TIA Symptoms?

Thank you Loretta, I will update after my GP appointment this afternoon, thinking back I should have called for an ambulance I was on my own aswell.

Thank you samuels, yes over the last few days among other things that are out of sorts I've notice my balance/walking is 'off' 'on' type of thing. Well, I'm not 'right' as in what's normal for me. 

Much appreciated.

Hi RubyRed,

Good luck with everything, I hope you get all the answers you seek . From what you are describing especially with the face,the numbness and tingling certainly fit the bill for a TIA but Your Doctor will definately confirm what is going on with your health.

My first TIA  My partner asked what I was drooling for and I said I wasn't but when I wiped my hand where she pointed ..sure enough I was drooling..funny how I couldn't feel it but she could see it, She had to go to work,  I assured her I was OK  but about 1/2 an hour later whoomp there it was all down the left side , headache, slurred speech it was more blurred and one at least 2 occassions  double vision and balance problems yet no facial drooping....As it was my first ever attack,I, like you just sat down and waited it out but after the initial episode I started to get my normal Prinzmetal Angina and GTN wasn't relieving it so I called the Paramedics. Explained to the ER doctor what had happened that day and I was taken for a CT Scan and admitted to the stroke unit where I spent 4 days. I had another turn about a year later and have had a couple of other minor ones this year. every now and then I struggle to make a sentence and can get half way through a conversation and I forget half way through what I was going to say or even what we have just spoken about . I don't bother telling ER anymore because of the migraine chat one of the ER doctors had with me, don't get me wrong, if it's severe enough I tell them but with on/off symptoms like mine at the moment I just don't worry about it

I know what you are saying. I too suffer TIAs and was sent by my Dr to hospital on one occasion. The specialist stood in front of me and all knowingly told me I had a migraine. I was shocked and suddenly angry. I told him what he could do with his migraine theory packed up my things and walked out with the nurse and all knowing so called specialist following. I ignored them and was taken home. I forget words, sometimes stop mid-sentence because the phrase or word has escaped me. If I am talking to someone and this happens I just ask them to bear with me my brain has just stepped out. I too drool on my right side I don't feel it my husband yells me. My eyesight goes too. I play the piano and sometimes just can't hit the right keys. Yes, it is frustrating and no it is not migraine. Do these drs think they are all knowing God's and we should just give up and obey? I have no faith in so called specialists or drs anymore. When I have a TIA I just rest until it gets better. Sometimes just hours sometimes 2 days. I make sure my glucose levels are in single figures and don't worry about TIAs anymore

That's exactly how I felt this morning Loretta, angry. The only time I have a migraine/headache is when I have to use the gtn spray, but I take a couple of paracetamols straight after I've used the gtn & its gone. Never suffered with migraines!! Also not only slow/slurred speech but also having trouble with pronunciation, sentences etc.

I suppose because my bloods were fine and CT scan didn't show a bleed a migraine was all the consultant/specialist put it down to? I don't even know if it's possible to have a mini-stroke TIA without some form of abnormality showing up with these tests, in medical terms I mean - as I don't know a great deal about them, is that all they look for?? rather than considering the physical/cognitive functioning.....I feel these symptoms have been brushed aside. The consultant also gave me some pictures to describe what was going on in them and asked me what shapes were in the pictures!!! and kept tapping my arms and legs with a prong thing, I could barely lift my left arm and leg!!

I had a huge blood clot in my abdomen that was diagnosed as "migraine " until one morning my left foot was black I couldn't lift my left arm and couldn't speak. I was rushed to hospital, left on a ward for 5 days with student doctors prodding my leg and listening for a pulse in my left foot. They very cleverly declared there wasn't a pulse. I was finally moved to another ward and at 6pm the consultant came in lifted the bed clothes over my legs and declared he might not be able to save my leg. I responded that since he'd left me for 5 days he'd better save my leg. I had a massive blood clot that had broken up gone down to behind the knee on the left leg and in the thigh of the right leg. A huge blood clot in the saddle and bits had gone to my brain. I had another massive stroke because of the travelling blood clot and it was said I caused the blood clot by being severely obese. I was 12 stone!! My left side is permanently weak. But that has been classified as "migraine" !!!!!. I will have nothing to do with the quackery that is going on now. I was on warfarin for 5 years. It transpires I should only have been on it for 3 years but I was forgotten. I threatened the Dr to write to the consultant I was stopping warfarin at the end of the month. I did stop it and went on to clopidogrel. So believe me I understand. Unless the quacks are hit in the face with what is wrong it is classified as "migraine"!!!

I'm truly very sorry to hear this Loretta, what a complete nightmare and disgraceful treatment, and they couldn't see what was right before their eyes?? How can you be left like that with all you've been through.

The issue here is when you're 'labelled' with something and it's on your medical records even if it's an incorrect diagnosis....we're stuck with it, so everything that follows gets attached to that label. Nobody knows what anyone else is doing because we're seen by so many different consultants I had to repeat the same thing about my symptoms/experience about 9+ times over and over. I just want to cry.

