Tiny Tias down to AF?

[kkatz]

Hi I have posted re my Tias before but things have moved on and have been discharged from neurology twice. I had a very small one 5 mins & really cannot see any point in going back to the docs. Last discharge was Thursday & small tia today. yes xmas day.Very mild & short.Didnt really see any point in going to A & E.On discharge by neurologist on Thursday. I was told I have had all the tests , arteries clear & medicated so discharged.

On my last overnight stay in November the head brain attack nurse suggested it might be orthostatic or could it be hydrostatic . If my heart skips a beat the blood is inot being pushed to the brain . he suggested that I stop one of my BP drugs. doxasozan .it is alpha-blocking and a vasodilator.

Any ideas . Inclined to think I just after put up with them.

[10gingercats]

In my humble opinion and not as a human doc i think it important you do report even tiny TIAS to your GP.TIAs can form a pattern and at least your \GP needs to have them on record. I had a smallish TIA a few years ago and the docs thought it was 'just' AFib.....there was no weight prob. and no high blood pressure ..... but it turned out to be a suspect embolism due to a hole in the heart. The cardiologist decided to close the hole....a day job and no gen. anaest. and So far I have been fine and my heart condition has improved a bit all round esp. with regard to pumping acord. to an echo.I had done recently.

[MarkS]

A TIA is a temporary blockage of the arteries in the brain whereas if it is orthostatic or hydrostatic it means that you are feeling faint on standing due to a reduction in blood pressure. The two seem very different (and I am not an expert). Did you get an MRI scan of your brain which showed clots?

Do you normally have high blood pressure? If so, perhaps there are other BP medicines you could take. Presumably you are on an anti-coagulant? I used to feel faint on standing some of the time when I was in AF, particularly if I had been slouching. I used more upright chairs, used to lean forward first for a couple of seconds and then stand.

Can you take more exercise? That would improve your BP and make your heart stronger.

[kkatz in reply to MarkS]

Hi MarkS,I had all-sorts of scans no clots but had to have a carotid endarterectomy in June.I have had 3 Tia's since all very mild and each one milder.the first one they presumed it was down to stopping my edoxaban for an op. 2nd the second one they rescanned my arteries and they are fine no reason there to cause Tia,

[Buffafly]

No ideas, sorry, but I would be grateful if you could explain how you recognise you are having a TIA? I am asking because I had a 'turn' I didn't report, too late now but info for the future could be helpful.

[10gingercats in reply to Buffafly]

Mine was classic.Right arm felt numb and fingers,slightly dropped right face and slight slur in speech.When i tried to write it was quite tiny and not like my usual quite large writing. Mr reading was also a bit 'wonky'.

[Polski in reply to Buffafly]

I had two TIAs which were quite different to the descriptions above. The first time I started to lose balance/consciousness, but 'came to' within a fraction of a second just slightly tilted to the right (and still standing) which I quickly corrected, but the person I speaking to saw it and conducted me very carefully back to my seat in the room. I didn't know what it was about, and didn't consult a doctor.

The second time was similar initially. I was sitting down and felt myself going, but didn't lose consciousness, and quickly righted myself. I started to see flashing lights, identical in both eyes (which seems to have indicated that the problem was in the brain, not the eye) which continued for over 24 hours so I attended A & E . . . They diagnosed a 'TIA' and then kept me in for a few days so they could discover the cause - and I left with the diagnosis of AF. (I should have gone to A & E earlier: damage to the brain from the TIA would then have been less, and my eyesight/balance would probably not have been affected at all. Fortunately the long term effects are still very slight)

So I guess the effect on the body of the TIA depends on where in the brain the 'mini-clot' is. (The moral of the story seems to be - go to A & E quick, so they can minimise any damage, perhaps with some kind of drip)

[pip_pip]

Hi. Yes. How did you know it was a small stroke. ?

P

[kkatz in reply to pip_pip]

Do google it I can only explain my experiences. The hardest part to explain is probably what you would describe as a funny turn . I just feel dissasociated then the other symptoms are how I recognise it as a tia. Numbness and or weakness one sided. Early ones before my carotid op were virtually all one side, arm ,leg. last one just left hand & lower arm. unable to raise both arms & hold them there. trouble with speech & swallowing. latest one could raise arms , one slightly higher than other. Speech struggled with one word in quick brown fox etc.

from start to finish under 5 minutes.

[Buffafly in reply to kkatz]

Thank you, much better than reading official info!

[Auriculaire in reply to Buffafly]

I find the official info too simplistic. Yesterday I was gardening and when I got up from a kneeling position found my right leg felt weak and I found walking difficult. Later I felt a bit unwell - hard to describe just not myself. I started to wonder if it might be a TIA but I had none of the symptoms listed apart from leg weakness and that could be due to a back problem. Today the leg still feels unsteady and I feel ok apart from increased clumsiness but I have had that from time to time anyway. I just don't know what to think or whether to go to the doctor. I have had no speech slurring or droopy face .

[Buffafly in reply to Auriculaire]

I had a very bad brief dizzy spells once and felt 'off' for a day or two, only much later realised it could have been a TIA. It's hard to know what to do isn't it? I reported it to my cardiologist when I saw him because I thought it might have been a heart pause but when he asked me how I had felt later I could see what he was thinking.

When my husband had a stroke he suddenly became clumsy, couldn't ply a card game he was usually very good at and then got lost on the way home, so no doubt about that, shame his friends didn't have some sense.

[Auriculaire in reply to Buffafly]

I will go to the doctor tomorrow. When I tried to write down some items on the shopping list tonight I found I could not write normally. It was much more squiggly and untidy than usual .