood tests and my blood pressure. When I started to go there, oh, it was sky high' and but then again, I told, I said to them the first time I went, they said, 'Oh, it's very, very high'. I said, 'I never slept last night'. So uptight at going, you know. So they gave me a machine home with me and I had to do it myself night and morning and write what the things were. She said, 'Oh you're perfect at home. It's just when you come here' [laughs]. But the last time I went, they said, 'yeah, I wish my blood pressure and that was like yours [own name]' she said, she said, 'I'm so, so pleased' so, yeah, it's good. 

Advises other people's families to not discourage the person from trying to do things for...

So what's important? What would you say to people's families then?

To let them do what they feel that they're able to do. Not to restrict, well not to say, 'Right, you're definitely not' and stand over them so that they won't, if you know what I mean. Because I think you should be' cared about, yeah, cared of, think about and that, but' space. That's what I was looking for I think. A certain amount of space because, well, it's nice to be able to say, 'Oh look I've done that' See these? I was fair chuffed [laughs].

Was that putting the curtains up?

Yeah [laughs], Yeah. Which I've done for years and never thought anything about it but' Yeah. It was nice.