Ruby don't cry get angry and demand to be seen. Demand a second opinion. You must not put yourself and family at risk. Be firm and tell them you want a correct diagnosis. I know it's hard but I plucked up the courage by seeing my Dr not as a god or knowing it all person but naked on the loo...that worked for me lol

What is wrong with these called consultants? What is their fascination with migraine. Actual diagnosis is beyond them. I am so sorry for you. I have been in your situation and know how you feel. I told the consultant he wouldn't know a migraine if it bit him in the bum

He also wouldn't know a TIA or stroke if that up and socked him in in his face. I was so angry. Now I don't do anything when I have a TIA or chest pain. I wait for it to go

Hi RubyRed,

Yes I feel for you, been there  and experienced what you have just described.....Lord knows how the young doctors are going to cope in the future,If they can't pick up a TIA/Stroke now how in the hell will they be able to expand on their experience base in becoming a "good" doctor...

If a computer isn't available to give them the answer the patient has had it and will be sent home with a "migraine"

Hi loretta,

Yep same as me with the exception of my chest pain, I always get that checked out as I have had little surprises here and there every now and then with my troponins, I've had 3 NSTEMI's  even though one doctor has a question mark on the third one. I believe I've actually had 4 NSTEMI's but because our hospital  has undertaken the new high sensitivity troponin testing he believes 14 is negative on first and repeat blood test...

As for the TIA symptoms and the slight damage it has caused I just don't worry about the TIA symptoms anymore as I'm like you...Migraine headache !!where do they pull that one from...I've never suffered even a headache in my life until was put on GTN for my Prinzmetal Angina and then Paracetamol takes care of that...go figure eh, some doctors are just a joke and they wonder why people get narky with them.

Hi Samuels

I feel so grim. On my discharge notes it says if it happens again to have complete bed rest - what if it isn't migraine and is a TIA/Stroke I could be dead, plus I've also read a couple of articles this evening that state a TIA/mini stroke doesn't show on a CT Scan....I'm completely baffled.

Hi Loretta

I feel for you too, it isn't right to be treated this way. If I wasn't in so much shock at the time & could have conjured up the words quick enough I would have had a few things to say. Dangerous situation to be in healthwise and yet laughable at the same time with disbelief.

I have had care call installed in my home. Should I have a mini or full stroke I just have to get my husband to press a red button and an ambulance will arrive in 15 minutes. It is a good thing to have. Your social services can arrange it through the council. It costs me £7. A week paid every 3 months

Hi RubyRed,

Yes that's correct not all TIA's show up on a CT Scan they say the golden test is the MRI but I'm claustrophobic. An MRI was ordered on my first one and I was all set to be put through the machine because it looked so big and have plenty of room but as soon as my chest came up to go inside the tunnel I told them to stop....I thought I wouldn't fit in the machine   I asked how long would it take and I was told around 15 minutes, I said no can't do it due to my claustrophobia so MRI has never been done. When I had my second TIA (it has a question mark on it in my records) Because CT Scan was clear and my Carotid artery was also clear they put it down to migraine (one specialist did) It also has on my records that I have a weird cholestrol make up ...One ER doctor said I could of had a small clot there and it caused the TIA but the clot broke up and most likely wouldn't show up on CT.....ER doctors here all seem to have different opinions I think it just takes their superior to override them unfortunately

Sorry ...That should of said the ER doctors appear to be on the right track , the senior ER doctors but it takes their superiors to drag them down and say something to the contrary, they blame it on something else...I believe most of the senior ER doctors are on the right track but once their superiors shoot them down unfortunately they can't do much about it until it's a close call or even worse to late...some ER doctors I really feel for because as I said some are on the right track...it's just these specialists that bugger everything up with their know all attitudes.

Hi Samuel, your on the right track about the senior consultants and most ER drs. Too many consultants think they are untouchable and act like little gods. TIAs are just a nuisance to them.

I do wonder where and why they now label everything as "migraine"? But once one of these demi-gods have chucked you out with the migraine label it sticks. I think the migraine saga is two fold. 1. It saves money 2. It saves them having to find out what is really going on when it doesn't smack them in the face.

Hi Samuels

I understand where you're coming from re claustrophobia, I had to have angiography last year at the Papworth Hospital and that takes a little while and you have to go through it to the chest level, I kept my eyes closed. I have heart disease atheroma in my distal arteries, Microvascular disease. I've also read in several journal articles that a clot can dissipate when it's done it's work so to speak, by the time any tests are done they come back normal with no evidence of it ever being there.

You're right Samuels, the number of doctors that see you when you're in emergency or on the ward!! It appears to me that their input seems irrelivant to a certain degree when it comes to the specialists. I have been in hospital on several occasions where this has been the case. 

Couldn't agree with you more Loretta...

Massive issue is if they're not looking into these health issues with great depth there's the possibility that the condition could be life threatening. I know it sounds drastic but that's the big deal here. People can have normal baselines when it comes to blood tests, imaging tests etc, yet still die from something that the specialists have overlooked, simply because they've failed to do thorough enough investigations.

Also, with the constant re-admittance to A&E, ambulance, healthcare team etc, etc, it may not only be life-saving but clip the costs aswell. Doesn't make sense to me at all, everything needs restructuring.