October 2024
No, this isn't pornography. On the morning of Sunday 29th October 2024 I was playing a game (Assassin's Creed Origins if you must know) when I blinked and .. my vision went wonky (technical term). Basically I lost the bottom left half of my sight, so, for example, if I held a fist down at the bottom left I couldn't see it. I also couldn't really see the screen because anything from the middle of my sight to the bottom left had disappeared.
Since the problem was in both eyes I immediately went "It's a brain fart" and did all the tests you are supposed to do for a stroke .. speech, lift up both arms etc. Everything seemed normal except for my sight.
I thought "bugger" and started getting dressed to go to A&E. However, as I did so my sight started clearing and after an hour it had cleared. It seemed the problem had gone away (as an engineer I HATE intermittent problems with a passion). With the mindset of "well if the problem has disappeared then it can't be diagnosed" and "A&E is for emergencies and it's clearly not an emergency" I decided not to go to A&E and just have a rest (I do remember going back to the game and looking at the location I was in and going "This is weird, the place looks almost the same but not quite", so maybe my brain was still acting up).
I spent the rest of the day resting. Warren came back in the evening and I didn't mention it at the time, but the next morning I casually mentioned that I'd had ths brain fart and ....
.. 20 minutes later we were in the car going to the Eye Clinic (Warren's logic being it was a vision thing to start with so let's try the Eye clinic first). We arrived at 9:30, registered, went for triage (I did say to the nurse "the problem has gone away but my partner said I should get checked out" and she nodded in agreement (bugger, looks like Warren was right)).
About an hour later I get called in for an initial inspection then get told to wait. I had already noted there were three streams .. Red, amber and green, with Red being "Eyeball dropping out" and Green being "Not a problem". I reckoned I was in the green priority and noted that there was up to a 5 hour wait "That'll be me", I thought. This was now 10:30.
At 4pm I just check I hadn't been forgotten or missed The Call. The problem was that Warren had gone back to work at 10am, I was on my own and had forgotten my hearing aids and the system seemed to be that a nurse would come through, whisper a name, whisper it again then go back to her station to get another one if no response. The problem with this was if you had gone to the toilet or gone to the cafe next door (where you couldn't hear the whisper) then you missed your call.
Thankfully it turned out I was still on the list. At 7pm I got called for an inspection, with drops put in my eye to dilate the pupils; an hour later I went in for a proper check up. As far as they could tell they couldn't find anything wrong with my eyes ("Told yah!") and referred me for a CT scan with Sandwell Hospital. Warren comes to pick me up and we return home with me quietly humming "Starry, Starry Night .." because that's what the eyedrops do.
When the NHS wants to move fast they move fast. The next day I get a call from Sandwell at 11am "This is the TIA* Clinic .. can you come in for an ultrasound appointment at 12:20 and a consultation at 13:00?". I reply in the affirmative and at 12:00 I'm at the hospital negotiating the labyrinth on my way to the ultrasound. I find the place and I'm laid down and rather than check for any babies they sound out the vessels in my neck (apparently this is to measure the thickness of the blood vessel wall and more importantly, the velocity of the blood).
After the ultrasound I then go off for the consultation that involves the works .. ECG, blood pressure, heartbeat, blood sugar. I then wait around for the consultant who first of all tells me that although I'm overweight (yea yeah) everything looked fine .. normal blood pressure, blood vessel healthy, no fatty build up except around my waist, etc etc. He then asks what happened, I tell him and half way through he nods. I finish my account and he tells me it's likely I had a mini stroke but they'll do an MRI to confirm. In the meantime he loads me up with pills (aspirin to thin the blood, clopidogrel to stop platelets clumping) tells me this will reduce the risk of a repeat and sends me on my way.
The next day I get a message "Can you come in for an MRI at 12:15?". Again, the answer is "Yes" so I troop in, get asked some VERY person questions that basically mean "do you have any bits of metal on you or in you?", lie on a flat table, 'almost' go to sleep (it's rather relaxing and loud buzzing noises make me think I'm in a plane or a car and send me to sleep) and 15 minutes later I'm away.
At 15:30 I am phoned by a triumphant consultant "Yup, I was right, the MRI shows signs of a stroke"; we go over what he's already told me (take the pills, check your blood pressure, try not to eat too much cholestererol) and signs off.
So here we are. I count myself lucky this was such a mild stroke but I also am fortunate that Warren immediately had me off to the clinic to get looked over. Left to my own devices I'd have just gone "Meh, it was a brain fart"; 1 in 3 mild stroke victims go on to have a major stroke within the year. The consultant has assured me that the clopidogrel prevents this happening (although of course nothing is absolute).
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