TIA and Minor Stroke

I was actually sat in the room where we are now, talking to my wife about Christmas dinner, and I just couldn’t talk any more. Just as quick as we are talking now it just, my voice, my speech went. I immediately knew what it was and wrote on a piece of paper, “stroke,” to my wife and she was in the process of going to ring for an ambulance and go through the process of 999 etc, when my speech come back, as quick as that, and come back, well, as it is now. And of course, it come back, I didn’t really do nothing about it straight away because I thought, “Oh, it couldn’t have been that, it’s something else, and I’ll just get in touch with my GP and make an appointment.” Which we did, and I had an appointment for the next day. I went to see my GP and he confirmed that I had a TIA.

It was a bit worrying, but in three or four hours it had essentially completely gone. I cycled into town, that was working okay. I had my coffee. And by the evening there was a sort of residual symptom, a little bit of, still a little bit of inaccuracy in my hand placement, and a slight sense of difference in my fingers. And [name], my wife came home from work and, you know, she’d seen this in the morning and I explained I still had a little bit. And she sort of worried and said, “Look, you need to go and see your GP.

 

So the next morning I went to see my GP and I explained what this was. And it’s a tribute to the National Health Service that you can actually do this. I mean I can call them up in the morning and say, “Look, I think I’ve had this episode.” And they say, “Come right in.”

 

Because you do lie on your arm, and when you wake up it is dead. And do I want to waste my poor doctor who’s so incredibly busy time by endlessly turning up and saying, “I woke up this morning and my hand was numb. I can’t see too well”? But of course one can’t see too well for hundreds of reasons. I don’t know the answer here. That’s why I spent the whole day, and by the time it was 11 or 12 the symptoms had virtually vanished and I thought, “Well, okay, whatever it is, it’s gone away.” It was my wife who said, “No, Phillip, you really need to go and see the doctor.” She’s much more prone to go and see doctors than I am, you see, so - and absolutely wonderful, magic decision.

I was driving to work, and I noticed that my vision had gone funny. It was getting very fuzzy around the edges. But… I have suffered from migraines in the past so I just thought maybe that was what was starting. Then my left leg went numb. My left arm went numb. Fortunately I was driving an automatic so it didn’t really matter, I didn’t have any gears to change or anything. I was starting to get a bit worried by that stage and then I felt as if my mouth had dropped. I managed to get into the police station car park. Sort of abandoned the car really, it wasn’t really parked. Kind of fell out of it thinking, “What the hell’s wrong with me?” You know, I’m just, I blamed it on the medication, because the doctor had just changed my blood pressure medication and I thought, “Oh I’m obviously reacting badly to it.” I managed to get to the back door of the police station and there’s quite a high step and I couldn’t get over it. And I remember thinking how stupid I was and how stupid I must look. And the typical thing of looking round and thinking, “Is there anybody watching me?” Eventually a colleague came a long and opened the door for me. I went through the back door and I thought, “I don’t think I can manage the stairs.” And actually stood against the wall thinking, “Well, if I’m standing against the wall if I collapse then I will just slump down the wall rather than, than pitch forward.”

 

Eventually thought, “I’ve got to get upstairs, I need to get to my office. I need to sit down.” I went upstairs in the lift. Got to the floor, went through the doors. Walked through the report writing room. And all my colleagues turned round and said, “You look awful. Why are you here?” And I said, “Oh, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry, I’m OK. Don’t worry about me. “ And I went into my office and actually worked for the rest of the day feeling awful. Having to go back over things, I couldn’t remember things. People were asking me to do things and I was thinking, “What did that person just ask me to do?” And I felt dreadful, because it’s just not me.

 

So, I came home and I said to my husband, “You know, I felt really strange today.” And told him what had happened. And he said, “Are you sure you’re OK?” And I said, “Yeah, I think so, I think it must be the medication.”

 

Felt awful the next day. But again went to work. Came back. And I was sitting here in the evening and all of a sudden I got the sensation of pins and needles in my left arm and my left leg. Passed over in a couple of minutes so I thought, “Oh, it’s definitely the medication and I’m now getting used to it.”

 

Had a doctor’s appointment on the Monday so I thought I won’t bother the doctor, I’ll just mention it, you know, when I go in on Monday.

 

Mentioned it to her eventually [laughs] and she said, “Ohh, I think I need to refer you to the TIA clinic.” I said, “Yeah, OK fine.” Not knowing what TIA clinic meant and kind of not asking really. And I came home. It was about half past seven in the evening as it was a late appointment. Came home. Phone rings at nine o’clock the next morning to say, “Can you come in tomorrow?” I got, “Sorry? What’s, you know, what’s the rush?” And eventually I said, “No, I’m on annual leave at the moment my first day back at work tomorrow, so can I come in on Thursday?” And they said, “Oh, OK.”

