Dealing With Headaches

I think my Mom had a stroke this afternoon. The doctors still don’t know what happened to her. She’s in the hospital and resting and being watched over. She must’ve been feeling better — she ordered me to go home, otherwise I definitely wouldn’t be typing this. So, I thought I’d just throw a reminder out there to everyone about the signs of stroke.

What To Watch Out For

These are the biggies:

• Sudden migraine, although a headache on both sides of the head can happen, too
• Numbness or tingling in arms or legs
• Nausea
• Blurred or double vision
• Trouble speaking
• Dizziness or inability to suddenly move around as usual

Despite popular belief, you don’t have to have chest pains to have a stroke. Also, if your loved one argues with you about how much they don’t need to go to the hospital, ignore them. Call an ambulance anyway. Mom started to put up an argument until she started to have trouble talking, so I got the ambulance.

Who Is At Risk For a Stroke

You don’t have to have all of these to be at risk for a stroke. For example, my Mom doesn’t smoke and doesn’t have high blood pressure. Anyway, the big risks are:

• High blood pressure
• Being a smoker
• Being a drinker
• Taking illegal drugs
• High cholesterol
• A family history of heart problems, stroke or TIA
• Being overweight
• Being black
• Having either type of diabetes
• Being on hormone therapy or birth control pills
• Cardiovascular disease or other heart problem

So, basically, if you’re a human being, you’re at risk for stroke.

Mom’s Headache

Again, I have to stress that at this moment I don’t know if Mom had a TIA, stroke or a really bad day. But all of the doctors and ambulance folk I bumped into said that they would’ve called an ambulance, too, had their mother exhibited these symptoms.

The very first sign was the migraine. It started when she woke up this morning around her ear on the left side of her head and was piercing. A Percoset took care of it for a while (Mom had spinal surgery last year, so she’s on Percoset for a good reason). However, by the afternoon, it had returned and brought along some friends.

Oy ee vey.