Strokes are the new black

As some you will be aware, a well-known blogger had a stroke earlier this year. It seems that I cannot let her have all the fuss and attention, so I had my own mini-strokes, or Transient Ischaemic Attack, this morning. You will have gathered, obviously, that the fact that I am typing away here some ten hours later means I am ok.

I woke up early this morning and was very confused about where I was. This in itself is not unusual since we have been travelling so much this year. But, I just could not work out where I was...it took me a while to realise that I was in the US with my husband....and I am not sure that I thought of him as Number Guy but on,y as 'husband'. I tried to get out of the bedroom, but I couldn't work out how to do it. I got to the bedroom door and couldn't figure out how to open it. This sort of thing sometimes happens when I am sleepwalking, but I was definitely awake. I got a bit upset at this point and am not sure what happened next. Somehow I managed to get out and I visited the bathroom and then went to speak to Number Guy, who was in the living room. Just as well I did. I remember asking him to 'hold me' and then I basically fell over. Luckily he grabbed me or I would have been face first into the table and then onto the floor. My right arm started to shake and spasm and my vision went completely black with yellow stars.

finding a hospital with an Emergency Room was a bit of a farce....however things were resolving a bit. By the time I was seen, which was very quickly after we found the right place, I had some ataxia on my rightnside and I still felt very odd. I have had an MRI scan and it has revealed an 'old bleed that they are not worried about'. Well, I am because my migraine doctor arranged an MRI scan earlier this year and he made a big point of telling me that it was all clear and to tell doctors that if any future scans show damage. So this old bleed is notmactive now but it has happened in the last year.

so as you can imagine, I am a bit shaken. We have delayed our return to Switzerland by a week.I need to have a follow-up,appointment with a neurologist and we need to leave enough time to make sure that this is not a precursor to a major stroke, although the hospital say that if they were concerned aboutnthat they would have admitted me.