Well, it was funny, we were planning the Christmas carol service I think and I must have either read something or been aware of TIAs and mini-strokes and all the rest of it, and these vascular problems and so, me, my consciousness was heightened of it and I didn’t really, I’m still not actually sure whether it was a TIA or that I was sitting very badly on the chair, and I was chairing a small meeting, there were four or five of us in my office and my body was twisted right round. And my shoulder, and all my weight was on my right arm. And the tingling I had was in my right arm. That I do remember. But the hearing was strange, so maybe it was a TIA, maybe it wasn’t, I don’t know.

 

I rang, I rang my local surgery, yeah. I worked in [local town] and I live in [different local town] and I contacted the surgery which is down the road here at [local area] and put me through and he said, “Could be a TIA, take an aspirin”.

I think very important to sort of notice what’s going on, if someone is having an attack of any kind, is that the person it’s happening to quite often will say, “Look, it’s nothing. I, leave it. Let’s see what tomorrow’s like.” But, in my opinion, don’t do this. If you’re worried, concerned that something’s happening do seek help straight away.

Geoff' Early Friday morning I was in bed, about to get up and now I just sat up in bed and I just lost all consciousness. And the next thing I realised I was being put in a, in a little chair to be taken in an ambulance. And then the next thing I, I know I was, had, had the medical examination in [local hospital].

 

 

Enid' Well, he woke me up by making a funny noise. And I said, “Geoff are you all right?” And he said, “No.” So I got out of bed and ran around the bed and I said, “What’s to do?” He said, “I don’t know.” But he wasn’t sat up. He was on his back. And he said, “I’m going, I think I’m going to be sick.” So I said, “Well, if you’re going to be sick, you’ll either have to sit up or get on your side or else you’re going to choke.”

 

Geoff' No, I don’t remember any, any of that.

 

Enid' Now he said, “I can’t.” So I realised then he was paralysed.

 

Geoff' So, I got me….

 

 

Enid' …I rang the doctor first and then she sent an ambulance. And they rushed him to the hospital. They were very, very good actually the paramedics that came.

 

So, Geoff, perhaps you could carry on with your story now?

 

Geoff' So when, I came round after being examined in hospital and there was just wait, they were, the. It was a doctor, was it?

 

Enid' I think you were about two hours before you came round.

 

Geoff' They were trying to find me, find a place to take me, weren’t they?

 

Enid' They asked you some questions before that. And asked you if you knew where you were and if you knew what had happened. And you just said, “I’ve had a funny do.” And they said, “Where are you?” He said, “[local hospital].” That’s the hospital in [town] because we used to live in [town].

 

Enid' So they said, “Where are you?” And he said, “I’m in hospital in …

 

Geoff' “I’m in hospital.”

 

 

Enid' He knew what going on then. Yes.

 

 

Enid' But I bet it was about two hours before he actually came round.

 

Geoff' Yeah I don’t, I don’t remember anything.

 

Enid' Because I don’t remember them doing like they do on your knee you know to see if you have any reaction.

 

Geoff' Yeah.

 

Enid' But when you spoke they said that was a good sign.

 

 

Geoff' So that.

 

 

Geoff' I remember taking, me, taking me out of the emergency department and…

 

Enid' Took you to another ward.

 

Geoff' They took me down to put me on a ward, which was down the road and out of the, the building where we were, and across and into another building. And they put me into bed there. 

And that’s where I stayed.

Enid: Until he came home. 

Geoff: How long was I in?

Enid: Nearly a fortnight. Well, it happened on the 27th of July and it was the beginning of August when you came out. 

 

 

 

All of it. It was the, when my face dropped and my speech began, apparently I was starting to make funny noises. And she said that clicked in straight away and that’s why she reacted the way she did. And she was at, one minute slightly torn between leaving me and getting the telephone to get on to the ambulance, but, she’d remembered that advert, and it obviously works and its it does its job. It’s really good.

 

 

My fear was that I was going to be unable to communicate, that I’d lose the ability to be able to talk to my partner. That I’d be unable to work.

 

Losing my arm, not being able to move my limb was a horrific thought. And it was the lack of communication is the worst thing. Because... that’s a big part of your personality as well, your voice, and, your communication skills. And I was, it really did scare me. And the thought of not being able to talk to somebody that you love. It really, it really is quite horrific.

 

 

Half an hour, twenty minutes. May be a little bit. But... possibly three quarters of an hour at the most. But by the time, certainly by the time you got to the [hospital] I felt like a fraud, because I was feeling perfectly fine.

 

Really?

 

And all the symptoms had disappeared. But they were very good at the [hospital] as well, I have to say.

 

 

Straight in A & E... a nurse came and done an assessment. Pushed on my arms and legs, took my blood tests, done all the usual things, blood pressure, temperature. And I sat there for a while my partner turned up, my eldest son turned up. And the doctor came in and done all the relevant checks again, and had a little chat about past history, about my heart condition. Basically, he said, “You’re fine.” And sent me off with a handful of tablets, these super aspirin tablets to make sure I didn’t get another blood clot. And... said that he’d book me in for the outpatients.