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Does It Hurt?
This may sound like a strange question but does having a stroke hurt? Is there pain that accompanies ans ischemic stroke?
The reason I ask is that my Dad died a year ago the 16th of this month (June). He "stroked out" as it is called in the vernacular. He was 18 months post quadruple bypass and 6 years post triple shunt insertion and he had also been in A-Fib for a couple of years. Naturally he was on coumadin to keep clots from forming. He did not watch his levels (PT INR) well and loved to eat salad. You can do that on coumadin but you have to monitor your coumadin level closely or you can develop a clot and suffer a stroke. My Dad never watched his levels well and it caught up to him in 07. In 5 weeks he went from an active, fairly healthy 76 year old to riding home with me in a very pretty little wooden box in the back of my minivan.
The first - farily massive - stroke took away his ability to speak intellligibly. He had at least two more in the two weeks between his first stroke and the time I was able to fly to where he was living with my son in New Mexico. When I saw him his head was really no longer in the game. Sometimes it seemed as if he knew what was going on but most of the time he did not seem to be with us.
What I want to know from you folks who have had the misfortune to experience an ischemic stroke first hand is: Does it hurt? When that first massive event occurred was there pain involved? He was not conscious when my Granddaughter found him in his little motorhome on my Son's place.
He chose to go out to New Mexico (from our home town of San Antonio, Texas) to live with my son. Though my son was adopted and he and my Dad never met until my son was 10, it was an instant love match. Dad spent his last days with my son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren and except for the fact that my Mother had passed a few months before he moved I believed it was just about the happiest time of his life. He got to be Grandpa and he got to be with my son whom he adored.
But I want - no I NEED - to know if he suffered. Tears are streaming down my face as I write this. I have to - HAVE TO - know if he suffered. I know he passed peacefully because the nurse who found him said he had a very peaceful expression on his face. But did the first event hurt?
Can somebody PLEASE tell me? Please?
Bionic Bill
The reason I ask is that my Dad died a year ago the 16th of this month (June). He "stroked out" as it is called in the vernacular. He was 18 months post quadruple bypass and 6 years post triple shunt insertion and he had also been in A-Fib for a couple of years. Naturally he was on coumadin to keep clots from forming. He did not watch his levels (PT INR) well and loved to eat salad. You can do that on coumadin but you have to monitor your coumadin level closely or you can develop a clot and suffer a stroke. My Dad never watched his levels well and it caught up to him in 07. In 5 weeks he went from an active, fairly healthy 76 year old to riding home with me in a very pretty little wooden box in the back of my minivan.
The first - farily massive - stroke took away his ability to speak intellligibly. He had at least two more in the two weeks between his first stroke and the time I was able to fly to where he was living with my son in New Mexico. When I saw him his head was really no longer in the game. Sometimes it seemed as if he knew what was going on but most of the time he did not seem to be with us.
What I want to know from you folks who have had the misfortune to experience an ischemic stroke first hand is: Does it hurt? When that first massive event occurred was there pain involved? He was not conscious when my Granddaughter found him in his little motorhome on my Son's place.
He chose to go out to New Mexico (from our home town of San Antonio, Texas) to live with my son. Though my son was adopted and he and my Dad never met until my son was 10, it was an instant love match. Dad spent his last days with my son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren and except for the fact that my Mother had passed a few months before he moved I believed it was just about the happiest time of his life. He got to be Grandpa and he got to be with my son whom he adored.
But I want - no I NEED - to know if he suffered. Tears are streaming down my face as I write this. I have to - HAVE TO - know if he suffered. I know he passed peacefully because the nurse who found him said he had a very peaceful expression on his face. But did the first event hurt?
Can somebody PLEASE tell me? Please?
Bionic Bill
I know exactly how you feel. I recently lost my father-in-law to what they think was a stroke. I have been hoping and praying that he was not in pain. I love him so much and cannot bear the thought that his last moments were full of pain. He looked so peaceful when he was found, but I need to know for sure.
2 Comments
My sweet special needs brother passed quietly just before bedtime last night and as bad as this was I am glad to hear he did not suffer and may have not known what was happening. My heart is breaking right now because he had just been for his annual physical and he passed with flying colours. Sudden unexpected death is like a knife to your heart because you do not have the time to remind them they were loved. God bless Frankie.....your twin sister.
We are very sorry, janetlumb, for your loss. We do have a grief and loss community and many supportive members. We are thinking of you, your brother and your family.
Thank you, Jimmy. I know at the end he didn't feel anything because he went in his sleep. The Doctor figured the last stroke took out his hind brain and the organism simply shut down. I was just wondering about the time after his first massive event. He was alone in the RV for a couple of hours before my granddaughter (whom he loved dearly and who was equally fond of him) found him.
I suppose it sounds silly to worry about this a year later but it has been bothering me. More so of late since the 1st anniversary of his passing was 2 weeks ago. Last year Father's Day was the day after my Dad died and my wife and I were rushing the 800 odd miles from San Antonio to Truth or Consequences NM to take care of his arrangements. This year - due to 08 being leap year - Father's day was the day BEFORE the anniversary of my Dad's death and my wife was in South Carolina with her dad. I was alone that day and the next. I went alone to the National Cemetary at Ft. Sam Houston where my folks are. It was hard but I believe I have a duty to go and remember them.
Bionic Bill
I suppose it sounds silly to worry about this a year later but it has been bothering me. More so of late since the 1st anniversary of his passing was 2 weeks ago. Last year Father's Day was the day after my Dad died and my wife and I were rushing the 800 odd miles from San Antonio to Truth or Consequences NM to take care of his arrangements. This year - due to 08 being leap year - Father's day was the day BEFORE the anniversary of my Dad's death and my wife was in South Carolina with her dad. I was alone that day and the next. I went alone to the National Cemetary at Ft. Sam Houston where my folks are. It was hard but I believe I have a duty to go and remember them.
Bionic Bill
You may rest assured, you father didn't probably didn't suffer in any way, shape or form. At least, in the extent that I've known a "stroke," I have not suffered any pain because of it.
I suffered a very mild one, receiving only a very small problem with memory loss and speaking, it occurred in a part of the brain called the Thalmus, if you're wondering...
To put it very, very simply, the brain does not possess pain receptors, so therefore your father probably didn't feel anything in his head. If anything, your father would have experienced pain coming from his liver, but that is highly doubtful, for nearly all with Hepatic ischemia do not experience any pain.
If it is any consolation, your father was most likely at peace when he died.
- stjimmyisgone
I suffered a very mild one, receiving only a very small problem with memory loss and speaking, it occurred in a part of the brain called the Thalmus, if you're wondering...
To put it very, very simply, the brain does not possess pain receptors, so therefore your father probably didn't feel anything in his head. If anything, your father would have experienced pain coming from his liver, but that is highly doubtful, for nearly all with Hepatic ischemia do not experience any pain.
If it is any consolation, your father was most likely at peace when he died.
- stjimmyisgone
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