TIA in young people ? - Stroke Message Board

brettb22 · 09-25-2003, 08:21 AM

Hi-

I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience to mine and can offer some thoughts/share experiences.

Last Thursday (1 week ago) while I was walking down the street after dinner I began to notice vision problems (felt kind of light headed) and began to lose feeling on my right side (both arm and leg). Luckily, I happened to be near a hospital and was able to make it there before I hit the ground (literally). Within less then 10 minutes from onset of symptoms I had no felling/muscle control on my right side. I could not speak coherently but I was aware of what was going on. I could respond to questions by nodding my head or using my left arm, but I could not speak a coherent sentence or get out more then a word or two at a barely audible level.

Within 90 minutes from the onset of symptoms I felt fine. All feeling/control came back and i was able to recall pretty much everything that happnened to me. While I was in the ER, the doctors gave me nothing other then an IV of saline (they were still running tests trying to figure out what happenend when I regained feeling).

I had a CT scan, MRI, MRA, the usual battery of blood tests and ultrasounds of my heart and carotid (sp?) arteries/veins. All the tests came back negative.

I met with a neurologist before they released me form the hospital and he did a few tests that were negative.

I'm 28 years old and in good health. The attending physician called my case a bit of an enigma since its not normal for a healthy 28 year old male to present these kind of stroke-like symptoms and then self-correct in less then 90 minutes.

I continue to feel 100% fine after the event. I am scheduled to see another neurologist tomorrow (friday). I've been getting suggestions that I should see a cardiologist as well.

Has anyone had similar experiences at a relatively young age?

Thanks

mariax3 · 09-26-2003, 12:38 PM

hi! i am 26 and in good health also. my symptoms are a little different from yours, but the out come is pretty much the same. i had headache, vision and speech problems, and the numbness on one side. i went to my dr. and was told i was fine, too young for a tia, but ordered and mri anyway. then a few days later had another episode, went straight to er, did cat scan, found nothing. mri just found sinus problem. so i went to neuroligist, who diagnosed me with tia. had 21 tubes of blood taken, mra and just finished having a TEE. so no you are not too young for this to happen. i wish that dr. would consider the sypmtoms instead of age!! hope it all works out fine. please let me know!

noelwr · 10-01-2003, 04:30 AM

Hi, my brother had a TIA in May (he was 29, now 30) and then a few weeks later a stroke. Because he did not have an MRI on time, he did not receive the blood thinners that could have prevented the stroke. He was left temporarily paralyzed on the right side of his body and has expressive aphasia (inability to express himself through writing or speech). He now is able to walk without a cane, but there isn't much movement in his arm and the only word he can say is "Wednesday." He will most likely never be able to return to a "normal" job and will have difficulty functioning in society.

Doctors are still baffled to this day as he is so young and they still cannot say where the blood clot came from. Please take your warning signs seriously and take all necessary actions to prevent this happening to you.

By the way, my brother also "self-corrected" from his TIA. That doesn't necessarily mean you get better. Considering it a warning sign.

[This message has been edited by noelwr (edited 10-01-2003).]

brettb22 · 10-01-2003, 08:39 AM

noelwr-

What tests did your brother have after his TIA and did they show anything?

So far I have had a CT, MRI, 2 MRAs (head and neck), a TEE, Echocardiogram, ultrasound of my carotid arteries/veinsm and an ultrasound of my leg arteries/veins. I've had a number of blood tests as well (I don't know those names).

So far *everything* has turned up negative. . .

Thanks

Brett

noelwr · 10-01-2003, 09:31 AM

I am not sure. He was in the hospital for one month (he's now been living in a rehabilitation for 4 months) so they did a bunch of tests. They must have done an MRI to see that it was a blood clot. I was there when they made an echogram of his heart. I only heard that they did all these tests and were not able to locate the origin of the blood clot (so that they can prevent another).

By the way, these tests were not after his TIA but after his stroke. After his TIA, his doctor made an appointment for an MRI six weeks later (cuz he's young so it can't be that serious, right? - WRONG). One week before the appointment, he had the stroke. We're still very angry with the doctor.

At least you had your MRI. Very strange that it didn't show anything. Maybe you had a blood clot but it managed to squeeze its way through? Sorry, don't know much about these things.