A new stroke symptom

[-6]

STROKE:Remember

The 1st Three Letters....S.T.R.

 

 

My nurse friend sent this and encouraged me to post it and spread the word.

I agree.

 

If everyone can remember something this simple, we could save some folks.

Seriously..

 

Please read:

 

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:

 

During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone

that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) ....she said she had

just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes.

 

They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared

a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening

 

Ingrid's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken

to the hospital - (at 6:00 pm Ingrid passed away.) She had suffered a stroke

at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps

Ingrid would be with us today. Some don't die.... they end up in a helpless,

hopeless condition instead.

 

It only takes a minute to read this...

 

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours

he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said

the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting

the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

 

RECOGNIZING A STROKE

Thank God for the sense to remember the '3' steps, STR . Read

and Learn!

 

Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately,

the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe

brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke .

 

 

Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple

questions:

 

S *Ask the individual

to SMILE.

 

T *Ask the person

to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently)

 

(i.e. It is sunny out today)

 

R *Ask him or

her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

 

If he or she has trouble with

ANY ONE of these tasks,

call 999/911immediatelyand describe the

symptoms to the dispatcher.

 

New Sign of a Stroke -------- Stick out Your Tongue

 

NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out

his tongue.. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the

other,that

is also an indication of a stroke.

 

 

[Suz]

Thanks for posting that, stroke scares the heck out of me.

 

A casual friend of ours just suffered a stroke, she is only 30 & in good health. Strokes dont affect just the elderly!

[Snowmom]

 

Another sign is numbness, don't forget if you have a side or part of your side is numb, it could be a stroke.

 

I know that a stroke can happen to the young. My niece had one when she was about 26, I am thinking and the second one 7 or 8 years ago now. She will be 41 in Aug.

 

I had one when I was around 35, and the only thing that was a sign was the numbness all on my left side and my face. I don't know about the arms and such, as I didn't try those. It was because I was so numb that I went to the hospital.

 

There are others on here who have had strokes too. quiltys41 has had several of them. Maybe she could come in and give us more symptoms.

 

 

 

[JCK88]

It's critical that you get the stroke patient immediate hospital care. If it is known at what time the stroke happened, then often a clot-busting drug can be administered, but it must be within a three hour window or it won't work.

 

My mother is in a wheel chair now because they didn't recognize she had a stroke and when she fell at 3:am on the way to the bathroom, so she and my father didn't call for help until 7 a.m.!!

 

So this warning about strokes--serious stuff. Don't delay. Better to be wrong than to not get the care you need ASAP.

 

My mother has had four strokes and although she is paralyzed on one side, she still could sense it when the other strokes began. She was in a nursing home in Florida where something deplorable happened--she told the nurses she was having another stroke and asked would they take her to the hospital and they gave her a sleeping pill!!! The NEXT morning they finally took her to the emergency room. This effectively wrecked up her good arm so she has difficulty on that side, too.

 

Well, she's not in that nursing home now, she's here in New England in one a couple miles from me and I go see her every day!

 

She says that the thing that you feel first is tingling and numbness and a sense that "something isn't right" and that often it's that feeling "of not feeling just right" that preceeds the other symptoms. She says that looking back, she realized she had some "small strokes" or TIA's before the big one. She just did not recognize the symptoms.

 

The American Stroke Association has a great web site--and a magazine called Stroke Connections for stroke survivors and their families. They sent me a free magnet with stroke symptoms listed which is on my fridge as a reminder.

 

 

[Cricket]

I would add any of that stroke symptoms listed above can be transient. The person having them should be given immediate emergecy care - even if the symtom goes away after a little while.