Abdomen pain

[Happy4life]

Hi everyone,Diagnosed in 2021. PV venesections and asprin current treatment. Yesterday I had an "event" that is worrying me. I had a sudden sharp pain in my abdomen above the belly button that lasted about 20 mins but it was intense. In the hour before I noticed blurred vision and trouble pronouncing some words. Left me feeling a bit blah like I had taken some strong pain meds. However as the worst resolved quickly I didn't feel the need to seek medical attention and I also have a gp appt tomorrow in which I will raise it. Could this have been a micro clotting event? Looking for some guidance as it has never happened before . I feel stuck between feeling over dramatic and silly for not seeking immediate medical attention. 🙃

[hunter5582]

Pain is a warning that something is wrong. What you experienced should not be ignored. It could be something minor and easily resolved but it would not be prudent to assume anything. Definitely get it checked out.

Please do let us know what you learn and how you get on.

[EPguy]

You likely had a strong TIA or mini stroke. ( transient ischemic attack) Two of your symptoms are on this list:

*Sudden confusion, trouble speaking, or difficulty understanding speech.

*Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.

"If your stroke symptoms go away after a few minutes, you may have had a transient ischemic attack (TIA), also sometimes called a "mini-stroke." Although brief, a TIA is a sign of a serious condition that will not go away without medical help.

Unfortunately, because TIAs clear up, many people ignore them. But paying attention to a TIA can save your life. If you think you or someone you know has had a TIA, tell a health care team about the symptoms right away."

cdc.gov/stroke/signs-sympto...

--

Be sure to discuss in every detail at your Dr visit tomorrow. "feeling over dramatic and silly for not seeking immediate medical attention" can have bad outcomes with this event.

Are your blood counts all in range? Before I got Dx and treatment I used to get what I now know were TIAs, I had many in the few years prior to Dx . But I didn't get the more well defined indicators you just had.

[Happy4life in reply to EPguy]

Thankyou for the info EPguy

[Happy4life]

Thankyou Hunter, will let you know

[Amethist]

definitely chat with your gp about this and they can do a d-dimer test to check for clotting issues as a minimum.

I would keep notes of this event so that if it happens again, you have the history well documented.

Hopefully it was just an odd one off.

[saltmarsh]

Strongly agree with the previous posts. I'm 77 and 8 years ago (prior to pv diagnosis) experienced a tia that lasted for about 3 minutes during which I completely lost vision in one eye. The eye returned to normal and my cardiologist put me on low dose aspirin which has continued as part of the pv treatment. Importantly I haven't had a recurrence since.

I can't stress enough the importance of getting this checked out. Good luck

[Minify]

Definitely seek medical attention! I was shocked when I had a stroke in 2019 (prior to my ET diagnosis), when my only symptoms were flashing lights in my eyes (visual aura) and a vague sensation of drifting to the right. I called my doctor and nurse said “go to ER.” I had zero risk factors for stroke, no family history of CV disease, and everyone was shocked when the CT confirmed an acute small stroke. Fortunately full recovery, and an exhaustive search for cause (never discerned, but I now suspect it was early ET).

My point is : DO NOT IGNORE symptoms suspicious of stroke. Your speech and vision symptoms are significant.

Good luck!

[EPguy in reply to Minify]

Interesting your mention of the vague sensation of drifting to the right. This was quite like my TIA experiences, while mine also had a gentle downward pull on the right side of the head. It stopped once I got blood counts controlled, esp PLT.

I've since had brain MRI as I succumbed to Sjogren's, nothing found.

[Happy4life]

Update. So I had a MRI and results came back finding a small 1.5mm aneurysm on the left side of my brain. GP expressed opinion that it is too small to cause the symptons I experienced but gave a referral to a neurosurgeon to ask all my questions. Thankyou all for your support it means a great deal to me xx