Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire You're HAVING A STROKE!

No you're not, not yet, but I did. Last week. It's bad.

No sympathy needed or wanted, and especially no guff about "God's plan" or "lucky," but I learned something I really needed to know beforehand that they DON'T put in the Public Service Announcements, at least here in Montana. All I want from you is for you to read, learn, and maybe save yourself. And maybe if you're a strokee, tell me if I'm right.

The official "code" for stroke as on TV is, F A S T -- Face, Arms, Speech, Time. And even though my blood work shows nothing that would make me a "stroke candidate," I paid attention with the intent of spotting it and helping others get to the hospital, as some of my friends have stroked, some okay, some really not. So I've memorized FAST, right?

So, last Monday night at about 4 AM, I'm on deadline, cranking hard, up on coffee and Copenhagen, stress headache and my eyes get "computer fuzz," which I've had before, almost exactly the same way, same time, two or three times in the last two years. Heck with it, I'll walk home. Halfway through the walk, I feel dizzy and can't see squat, I got lost on a path I can easily walk in full dark with my eyes closed. Got home, thought maybe I should FAST myself, and I did. Recited the Preamble without a hitch, did a couple pushups, checked my face (I could only see half at once), did a drunk test on myself, I was fine, not a bobble. "Heckit, I'll sleep this off as usual." Couple Aleve, to bed, as I'd been fine after sleeping things off before. Maybe I should have chugged some aspirin, because in the AM I was still blind in half my field of vision in both eyes and aspirin is the first thing they give you in the ER. Still am. Sucks.

Off to the ER, too late. 20 grand later, with a couple of snapshots of my head the only take-home besides the bill and the "You've Had A Stroke You Poor Thing" handouts.
In sorting the handouts, there's, you bet, a FAST card, like that's gonna help now? But in the full size sheets, there's another checklist, this one translates as B E F A S T. Well, Bang Me Thuot.
The B and E stand for BALANCE and EYES. Bang Me Thuot, TWICE.

With plenty of time to contemplate, I finally realized the FAST narrative is focused on spotting strokes in others, not in yourself. Had I known about the BE part before FAST, maybe I wouldn't be utterly screwed for the rest of my life, because the B and E is what happens to YOU when YOU'RE HAVING A FACKING STROKE.

And it's especially important for us in the outdoors where there's nobody around to help.

First, the B. If you're walking around, stone cold sober and you start feeling a bar buzz, that's your BALANCE. I felt like I'd had two drinkies, and I hadn't touched a drop in two weeks prior. PAY ATTENTION.

Second, the E. That's eyes. We've all had fuzz outs and tunnel vision, right? That's migraine, because it's a ROUND fuzzout that looks circular, while your center is still okay. Kind of like crawling the scope wrong, that's not a stroke.

In a stroke, you lose ONE side or the other off the vertical crosshair, you can only see half the prairie dog, and BOTH EYES blind in the same part of the sight picture of each. You'll lose the horizontal crosshair on either side, not both, of the vertical. The vertical line between "see" and "blind" is unmistakable, and will move with your eyes.

Put another way, if you look straight at something and can only see half of what you're looking at and expecting to see, split vertically, YOU"RE HAVING A STROKE.

What do you do? Swat aspirin, call help and get to the ER by the fastest possible means, warp speed, period, or you are F0ed beyond belief. Utterly f ed. The life I envisioned for the years I have left is GONE.

Thing is, if I'd ever heard of BE FAST, not just FAST, I'd be telling you about a close call. Don't be me, BE FAST. I slipped through the "public education" cracks on this one, and it's a gaping canyon with my life splattered on the rocks at the bottom. Trust me, the public health/public misinformation "experts" who decided FAST didn't need to BEFAST, or that the public is too stupid to memorize BEFAST, will feel my pain, very soon. I fully intend to quietly find out who was responsible for the production of that advertisement, and they will never, ever forget me.

Glad that you were able to write this.

Sometimes parts that the stroke screwed up start working better in time.

Hope it does for you.

