Hi. Has anyone here had a 'stroke mimic'? I had never heard of such a thing until I had one in February. I was exercising and suddenly my vision went blurred and I felt I was burning up. I was sent straight to hospital as the medics thought I had had a stroke. But scans showed no change to my AVM and no signs of a stroke. Still, I had all the symptoms - left sided weakness, visual disturbance and loss of balance. Eventually the doctors said they thought my AVM had caused my body to think I had a stroke even though I didn't. V strange. I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced this.
I had a mini stroke last fall but didn't realize it. I thought I was getting early alzheimers. Doctor told me it was probably from menorpause and not to worry about it. In early February I woke up to double vision and had been "burning up" for months. Found out the eyes and sensitivity to heat was from Graves Disease which causes hyperthyroidism. . No actual connection to AVM but the MRI I got to figure out my eyes showed it. The AVM had a "stroke area" right next to it which explained my verbal memory difficulties last fall. Might have them check your T3 and T4 just in case.
Hello,
The Stroke like symptoms is how they found my AVM. I was getting ready for a Christmas party last December and my boyfriend saw the facial droopage and the right sided weakness and numbness… I continued to have those symptoms till my surgery in March. It wasn’t till two weeks ago where i did have another episode. When i met with my surgeon for the first time, they explained that it is due to a localized seizure. Dilantin did help but now they are switching me over to Lamictal because of other health issues. But yes i do understand where you felt this, it sucks. Your very tired and i have all the symptoms and they last at least 2 hours. If it is a bad one, i go to the ER and get a CT scan just to be safe. So i feel your pain. Hang in there meds are suppose to help.
Jazmine
ive had this. Before my second stroke, i used to get a very strange feeling; my right side would get numb. My finger on the right side would just feel totally numb. Then it would pass; then i would get a vision distortion. Little bit of flashing lights on the right side. Then it would pass; then just a dull headache. Was never a nice thing. I used to get that once every 6 weeks or so.
After the third stroke, now i dont get this - but sometimes i get some very woozey feeling. Almost feel sick for about 30 secs. Then it pass after 2 seconds or so. Canbe weird - sometimes its if ive played too hard when i play football; i just have to be a goalkeeper for 5 min!
I had a massive stroke unrelated to my avm in March of 2011 then twice that June but those were smaller and I felt weird towards the back of my head the night before
During my first angio embio I had another stroke but luckily only lasted 24 hrs
recently after flying I have had some stroke like symptoms. My stroke dr said that sometimes you will have these small strokes after and they dont know why...fun stuff not!
Take each case seriously and get checked out
Having a slew of MRIs Wed to see whats going on
Angela
Thanks a lot to all of you. Now it has been some months since my stroke mimic I have had some time to evaluate my experience. It was all very scary at the time and now. One thing I have realised is that everyone is a bit different and that doctors just can't say what the cause was sometimes. Obviously this makes it hard to know what or what not to do in the future. Not really that helpful eh?
Lulu
yes the drs just dont know- I think esp when it comes to avm's
I would listen to your body. also you can have a TIA and not show up on a scan.
I hope this is the last of the symptoms for you
Angela
Thank you Lulu for your wishes. And yes Doctors just practice what they have learnt. So sometimes even they are in a situation where they do not have answers and then the research begins. I would like to wish you all the best and I really admire your strength. Really inspiring!
Thanks so much Riya. And all the best to you too. One way or the other lets hope we can beat this.
Thanks a lot Angela. And all the best.
Lulu