Just found out I’ve had a silent mini stroke (TIA). Had this?

Two days ago I was on my boat fishing. I had been on the water for about five hours. As I’m an avid fisherman, I had forgotten to take my blood pressure med that morning.I was sitting on a seat and rigging up a line for a different soft bait, when I could not focus my eyes. I was seeing a different picture in each eye. Then when I would close one eye, it wouldn’t track to a moving object. A you can imagine, that was quite spooky. I had one line in the water and cut that with my knife I managed to stow the trolling motor, fired the engine up, and took off for my sons house where I store my boat on his lift. Five minutes out I texted my son and told him to meet me at the lift and that it was an emergency. Less than 15 minutes later we were at the hospital. After telling the people in the front, what happened, They admitted me. My blood pressure at the time was 156/86. My normal blood pressure is in the normal range unless I forget my blood pressure med. During the next 24 hours, I had a CT scan, both with contrast and without, heart, x-rays, MRI, and more blood tests than I can repeat, all of which were negative. The doctors diagnosed it as a TIA. As anyone who has ever been admitted in a hospital, there is not much rest. Your nighttime sleep is divided between blood pressure monitoring, stomach injections for dissolving clots, changing out intervenous fluid bags, and other activities the nurses have for you. Naturally, when I got home, I was pretty tired. The next day, however, I should’ve bounced right back according to the doctors. Instead, I’ve been exhausted all day, with three naps of about an hour each, I normally work full-time on commercial aircraft, so my energy level is way up there. A nap for me is usually 10 to 15 minutes. My age is 74, and I’m in peak health for my age. After a TIA, is it normal to be exhausted like this?

@westwoman3698
You are so right that knowing about the tia’s helped us stroke when it happened
When I had a stroke and they did an mri they discovered I’d been having multiple tias. Wish I had known
Only indications of any problems was that my foot would “fall asleep”
occasionally after I’d been working at my computer
Didn’t find that odd at the time. Wish I had

I had TIA, didn’t realize until routine brain MRI for MS two months later. Remember mentioning to someone that I couldn’t get my body to do what I wanted. Went to bed for days. Then I had stroke a couple months later. Hospital, all the in-home therapies for months. Probably wouldn’t have been able to ID stroke if not for info given after TIA. Best wishes.

After a fall and head injury, I accepted advice to be taken to an emergency room for a head Ct scan.
Only because of these posts was I able to realize what happened to me in the ER.

I was diagnosed with an “old” TIA 3 years later.
I was puzzled by the fact that I could recall no TIA symptoms like those described in these posts. I was left for hours in the ER hallway AND allowed myself to be discharged WITHOUT a Ct Scan of my head. I had my phone with me but it did not occur to me to contact family members when I was literally abandoned in the ER.
I am not that kind of person my friends would tell you. My probable TIA rendered me incapable of advocating for myself.
Maybe another reason to have an advocate in the hospital even if it looks like a hangnail.

@kikiluu - wondering how your doctor appointment went?

@guyrien
Sorry to hear of your wife's troubles. Am very interested to hear about her health and treatments for her. I am also a female in my mid fifties and had a TIA over Thanksgiving. Getting with doctor this afternoon for follow up. Hope your wife is feeling better.

I am 71 and had retinal surgery and at my post-op visit the surgeon discovered I had a retinal vein occlusion which is a stroke within the retina. I am taking treatment for this and when I told my primary care provider she ordered a carotid ultrasound. I was diagnosed with CAD & have an appointment with a cardiologist soon. CAD runs in my family and I was healthy - eating well, exercising for 40+ years. I went from not taking a statin to one of the most powerful statins. I actually feel better as I had started having problems with my heart rate going too high during cardio at the gym. My recovery time was getting bad also. I just thought I need to go to the gym more often! The retinal surgeon not only saved my sight he probably helped save my life.

@lisalucier
Oh, I’ve also always read that TIAs don’t cause permanent damage. Not sure if that’s true after what the neurologist said, but I just read that temporary damage can last weeks or months. I had always thought of temporary as being days.

@lisalucier
The neurologist just said he can’t tell if the damage is temporary or permanent but it’s new and either way I need to be on blood thinners. They wanted to put me on Lipitor too but I can’t take statins with my neuropathy. He said now that I’ve had a TIA my LDL needs to be under 70 instead of the usual 100. It’s at 97 now. I was also told 10% of people that have a TIA will have a full stroke within 30 days.

@californiazebra - that does sound scary and like quite the experience with your TIA. Glad you are feeling a little more normal today. What did the doctors tell you to expect for continued recovery from the TIA back at home?