New here, had a stroke nearly 8 months ago and I'm only 33 - Stroke Message Board

tracy75 · 10-28-2008, 08:31 AM

Hi.

I'm tracy, i'm 33 and live in northern ireland with my husband and 1 year son.

The last few years have been so traumatic for me and my husband.

A brief history from 2006 onwards.

We found out in march 06 that I was pregnant and we were over the moon, we had been trying for awhile, but joy turned to sorrow when i got an incredible stabbing pain in my stomach and was rushed to hospital. The next day I was informed that my baby had died and a few hours later I gave birth to my daughter Charlotte, who just looked so peaceful, I had got to 27+6 weeks gestation.

After trying to come to terms with the loss of a baby and all the problems that they found, in 2007 i was pregnant again and in october 07 I gave birth to our son Matthew, who was 3 weeks early as my consultant wasn't taking any chances!!!!

Fast forward to March 2008, Matthew had caught a sick bug from mum's and tot's and I caught it. Having been really sick I thought that I was just having a migraine, I couldn't see, was having trouble talking apparently and couldn't walk straight. A couple of days had passed with me feeling like this, and with this starting late saturday night, by the tuesday I was getting worried. So my husband called the health centre and reluctantly they sent out a doctor, who couldn't get an ambulance out to me, my husband had to phone 999 himself. One arrived and I don't recall this, I was taken in the ambulance at high speed with the lights and the sirens going.

When I was first admitted to hospital they thought I had meningitis and was given drugs for that.

NO, after many tests and husband being told to prepare for the worse, it turned out I had a stroke. Apparently from the force of me being violently sick I tore an artery in my neck which led to bleeding into my brain.

I was kept in for 10 days.
After getting out of hospital I couldn't believe it, a 33 year old had a stroke!!!! I had just started training for a marathon too!!!!

Nearly 8 months on, my memory is terrible, i remember nothing, my balance is such that I can't walk too far by myself, the times I go out, I'm hanging onto the buggy for dear life and someone has to be with me. I have lost my sense of smell too and within the last week diagnosed with having vertigo.

Even typing this out is making my head hurt looking at the screen. My cerebellium was affected by the stroke, which is your balance centre of your brain.

I'm mainly looking for support and any advice anyone could give me, especially on my memory loss and loss of smell.

If you got this far, thanks for reading.

Tracy. oxxoxoox

Seraph · 10-28-2008, 10:02 AM

I am sorry to hear of your troubles. You are so young, so hang in there, we are a few short years off stem-cell repair of stroke damage, they are starting to test it out now. Keep up with any therapy you are prescribed, and keep as fit as you can. Eight months is not so long, and I am sure some of the functions will be further restored to some extent as you go further into recovery. Good luck, Sera

writeleft · 10-28-2008, 01:42 PM

Tracy,

Oh, how familiar this all sounds to me! I am also a young stroke survivor, having 4 strokes at age 43. It was so traumatic, and it honestly took a good 5 years of treatment for me to feel comfortable enough to get out alone, and drive the car again. I too, was very unsteady on my feet, fell down alot, and couldnt remember a thing.

Of course, for you I hope that time is much shorter. Things do get much better over time, and I urge you to be very patient with yourself. Your brain has suffered a trauma, but it will slowly heal itself. My progress came little by little, and my memory is still pretty bad...but I like to think it now has more room for new memories. I still mix words, but most of the time the new words I come up with are hilarious to me and my family.

I do understand how hard this is for you, but count your blessings and be patient, you sound like a strong resilient woman. I wish you the best!

agalloway · 10-30-2008, 08:43 AM

Tracy,
Hang in there!! I had my first stroke at 42. It has been 6 years and I still am inproving. The Drs told me that the first year the improvments will be great, and I should expect not much after the first year. They were wrong!! The first year was hard. I lost my speech, I could not read and write, no memory and a lot of cognitive defects. It took me three years until I would say a whole sentence right. My writing is still bad, I really have to concentrate on what i am saying (and my spelling is bad!!), but my memory is better. Give it some time. I found out the drugs they put me on caused a lot of the memory loss and as I was able to wean myself off them, my memory got better. Remember, you have a brain injury, and it needs time to heal. Get enough rest, (the brain heals when you sleep) and just hang in there!! Good luck!!
Annette