So I was sitting at my desk at home on Monday when I felt unwell.
My vision went very strange. Got confused. Could barely see or talk coherently (nothing new there).
Luckily the lad had just popped in to pinch some paper from my office for his printer just as it happened.
Called 999 and diagnosed in A&E as having a TIA, though very little damage caused thank goodness.
Stroke clinic today confirmed that I had a "lucky escape" if that's what you can call it.
On thinners and Aspirin.
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Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
Why thinners and aspirin I wonder? I had mine when I was just on aspirin for atrial fibrillation - obviously didn't work. Hope they've given you something better than warfarin.
If I can be of any help, please feel free to contact me through the mods.
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Thanks BTT.
No idea re the aspirin. Have been running everything past Miss Z and she is happy they are doing the right thing. Apparently she knows of the consultant that I saw today and apparently she is excellent and has been on TV a couple of times (for good things).
So far very little side effects - just slept most of the day yesterday!
Oh and the worst part - not allowed to drive for 28 days!
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Time to look at your lifestyle perhaps.
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>> Time to look at your lifestyle perhaps.
>>
Mrs Z's on that already.
There was Cos lettuce on my plate this evening - not impressed!
All the biscuits in the house have been thrown out - seriously not impressed!
Funny how the dog knows when you're unwell - never sits next to me but has been on my lap every evening since.
Last edited by: zippy on Wed 22 Mar 23 at 21:24
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Look after yourself Zippy. Between the work stresses you’ve mentioned and now this, you maybe need to take a look at changing a few things.
We all only get one kick of the ball in life.
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Very happy that you have escaped serious harm - so can now be monitored and treated which could make all the difference.
I wouldn't advise on diet. I'm not qualified for that, and having a wonky heart hasn't stopped me having an occasional pork pie or Tunnocks caramel wafer. I think I have benefitted from being almost teetotal, and avoiding stress as far as reasonably possible - easier when retired.
I should think living on lettuce could be quite stressful. My mother had heart failure, along with a love of cream cakes and puddings. Her doctor gave her the heart healthy diet sheet. She said she couldn't stick to it. The doctor asked her if she wanted to live another five years. Her response "Not if I have to eat that stuff, no". She lasted 10, which proves nothing of course.
Keep well!
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Yeah, its a warning Zipster. Dont think you smoke or drink, so its diet and stress to fix ensure it doesn't happen again.
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....after I had retired, one of my ex-work colleagues had a TIA, and like you he was grounded (no driving, and preferably not left alone). As he was getting cabin-fever, I started taking him out for walks, and we've continued (albeit less regularly) ever since. He was on Clopidigrel I think, but has recently reverted to just aspirin.
It was around 10 years ago, and he's had a few more (unrelated) health issues since, but is stil with us, and relatively hale and hearty, so I hope the same (positive part of the) outlook for you, Zip
Incidentally, he'd been talking for some years about negotiating his way out, as I had done. The TIA concentrated his mind, his thinking being "if that had been it, would I have been happy looking back at my final year(s)?". He exited work as soon as he could sort it, and has been busy ever since.
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>> Called 999 and diagnosed in A&E as having a TIA, though very little damage caused
>> thank goodness.
>>
>> Stroke clinic today confirmed that I had a "lucky escape" if that's what you can
>> call it.
>>
>> On thinners and Aspirin.
>>
IANAD
But I have had a heart attack- just coming up to the anniversary, 33 years ago - triple bypass and some years ago developed atrial fibrillation. So I have had lots of consultations.
My 2p worth. You have had a TIA. A mini strokette, for want of a better word. You do not want another one, or a full blown stroke.
The thinners and the aspirin, will, thin the blood, making it less likely that you will have clotting problems, whether brain or heart, in the future. Why they have said both thinners and aspirin, I don't know.
If I were you, I would want a sit down, face to face, consultation with a cardiologist and a stroke specialist - even if I paid for it. Go in with a written down list of questions and what ifs, so that you don't forget anything.
Any road, your daughter is a doctor, so she can point you.
Thinners are a PITA, but it's not the end of the world.......
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I don't know if diet and stress have any direct bearing on a TIA. In my case, it was (they think!) a blood clot caused by atrial fibrillation. AIUI could equally well have been a burst blood vessel.
>>Thinners are a PITA, but it's not the end of the world.......
