PREGNANCY AFTER STROKE

[chynadoll29]

I AM A 29 YEAR OLD STROKE SURVIVOR I HAVE LEFT SIDED WEAKNESS NO USE OF MY LEFT ARM AT ALL.I HAVE NO CHILDREN AND I'M WONDERING WHEN AND IF IT WILL EVER BE OK TO THINK ABOUT HAVING THEM AND WHAT STEPS WILL I NEED TO TAKE

[charly84]

Im 26 yr old and have a 6yr old lil girl. In April 2010 I had a cerebellar stroke which has left me with balance problems and a useless left hand. I saw my doc in Jan 2011 re contraception and she advised that I should never consider having any more children, as the risks were too high. After missed periods I was told it was probably my body "protecting" itself, however yesterday I did a home test and found out I am actually pregnant. Im terrified, am due to see the doc tomorrow but am trying to work out my options in my own head. I want to be here for my little girl not more disabled or even worse not here any more. Has anyone any ideas?

[beej143]

i had a stroke 2 years ago 7 days after our son was born... i was 37.... we had an uneventful delivery... i was released from the hospital and then began suffering a head ache so intense that it went down my neck and into my back... we went to the hospital waited for hours for the doc to tell me i had an epideral leak in my spine to come back in the am to get a spine patch... we went home and went to bed... around 3 in the am i got up to go potty and i couldnt clean my episatomy using my left hand... i couldnt pull up my jammie bottoms on the left side and i walked into walls gettin back to bed...none of this i found alarming... my partner asked me some questions which i thought i answered correctly but guess she didnt  and then called the er... they told her to rush me back to the hospital....
i dont remember much of my stay... and my short term memory is still fried... but i do have use of my left side just weakness when tired and i get bad headaches and awful migrains... my neuro tells me to take aleeve and thats it which doesnt touch the migrains... this is my 3rd neurologist..(btw)
all the docs here were left scratching their heads because since the odds of a post partum stroke are 8 out of 100,000 they only read about it in text books... and no hands on... i was told no more babies by both my obgyn and several of my neuros.... no one knows why i stroked or how to prevent them... just that now i am prone to more in the future..(i still have an adnormal vein in my brain like the first one that blew a quarter size hole in my right temple) sooo needless to say i have bad anxiety going to sleep at nite especially when i have a head ache since i storked in my sleep.... i cant have anymore babies (thank goodness my partner is in fab health and wants to carry our next child) i cant loose any baby weight because i have to watch my bp or i start seeing my pulse in my eyes which leads into headaches i cant walk too far because i get too tired to get back and i cant drive to far out of the way because i forget how to get back home...but i am still blessed... we have two teenage daughters and a healthy toddler son... and a wife that wants to help grow our family even more!!
i knew i was done havin babies after our son because of my age but having your doctor tell u no more still is heart wrenching nd sooo final.. u know...
thanks for reading and god bless!! feel free to email me with any questions or comments... b.***@****

[Jenhaught]

I'm 36, and I had a left temporal lobe stroke last 4th of July. I was on my laptop, and the next thing I knew, I was trying to pick my mouse up off the floor and I couldn't do it. It seemed to me as if kept jumping whenever I went to pick it up. This seemed comical to me then. But then I realized something was wrong, and I called for my 12 yr old son. I was unable to speak clearly, and after a phone call to my parents and my best friend (who's a nurse), he called 911.
The only side effects I have now are a loss of sensation on my right side (sometimes my right hand feels really hot or really cold) and at times I have a hard time multi-tasking. When I tell people this, they laugh and just say they're the same way, it's just our age. Which irritates me, because I know that's not the case.
I just went to my OBGYN, and he told me that I'd be at risk of having another stroke if I were to become pregnant. This breaks my heart, because I only have one child and always wanted to have more. They think my stroke was cause by some clotting disorders (pai-1 and factor 13x). Does anyone else have these disorders? From what I hear, they're not all that common.