Me and my Father in law were going to a gun shop in Hobbs NM,while stopped at a stop sign i noticed that he was trying to get to his nitro and could open the vial.

never made it to the shop i got him to the hospital and they gave him a shot of something and shipped him off to the big city.

He never said thank you.

The reason i knew was my Father went to a doc appointment and on the way home told Mom he was tired and wanted to take a nap.

After 20-30 minutes she had a hard time waking him up.

She got him to the hospital and they had found he had a blood clot in his brain.

He took months to get some kind of normal life back but he made it.

Don't give up HOPE.

Thanks for sharing...runs in my family and I'll be doing my due diligence on this.

Great advice Dave! 👍

I have no doubt that with your ability for self-awareness rather than the more common reaction,denial, that you’ll make giant strides improving on whatever affects the stroke left you with. Your post was better composed and more lucid than half the posts here

I’ve seen post stroke patients with major Hemiplegia enjoy a remarkable “recovery” of what was considered “permanent”. About the only time “permanent” is applicable in the cases of stroke is death. Keep a good attitude and don’t give up.

I look forward to many more years of reading your posts. God bless.

Dave, If I may ask, how old are you?

Didn't have the vision symptom..my co worker spotted it. I felt off got badgered into going to the ER. you're having a stroke yup it sunk in. Mine was real mild I had a headache before I went to.bed so took 2 aspirin probably what saved me from a major loss of function. 20 k and then some. The cardio doc came to see me the next day asked me a bunch of questions which led to a sleep test. Yup sleep apnea bad, now use a cpap. Before he left my room he said you have lost strength on your right side and need PT. I asked how they determined that? He said remember the nurse asking you to squeeze her 2 fingers? I said yeah he said your grip is weak sure sign of strength loss. I told him I didn't want to hurt her he laughed and said can t be done and stuck his 2 fingers out and said squeeze these. I did and he decided I didn't need any PT
Advice to a group of people who are experts by their own admission about everything ? If you are on bp meds make damn sure you take them without FAIL everyday and take a 81 mg aspirin with your men's plus 50 multi vitamin. Watch your weight, regular exercise everyday. Your doc says to crap you say where , when and how much. Getting old ain't for sissies it tough to age and decline some never make it. Mine happened in sept of 2014 when I was 59, I am 66 now ,hitting on all 8. Carefully watch your own denials everyone who has a stroke and survives it without loss just thinks they happen to some one else and find out that not so. Mb

Well done Dave get well

Great info, thanks. I hope you can, or soon will be able to, do whatever you once did.

I been on the lookout for these symptoms, I even took an 8 week semester on cpr, stroke, first aid.

I thought I was having a stroke recently. My legs went all numb on the crapper, stood up eyes went black.

Was just constipated.

I’m glad youre going to be ok.

I had 2 bigguns , one while asleep, 1 driving down the road. I knew something wrong on the one driving. when I Had the sleeper, my wife walked by and took one look at my eyes, and called my neurologist, she got me to the er.

Thanks for the info Dave.

Supremely glad you are alive to tell us about your experience.

I already have aspirin in my "goin' to town" pants pocket, need to remember to get some in the yardwork pair too.

Going to town pants and going to town velcro E-Tonics

I can’t recall the number of MI’s or DOA’s I encountered over the years that occurred while the patient was on the toilet but it’s very common for people to have an MI from intense and repeated valsalva maneuvers. Glad you survived.....😁

God bless you, Dave. You will improve.

Bruh,

quit with the E-tonics.

I'm a goin' to town snow sandals type of boomer.

Valsalva? Is that like Kegel muscles for your butt?

Slum is constipated alla time and his bud Rene is FOS half tha tyme.

Ace, a sudden drop in blood pressure makes you feel the urge to have a bowel movement. That's why so many are found dead in the bathroom.

Had a half blind TIA couple of months ago. Vision returned after three days.

Rest rings.

Look at a turd as see indentions ever so often. Rest rings. Gotta get another bite...

It’s like bearing down on the toilet to drop a Biden 😳