I've not had any problem with modern drug thinning drugs. I was in a clinic for my atrial fibrillation and got chatting to a retired GP sitting next to me. He said "they'll want to put you on warfarin, don't let them, it's an evil drug". Fortunately, they didn't. I'd seem my MIL on that stuff and it was a right royal PITA. As long as you ate, drank and did exactly the same every day, it was fine, but anything would upset its balance. You also had to attend regularly for them to measure its effectiveness.
After my TIA, I was put on dabigatran (expensive!) with no problems whatsoever. They then changed it to edoxaban (I suspect it's cheaper). One tablet a day with no problems. I have to have a blood test once a year. I've just made an appointment for next week when I'll go in on my way for a curry (and a few pints) with old work colleagues - 'spoons curry club and beer festival, £2.15/pint.
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Having Atrial Fibrillation roughly quadruples your risk of a stroke/TIA (varies with gender/age/other conditions).
"Thinners" - ie warfarin/edoxaban/apixaban/rivaroxaban largely reduces this risk back to normal at the cost of ~doubling your risk of bleeding. The effectiveness of warfarin vs the novel oral anticoagulants (NOACs or DOACs usual abbreviation) is similar with the DOACs being far superior re interactions and need for any testing.
Aspirin reduces the risk of vascular events if you have arterial disease such as ischaemic heart disease, so it is possible to be on both (it has very little effect vs strokes caused by AF though).
Good BP control, avoiding tobacco, keeping fit, and (if you have it) diabetes control are of course important.
Knock yourselves out (assuming you have AF!):
www.preventaf-strokecrisis.org/calculator/result/
(press SKIP when it asks for email address to jump to results)
Last edited by: Lygonos on Thu 23 Mar 23 at 12:04
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>> Knock yourselves out (assuming you have AF!):
>>
>> www.preventaf-strokecrisis.org/calculator/result/
So I knocked myself out and
"Your annual risk of stroke is 41 times higher than normal
Your annual risk of stroke is 9.8%".
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Which is why you want to be on thinners I guess!
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>>Your annual risk of stroke is 9.8%
I would guesstimate this drops to ~3.5% on anticoagulation - they are reckoned to reduce stroke incidence by 60-70%
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>> I would guesstimate this drops to ~3.5% on anticoagulation - they are reckoned to reduce
>> stroke incidence by 60-70%
>>
I think I get pretty good care. At least annual echo scan and consultation. The days of slaving on a treadmill seem to be over. I am on rivaroxaban.
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It sounds like we should form an Anticoagulant Appreciation Society, we could compare notes.
I'm on Apixaban. (Probably Warfarin as well if I don't keep an eye on her when she makes the coffee.)
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>> It sounds like we should form an Anticoagulant Appreciation Society, we could compare notes.
>>
We could write it in blood - it flows easily enough!
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>> I'm on Apixaban. (Probably Warfarin as well if I don't keep an eye on her
>> when she makes the coffee.)
>>
The time to worry is when she puts thallium in the coffee.
tinyurl.com/2tjebf66
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>> Which is why you want to be on thinners I guess!
Duncan, this is the cheapest I can find,
www.amazon.co.uk/CarPlan-BTH500-Paint-Thinners/dp/B007L3QJUY
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That is awfully sweet and thoughtful of you, but my thinners are quite a bit cheaper than than. Er, free, in fact.
I did read somewhere that rivaroxaban is expensive, around £2 a tablet, already. I must ask my tame pharmacist next time I see him.
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>> I did read somewhere that rivaroxaban is expensive, around £2 a tablet, already. I must
>> ask my tame pharmacist next time I see him.
Hospital consultant put me on dabigatran, when I had to go to my GP for repeat prescriptions, his response was "do you know how much they cost"? I suppose it had to come out of the surgery budget.
When I was on aspirin, I didn't bother with the prescription, IIRC they were 16p/packet. GP asked why I wasn't taking them and I replied I thought the cost of prescribing them vastly outweighed what I was paying and I could afford it.
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>> >> Knock yourselves out (assuming you have AF!):
>> >>
>> >> www.preventaf-strokecrisis.org/calculator/result/
“My annual risk is 1.3%, which is 5x greater than average “
Really. 5x ? Non smoker. Don’t eat any junk food excluding very occasional fish & chips. Past 5 weeks I’ve averaged 20,500 steps a day ( a lot of walking with new hip).