[christineac]

I had a stroke when I was 26 and now am 28.  We are thinking about having our first child!  My stroke initially began with the worst migraine I had ever had in my life. Like a nail being driven into my head.  I went to take another Excedrine and got to the bathroom sink.  My headache seemed to get extremely worse for a few seconds then I felt my right side getting weaker.  I slowly brought myself to the floor.  I sat for a second and was a little confused.  I tried to tell my husband what was going on but I just couldn't speak and when I did, I could barely get it out.  A few minutes later I was "fine" and my headache was gone.  I went and sat on my office chair and felt really weak and numb on my entire right body side.  Kinda like when your foot goes numb before it feels prickly.  I got up and walked it off (or tried to anyway).  I didn't think anything of it and went to work the next morning feeling the same way.  It was strange driving. I was able to concentrate, speak, etc. but, still felt numb and weak.  I was told by one of the partners that I was walking really slow and my feet were dragging and that my speech was slow.  I had my husband pick me up bring me to the doc's and immediately was sent to the hospital.  Come to find out, I had a large stroke on the left side of my thalamus.  They did a TEE and found a hole in my heart.  They immediately took me off birth control (since that is what they think caused the clotting) and put me on the usual thinners.  Two months later I had the hole closed and I am doing fine.  I still have weakness, occasional numbness, occasional memory loss and am starting to get "spacicity" in my arm and thigh.  I was told that I too will have to see a high-risk OBGYN and most likely have to have a C-section when I do become pregnant.  My appointment is in a few weeks so, we will see how it goes!  I have been instructed by my neurologist and cardiologist to continue to exercise normally until I see the high-risk specialist.

[fazthart]

I had what is believed to be a lacunar stroke a little over 1 year ago while 7 months pregnant with baby #2.  I had all the tests in the world done:  CT, MRI, MRA, EKC, EEG, blood work, TEE (while completely awake, since I was pregnant, and I chose to have it done awake -- not sure why anyone would not have this test done if offered since it can provide valuable information about a possible hole in the heart causing stroke-like symptoms).    

The only abnormal test results I got was that my Circle of Willis (a blood pathway in the back of the head) was slightly abnormal in that one side bulged and the other constricted.  The neurologist said it was nothing to worry about, just something that was a slight variant of normal.  Also, I was put on low molecular weight heparin (Lovenox) right away to be taken for the rest of my pregnancy.  I religiously took the shots twice a day but still had more stroke-like attacks anyway.  I was very angry at the neurologist who was not willing to do anything more to help me.  Each time I had an attack I was left with more and more neuro deficits on my right side (numbness, stiffness).  I stopped going to the ER because all they did was tell me there was nothing more they could do.  I went and saw a stroke specialist then, at 37 weeks pregnant.  He told me I did NOT have a stroke since I was taking heparin shots at the time and still continued to have more attacks.  So I completely went off blood thinners for the rest of pregnancy and had no problems whatsoever since then.  But I still had no diagnosis or reason for the attacks.

I have recently seen a new neurologist, one year after this whole event took place, who brought "lacunar stroke" to my attention.  I had never heard of it before.  However, it does seem to fit my symptoms.  First in that heparin is not going to help prevent it from happening at all; only aspirin will.  Also, can be caused by slight variations in the Circle of Willis, which was one of my very first test findings.  I am kind of sad that if only I had been switched from heparin to aspirin I might not have lasting neurological deficits.  It worries me out there to read so many women write about taking Lovenox, when it might not be treating their particular type of stroke that they had at all.  

I am just happy to be alive and with 2 little girls, I am not going to risk my health for any more.  I want to be sure I can take care of them and not the other way around.

