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A couple of weeks ago I had an incident where I needed to go to the ER because I had a sudden onset of double vision.  The ER performed some tests and they came back clear and I was discharged.  Since then I had appointments with an ophthalmologist, and neurologist both of who were unable to locate any issues however my neurologist did schedule another MRI to be performed this past Monday.  Yesterday evening around 7pm I got a call from none other than my neurologist stating that the new MRI showed indications of me having a stroke at some point between last September and this past Monday.  He stated that it did not look to be recent but that the evidence was there. 

Last week I got a call from one of my brothers to explain that he had seen a cardiologist for symptoms that he experienced while he was scuba diving in Mexico.  His diagnosis was that he has what is known as a PFO, which in layman’s terms is essentially a condition during development in the womb resulting in a hole between the upper chambers of the heart.  This is fairly common and most of the time people live full lives without ever knowing that they have it but in some cases people with a PFO experience migraine (aura headaches) and PFO’s can cause strokes in “younger” individuals. 

I have follow-ups on Monday with both Cardio and Neuro to see if we can get to a root cause and figure out what the preventative plan will be. Right now it's a baby aspirin every night and I've been increasing my water intake.

Wow! Keep us updated on this, that's a shock!

Praying for you man. PFO is one of those silent killer things that I keep hoping will eventually fall under some of our standard testing once technology gets good enough to make it cheap for everyone to be tested. That tiny hole makes it to where small clots that would have been caught in your lungs can make it to your brain and cause the strokes in younger people.

madwildcat wrote: ↑Thu Jun 10, 2021 8:44 pm Praying for you man. PFO is one of those silent killer things that I keep hoping will eventually fall under some of our standard testing once technology gets good enough to make it cheap for everyone to be tested. That tiny hole makes it to where small clots that would have been caught in your lungs can make it to your brain and cause the strokes in younger people.

Indeed, the only reason it was caught in my younger brother is because he broke out in a rash after a shallow dive in Mexico which had never happened to him before and he's dived multiple times. Evidently the rash was due to nitrogen in his blood breaking smaller capillaries in his skin as it was never expelled through his lungs.

kayt00 wrote: ↑Thu Jun 10, 2021 8:54 pm

madwildcat wrote: ↑Thu Jun 10, 2021 8:44 pm Praying for you man. PFO is one of those silent killer things that I keep hoping will eventually fall under some of our standard testing once technology gets good enough to make it cheap for everyone to be tested. That tiny hole makes it to where small clots that would have been caught in your lungs can make it to your brain and cause the strokes in younger people.

Indeed, the only reason it was caught in my younger brother is because he broke out in a rash after a shallow dive in Mexico which had never happened to him before and he's dived multiple times. Evidently the rash was due to nitrogen in his blood breaking smaller capillaries in his skin as it was never expelled through his lungs.

"Lucky illness".

We have a family friend that recently benefited from a "Lucky Illness". Having an MRI from the earlier episode allowed the Doc to see the rate of growth of a benign brain tumor, leading to the decision to remove it "right now", rather than wait and see. Mysterious ways, indeed.

Prayers for your full recovery, kayt00.

Thanks for the prayers ya'll.

Have an update. Saw the cardiologist and neurologist on Monday. I'm now currently wearing a heart monitor for a month to check and watch for AFib I guess. Next Tuesday I have an appointment for an Echocardiogram w/ bubbles to check for the PFO and I'm also now on cholesterol meds, LDL was sitting at 167. Evidently it's a genetic thing, my dad has cholesterol issues as well was prescribed meds, and he tried going off the meds and tried to just eat right and exercise...he lost 30lbs and his levels actually went up so that's a thing evidently. Bright side it was caught early I guess so corrective actions can be taken.

Just more updates: TEE was positive for PFO and repairable, ultrasound of legs was clear, heart monitor reported back no evidence of having Atrial Fibrillation.

Scheduled to have the PFO repaired on Friday via the cath lab.

Prayers sent

If you or your family need anything, let me know.

Take care. We're sending prayers your way. That's how we do here...at least speaking for myself a 17 yr member of the Forum.

Prayers sent!

Prayers sent from here too.

Prayers from here also

BIG time prayers to be 100% and resume normal life.

this very similar event also happened to my dad. twice, he went to ER with chest pain and weird arm stuff
ER kept blaming it on his diabetes, ran all sorts of tests, nothing stood out. Said he had thick blood and to donate blood regularly


he had an eye doctor appointment a few weeks later and BAM the eye doc asked him when he had the stroke.


one would think an ER would have an eye guy around to maybe look and see how your eyeballs are doing.

My life's been pretty normal since I found out aside from having had more Dr's appointments in a very short amount of time as compared to any other time since birth. Still hunt, shoot, exercise, and annoy my S.O. Others have stated that strokes are far more common than people think, I'm just hoping to be able to stack the odds more in my favor by having the leak patched.