It probably knows about my grrr driving habits
And real ale drinking, although most weeks I have 3 consecutive alcohol free days and never drink alcohol at home…lots of water and tea
Last edited by: legacylad on Thu 23 Mar 23 at 18:17
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>>Really. 5x ?
The calculator assumes you have atrial fibrillation.
If you don't you can divide the risk by 4-5 for a rough guesstimate (ie normal risk in you case) but it's not really for that.
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Not sure about knocking myself out but you could have knocked me over with a feather when I went to renew our travel insurance.
Annual multi-trip incl. Americas, Caribbean and Far East went from £200 to £1200pa.
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I guess these bits of software give an insight into insurance risk calculations.
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Don't want to appear anti-vax over this, but there seems to be some side affect of the mRNA vaccines that causes atrial fibrillation (AF) in some people.
I am disappointed that no real studies have been done in the US to check for vaccine spike protein in the blood after 30 days from vaccination. This seems to be the problem. It isn't supposed to be there and in some people it is. In some cases it is because there are enzymes which only some people genetically have which are able to separate the vaccine spike proteins from the cells programmed to create them by the mRNA vaccine.
Once the spike proteins are loose, they cause all kinds of havoc in ACE receptor sites and also attach the lining of arteries - hence clots or strokes - or accumulate in clumps in the myocardium of the heart. This screws up the heart's rhythm mechanism and can cause AF - or just cardiac arrest.
All viruses have this kind of affect on the heart, so one can't pin the entire problem on the vaccine, but the only known studies i have read specifically genetically sequenced the RNA of the blood spike proteins and because the vaccine has its own unique profile, they knew that was the origin.
As I said, the vulnerable sequence seems to be -
- a couple of shots of AZ vaccine
- then get Covid (this seems to preload the vaccine affect)
- then get an mRNA vaccine
.. and more so amongst men
.. and not all people (in the few studies done it seems to be around 10%)
I have checked because I started getting AF last year - a few months after the 3rd booster. Got an Apple watch that basically alerts you everytime your heart rhythm goes wrong. Sent the single trace ECGs it can do to the GP and they did a 12 trace - no problem. On wait to get a wearable monitor that can do more than the watch.
However, as each month goes by it is getting less. This corroborates with other anecdotal evidence I have had from others. It seems to resolve by itself after about a year - presumably when your body has had long enougth to eliminate the spike proteins from your heart etc.
Your body already has mechanisms to deal with clotting areas and so on, but apparently clotting from the spike are particularly resilient to these as it isn't a natural thing for your body to ever experience.
I am particularly fed up with the fact that no intentional studies have been done wrt to detecting vaccine spike proteins long term in the blood. You would have thought this would be an obvious thing to do. Maybe they have, but don't want to give fuel to the completely anti-vax nutters out there. In this respect the nutters really don't help.
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Further to my post - if you are going down the blood thinners route - one can also consider taking nattokinase.
"Nattokinase has the highest clot-dissolving potency among naturally known anticoagulants"
See: www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/27/17/5405#B10-molecules-27-05405
where it is also maybe effective at destroying the SARS Covid spike protein
More relevant for this overall discussion is the reference article:
www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/18/3/523
You could also try eating the stuff - (Google Natto) - but once you see the image, unlike the Japanese, you may not be so inclined.
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>> Don't want to appear anti-vax over this, but there seems to be some side affect
>> of the mRNA vaccines that causes atrial fibrillation (AF) in some people.
Thats what happens when you remove nearly all the long winded clinical trials that would normally accompany the development of such stuff. Some of the brighter Anti-vaxers were right in that respect.
>> I am particularly fed up with the fact that no intentional studies have been done
>> wrt to detecting vaccine spike proteins long term in the blood.
Was reading a Sunday Times article about the Scientists working on predicting, and beating the next Pandemic. - It will come, it's just a matter of time, problem being that time could be 15 years or 150 years away. The gist was the lost opportunity of dismantling all the resource - labs, systems, people - and not turning it to other medical & virology research.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 24 Mar 23 at 13:00
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25% rise in UK infections in two weeks.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/worst-covid-cases-uk-b2307213.html
Some of the COVID specific research programs in the US have been "repurposed" to cover a broader range of ailments.
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Out of the Blue - TIA - bathtub tom
