Dealing with everyday stroke symptoms

I posted this before but I never once received any replies. I'm desperate for help. I'm a 63-year old male. Between 1994 - 2017 I've had 2 heart attacks and 6 stent placement surgeries with some angioplasty thrown in there for good luck. I believe currently I have 10-12 stents in me. The latest was July 2016, went to the hospital with chest pains, they did the angiogram and found that I had 13 separate blockages. I had so many blockages that my cardiologist had to do the stent placement surgeries over a 2 day period. I also have Type II Diabetes since 2010, Peripheral Neuropathy since 2005, both feet are numb, extremely painful. In September 2016 I finally told my doctor everything about all the symptoms I'd been having over the last two and a half years. It started out with balance issues and me falling down and dropping things. It stayed that way until early part of 2016, it seemed I was experiencing additional symptoms but also more frequently. Vision issues, some speech issues, balance issues, dizziness and falling down. There was one time I went completely blind for about 4-5 minutes. My balance issues became worse. Out of nowhere I could be fine and the next thing I know I would move a certain way and it would be like I was a rag doll and some unseen entity was tossing me around the room until I fell down. It got that bad. Then my wife said it seemed like after I got home at the end of July from the hospital with all my blockages taken care of, it seemed to her that everything escalated with all my symptoms. I started having headaches, dizziness, balance issues, speech issues, forgetting things, forgetting things like i went from the bedroom to the bathroom but by the time I got to the bathroom I've already forgotten why I'm in the bathroom, forgetting things like that. So my doctor ordered an MRI Brain Scan. I have it done and I get the results in the middle of October. My doctor tells me that I have had multiple Lacunar strokes on my right side but there is no way of telling when the strokes occurred. So I told my doctor that I'm still experiencing all these symptoms so he refers me to see a neurologist. A couple weeks later I see my doctor again and I told him what had happened. I said 2 days after I saw you a couple weeks ago I was sitting in the bathroom talking to my wife and son early one morning before they left for the vet. I started to stand up and everything started spinning, like Vertigo, but it was kind of different. I said I've had Vertigo years ago due to both my ears were infected. What I was experiencing wasn't anything like that time. Yes, it started out with everything spinning but it was like someone was pushing to the ground and as long as I had my eyes closed nothing was spinning but as soon as I opened my eyes everything was spinning. I ended up on the floor not being able to get up on my own. I laid there for about 15 minutes until my 2 grandsons woke up, came to the bathroom and saw me. Anthony the oldest went and got his mom, she came and I remember her asking me something but when I replied my words were all slurred, it sounded to me like I was really drunk. She told Anthony to go get daddy, my next to oldest son. He came in and helped me stand up, by that time it's now been about 35-40 minutes and I still couldn't stand up by myself and even with my son's help it was very difficult. Again, it was like I was extremely drunk. He got me to me bedroom and laid me on my bed. By now nothing is spinning, I'm just extremely, extremely dizzy and wore out. I laid there for about 3 to 4 hours, that's how long it took for the dizziness to go away. I told my doctor I had never experienced anything like that before in my life. Then a few hours later I am back in the bathroom sitting on the toilet. I go to stand up and everything started spinning, it started all over again, but not as intense as the first time. I was able to walk as far as the door and that was it. My wife saw me and she came running to me. She began asking me questions but I wasn't able to talk, I tried to talk but I couldn't open my mouth or even make a sound. She stood there with me for at least 20 minutes before I was able to sit down except this time I got really nauseous and vomited. I sat down for at least 30 minutes before I was able to walk to my bedroom. After I told my doctor this story of what happened to me, he wanted to order another MRI Brain Scan but I told him to hold off because I was set to see this neurologist the next day. I usually Google the doctors that my insurance sets me up to see. My wife and I have Medical. I didn't do that for this neurologist until a couple hours before my appointment. Well, I wasn't too happy. He'd been a neurologist for 6 years, he wasn't affiliated with ANY hospital which really concerned me. But my wife said let's go and be positive and give him a chance. I said sweetie this doctor had one out of five stars in every category. Anyway we went. We arrived and of course I brought with me the CD of my MRI Brain Scan + the written paperwork from the doctor/neurologist at the MRI Clinic that evaluated and diagnosed my brain scan. I'm about half way done with me filling out the new patient information when I get called, so my wife and I head back and we are taken to his office. He comes in and asks me the issues I've been dealing with. I said, everyday I deal with headaches, dizziness and balance issues, and falling down, I now stutter when I speak, I can't do longhand writing, the forgetting issues, what took place 2 days after I saw my doctor 2 weeks ago, this neurologist never even asked for my brain scan CD, he asked for the paperwork, my wife gave it to him, he looked through it, he briefly looked at my new patient information and then he says you've been having migraine headaches, they have caused all your symptoms, I said really, even my stuttering and he said yes. He then gives me a prescription for TOPIRAMATE 25MG.V. We get home and I do a search on this medication. In bold lettering, it says, DO NOT TAKE IF YOU ARE TAKING METFORMIN, well I do take metformin for my diabetes and if this idiot would have looked at the list of my meds he would have seen that I take metformin. So currently my wife is working hard to have me seen by a competent good standing neurologist with high marks, but because we are on Medical, it can take months for me to see another neurologist, this is why I am reaching out for someone to maybe help.

From my MRI Brain Scan I have had multiple Lacunar strokes on my right side. Since October 2016 I deal with various types of symptoms, but so far the only symptoms that are constant 24/7 Are the following:

1) Stuttering when I speak.

2) Dizziness.

3) Balance issues (I have to be extremely careful because if I'm not I can fall down very easy).

4) Headaches.

These symptoms never go away, they may become less aggressive, but they are always present. Do I have these symptoms because of my Lacunar strokes or did something else possibly happen when I was in the bathroom that morning. Do you believe I will have this for the rest of my life?

2 likes, 4 replies