Is it possible to detect or diagnose a mild stroke many years after it has occurred? I'm currently 45 years old, but about 18 years ago, shortly after my 27th birthday, I believe I experienced an event which in my opinion was very likely a mild stroke.
Back when the incident occurred, I immediately began feeling strong symptoms. I of course immediately went to the family physician seeking assistance. I was sent for CAT scan, which they told me was negative, and then later sent for MRI scan, which they also told me was negative.
However, from that very day of 18 years ago, I have nevertheless continued to feel certain symptoms very strongly. The first thing that I began experience from that moment onwards was very acute hypersensitivity to noise, which I had never previously experienced in all my life. Even the tiniest noises would cause me acute pain inside my head. Even today after 18 years, I continue to have significant hypersensitivity to noise, although not as bad as back then. Another thing was that I immediately felt sharp pain in a particular spot in my head, along with a strong feeling of soreness. That spot later became a "stiff spot" inside my head - feeling like a scab. Additionally, around that spot there was a cyclical feeling of local fluid buildup (bleeding?) as if there was a small pimple inside my head that was ready to burst. Periodically, it felt like the "pimple" had indeed burst and the pressure relieved. Then gradually over the following days, the "pimple" felt like it was growing again and filling with more fluid, accompanied by a feeling of renewed pressure buildup. This would happen cyclically, over and over. There was an intense feeling of congestion inside my head, particularly around the pain spot. In the weeks and months that followed the initial onset, a feeling of intense inflammation later developed across my entire brain, causing me to feel as if my entire brain was on fire. Eventually, I began to experience problems like garbled speech, and writing my own signature became difficult.
All of these symptoms/sensations developed before I got the MRI done. The neurologist told me that my MRI showed no evidence of any "iron deposit", and that this was the necessary criteria for recognizing any brain injury as having occurred. As a non-medical person, I didn't feel that I was in any position to argue with a neurologist, even though I continued to feel my symptoms very vividly.