Forgot how to talk!

[kalesmommy]

Hi my name is Tara i'm a 25 year old mother of one, considered obese by my doctor but otherwise healthy. A few days ago I was driving to pick something up in Omaha, about a half hour from where I live. As I was just starting to head home, I noticed something about my hands seemed out of place, I thought it was just because I wasn't used to driving my dads big diesel truck so I tried to blow it off. A few minutes later I noticed my hands started to go numb, so I pulled over to a gas station and called my mom, it was not easy dialing with numb hands and being disoriented. By this point I had a pretty bad headache as well so I told my mom I thought I was having a stroke and she would have to come get me. She called a friend of mine who lived nearby to come sit with me until she got there. By the time he got there I was losing it fast, I had bought some aspirin in the gas station and I was getting them all over the truck trying to manage to get one in my mouth. At first I could talk with my friend, then the sound of his and my voice started to sound really annoying so I decided to stop talking. A few minutes later I tried to tell him that I wanted my window down, but no matter what I tried to say, completely different words came out. For some reason it didn't scare me it just frustrated me. Eventually I could say window window window, by that time my mom was there and she took me to the emergency room. By the time we got there I was completely freaking out. My head hurt like crazy, both arms and my chest were numb, but I couldn't tell anyone anything because some insane jumble of words came out of my mouth. I forget a lot of what happened at the hospital, but apparently since they couldn't understand what I was saying, and I couldnt tell them about my other symptoms, they thouht I was a psycho. I really did not want to be committed, I thought I was dying but I just wanted to go home. They actually had a cop guarding my door, and I kept calling him in to tell him I wanted to go home, I couldn't get the words out though and eventually he would just go back in the hall. At some point my dad brought my son, poor baby. I couldn't talk, i was not at all oriented and my dad brought my 18 month old son in! That didn't last long, I guess I didn't even want to hold him which is highly unlikely for me, and my mom also told me that I was freaking out on her all night, I didn't even notice that she was having chest pains and crying. I was just yelling at her and freaking out pacing the little room. Eventually I calmed down enough to tell the guard that I wanted to go home, as soon as he saw me talking normally he let me go. When I looked at the discharge papers all they said was a temporary loss of mental awareness. On the way home I did not feel well at all, my head hurt, my stomach hurt, I was confused. As soon as I got out of the car in the garage I vomited everywhere. If you knew me, you would know that I do not throw up, the last time I did was 9 years ago, I was completely shocked, but I was still out of it so I kept walking into the house. My family had decided to keep my son until I felt better and at the time I didnt care, I passed out and have been sleeping pretty much non-stop for 3 days. I'm so Tired, I did go see the neurologist, she put me on Topamax, thinking it was a migraine, but if I don't start to feel better soon I have to go for an MRI, has anyone been through this before?

[Vanessa Lacuesta]

Hi,

You have to be thoroughly assessed by an internist and a complete physical, neurologic and mental status examination have to be done.Has your neurologist discussed anything with you? What was their diagnosis? Was a scan done at the ER? Any assessment of cardiac functions?You have mentioned of taking an aspirin? Were you prescribed with aspirin for some condition?

Serious conditions like a transient ischemic attack, a stroke or seizures have to be excluded before migraines be given as a diagnosis.Some migraines may be complicated and present with visual symptoms, numbness, tingling or slurring of speech.  A complete medical history and further diagnostic tests may be able to help rule out the other conditions.

If the symptoms recur, you have to bring yourself immediately to the ER.

[dj543]

Tara,

They didn't think that it was a stoke? I only say that because I had a stroke 10 years ago and I lost my ability to use my right hand, right leg and my speach. I was just sitting in bed and all of a sudden my hands didn't seem to work. I started to get up to get my husband and I realized that my leg was not going to work either. I then tried to call for him. I sounded like I was grunting. He came to see what was wrong. He noticed that the right side of my face was not right. He called 911 right away. The parametics were talking to me all the way to the hopital, asking questions. I kept thinking, don' they know I can't talk. When we got to the hospital, I remember seeing the Dr. on call. I was thinking, oh my gosh, not him. It was the same Dr. I had seen the week before when I had a terrible headache. I guess he thought I was some sort of emotional female on the previous visit because of the way I had been treated. This time was different. They had a Neurologist in there very fast. They did a CAT scan and then decided that they would offer me TPA. TPA is a clot busting medicine that must be given in the first 3 hours for its best effect. They told my husband that it would help me or it could kill me. It helped. Within about 6 to 7 hours I started to be able to talk again. I have made a full recovery. Looking back, I think that my headache may have been the precurser to the stroke.

Did your Neurologist rule out a stroke? I would like to encourage you to call 911 should something like that happen again. I really believe that it saved my life. I don't think you are crazy at all, because you couldn't speak. It seems like they shouldn't have jumped to that conclusion either.

Best of luck to you.

DJ543