[gdtowers]

I'm really glad that I have found this forum.
Unlike everybody else here, I am the husband and my wife had a TIA (mini stroke) in June 2009.
The reasons behind the stroke to this day have never been answered. The doctors initially tried every test (apart from the TEE - transesophogeal echocardiogram). No answers were found.
The background of events behind the stroke are what we truly believe hold the answer to the event itself.
My wife had been on microgestin birth control tablets for a number of years and had on a number of occasions doubled up! She had been on a diet and lost over 5 stone. She never smoked. She was in a hugely stressfull job and one month before the stroke (almost to the day) she was involved in a car accident which left her with whip lash and the usual bruising etc. She never drank nearly enough water throughout the day and generally a little more than advised amount of alcohol.
Two days before the stroke happened she had been to see a physio relating to the car accident injuries and came away feeling in a great deal of pain and felt that she had done more damage than good.
The stroke actually happened when she went to pick a piece of paper up from the floor and found that she couldnt pick it up, just kept dropping it. She came and told me about the incident and found it hard to speak.
We went to A&E and after about four hours were discharged with the doctors saying it was an allergic reaction to food.
The next morning she told me about extremely severe headaches that she had through the night and her speach had become worse along with the use of her arm.
Immediately we called the ambulance and got taken in where she was eventually later that day diagnosed with a TIA.
My wife had never been in hospital in her life, never needed the doctors for illnesses and therefore was so scared that coupled with a fear of injections was tremendously hard for her.
After about three days she was discharged and given a number of meds to take each day (all of the usual like folic acid, aspirin etc etc). The meds got changed over a number of months as she became suseptable to bruising very easily.
After being discharged there was no further support from the health service offered to deal with what had happened. We felt like we were just booted out of the door and left to deal with it, deal with a completely new way of life.
I cant imagine how this felt to my wife and since then she has suffered severe anxiety and depression.
A couple of months ago we went to see the specialist baby doctors (sorry I dont know what theyre called - with seeing so many doctors you loose track a little).
The first doctor was a very patronising person who basically said that in order for them to suggest any plans and routes through pregnancy that she need to have the TEE to have a further look at the heart. The doctor in no way understood how traumatic even the thought of this was and the likelyhood of it happening was little to none unless (in my wifes words) "unless I was going to die".
We then got told to go away and have a think about it and come back in two months.
Well, we made an appointment to go back a month later and see a different doctor who was told how her colleague had spoken to us. This doc was great and she explained everything to us and why they would reccommend heperin and the fact that she refused a TEE meant that she would need to be treated as if she had a hole in the heart.
We left this meeting after an hour feeling very positive and got told "come back when youre pregnant and we will go through everything from there"
The neurologist saw us for a one year check up and was really pleased to say "thats it, theres no need to see me again, have a happy life" and then we told him about wanting to try for a baby.
A few days later we got a call saying that the neurologists and cardiologists were unhappy with the look of one area of the heart and wanted another meeting. But hold on, these tests were done a year ago and we had been discharged so why now do we have go through more?!
Apparently they decided that as they heard we were trying for a baby that it changed everything and they wanted answers. The doc then strongly advised not to get pregnant and to have further tests, but then there's the other doc saying they didnt need to see us again, then theres the baby specialists saying it would be fine to get pregnant so long as we were under their care and everything was monitored.
Like everybody here seems to mention, every doctor has a different opinion to the next. They seem to like to strike the fear of God into eveyone and you get passed pillar to post with chinese whispers happening to the patient notes along the way!
We understand that everything is slightly more complicated now and what we need to do to ensure a healthy mummy and healthy baby along the way but it seems like my wife has become a guine pig experiment because the doctors dont have a solid answer in their hands to say "look, this is what caused it".
I missed todays appoinment with my wife and she called me afterwards being very distressed and upset by the doctor almost demanding she had to have all of these new tests on her.
As a husband its very hard to understand what it feels like for her as all she wants (all we want should I say) is children. It's also hard to understand what having a medical fear is like and its so hard to try and have an answer for her when I feel she wants one.
Please accept my apologies for typos etc as I'm typing this while at work and trying to condense a great deal into a short (well, sort of) space.
Thanks for reading and if anyone has any suggestions or ideas then we would love to hear them.