I had an extremely strange thing happen to me on Saturday.............so strange in fact that I have yet to tell only two of my closest friends.

I am looking for some real information here guys cause this was very disturbing to me.

I am sure it would have been to you had you experienced what I did.

Okay.........I had worked that morning from 6:30 to 12:00 and felt allright....kinda tired as I had just done 3 12 hour shifts but basically okay.  I got home and went out to the shop to talk to my Brother and Dad.  When I got inside I said a simple "Hey" and then focused my attention to the 3 dogs that had come to greet me.  As I looked down at the dogs I felt kind of euphoric for a second or two and as I began to say each of the dogs names the words came out all tangled up.  I knew what I was wanting to say but managed to mix up all 3 dogs names.  I even tried again and no luck.

I walked over to a chair and sat down and listened to my Dad and Bro talk and when I tried to speak again my words came out all tangled up....like I was talking jibberish.  My brother just looked at me and said nothing........I shut up again and could not beleive that what was coming out of my mouth in no way resembled what I was trying to say.  I tried silently to myself and still the same thing.  One more time I tried to say something and it was like listening to someone else talk.

I got up and went outside for some fresher air.  I felt a bit dizzy and a bit disoriented but still said nothing.

I wound up feeling strange the rest of the evening..............still had to think carefully before I said anything and kida felt like I was coming down off a drug or something.

I went to bed at 7:15 and that was that.

What happened to me?

Yes.............I am under enourmous amounts of stress right now.  Divorce, finances, pending Military Approval, long work hours, living w/ parents again.

But what bothers me is that this may have been some sort of mini-stroke or some other blood clot related issue.

Seriously, has anyone ever experiencd this sort of thing before?

Whole scenario in the shop lasted maybe 2 minutes.

IF this reoccurs, I'd see a doctor, but from what information you've given, it's just lack of sleep.  If you were to have a min stroke, you'd also have some sort of numbness/lack of motor function from the nerve endings dieing due to lack of blood.  Like I said, this is just a laymans diagnostic, but unless it happens again and/or frequently, chalk it up to lack of sleep and probably too much caffine.

It happened once to me back in highschool during football practice. I could not read the playbook, I could not  talk either.  It turned out  to be heat exhaustion, but wa scary none the less.

[beer]

Well.............lack of sleep could only be partially to blame.

My days are 12 hour work days but generally, I get from 7-8 hours of sleep a night.

Another friend said stress but this thing was so surreal.  Like I said, I had a rational thought process but I could not translate that into normally expected actions.  My walk felt funny and I felt very "removed" from myself.

I dunno.

Maybe I am just on the edge right now but this scared me and it takes a lot to do that generally.

35 is too young to have something this screwed up happen to you.

A friends sister had a similar experience and her doctor said that many times very small blood clots can break loose and travel into your brain where temporarily they can cause symptoms similar to that of a stroke i.e. slightly impaired motor skills etc etc.  

Maybe I should start taking an aspirin a day or something?

Mini-stroke? Or maybe Carbon Monoxide Poisoning. This is the season for heaters or fireplaces. Either way you should see a doctor. CO requires an iron lung to safely remove from your blood system.

Not!.............wanting to even think about that Keeper.

I know I know............something to think about but man...............this shot at a military life is my one ticket right now...........my one ticket to a better future and a better ability at dealing with the past.

I don't know what to do right now.

I am in perfect health........don't smoke, don't drink (although I wish I still did) and I get plenty of exercise and eat properly.

Heck..I'm.............well.........trying to be GI Joe.

What about past injuries?

I had a nasty concussion about 7 years ago but never had any complications.

That would be a transient ischemic attack.

X,  you DO NOT need anything else to worry about. Get thee to a good doctor NOW. If nothing's wrong, you'll be able to concentrate on the remaining important stuff, and if something is wrong...YOU NEED TO FIX IT...so that you can get on with your life. You'd feel like an ass if it's something minor or something only in the initial stage that you can fix now. Hope it's nothing, man, but check it out.

If one of your 30 round mags failed to feed a couple of times but seemed to work fine after that would you ever really trust it again-- unless you did some work on it or at least inspected it??

 Why screw around with your health, get your body to a "gunsmith".

Thank you Mr. Weasel for the correct medical terminology.  

I found some interesting sites re: such occurances.  Sure sounds like what I experienced.  

MSG and SparkyCG:

Thanks for the straight words...............yep.....I'd either fix or toss the 30'rdr that did not work properly.

Gotta get sellp now.

Divorce court is tomorrow morn.

Thanks Bros.!

Get to the Doctors, screw anything else.

People have said this over and over and still haven't seen any sign that you are going to get there, like ...........Yesterday!!

Don't screw with your health.  Once it's damage, you will never be the same.  Take care of it and your self.

If you have a health plan, and it's covered by the insurance, by all means get checked out.  It couldn't hurt.

oh god, its translating to his ytping.

oh wait, i am much worse than that.. serousely get yerself checked out. nip it in the bud b-4  it gets to be a big problem..

It sounds like either high stress/no rest or...

did "Crazy Joe Davola" kick you in the head? [BD]

My girlfriend is a Communications Science Disorders Major at SMSU, and I've helped her study quite a bit over the years. What it sounds like to us is that you had a minor stroke that produced temporary expressive speech aphasia. It sounds like you may be developing problems, and if you did not enjoy your temporary spell, think of it as a warning to what the rest of your life may be like if you have a major stroke. I had a friend in high school, whose mother had a stroke. She had speech aphasia which was extremelly difficult for her. She could hardly get out any words, and i could tell it was torture because you could tell that she knew what she wanted to say.

Go to a doctor.

Shawn

BTT

Anxiety attack?

Nah you just need high oxygen concentration which will unbind the CO from the hemoglobin.  You can get that from a facemask.

I would just go to the Doctor instead of speculating.  If nothing else at least you will know for sure what you are dealing with.

SEE A M.D.,What you discribed,could of been a mild stroke,it may have dislodged from your heart-and when it made it's way to the brain,it plugged up a small blood vessel,which can cause the things that you discribed- was your vision effected? ie: double vision, - It's a small wakeup call, I know. At age 31 I had one. I did'nt smoke,I did drink,but not alot.the doc said it was my diet..too many hamburgers,pizza,I was not over weight.but it was all the fat I was eating and that created a buildup of cholestrol,and that is what dislodged from my heart & caused my mini stroke. I'm 42 now - I hope this helps you out ,I'm not trying to diagnose, just telling you my experience. TAKE CARE !    Jim

Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez, gimme a freakin break. We now have neurosurgeons here, making clinical diagnosis !?!?!  
Try a simple matter of exhaustion.

I've had that happen a few times. Always due to being REALLY tierd. After sleeping for the night I've been fien every time.

Usually it's like I was so tired I go to sleep at 5 or something, then get woken up at 7 or so and try to talk to someone, and I say things and they just look at me and are like "what" and I say it again and realize what I'm hearing isn't what I think I'm saying. . . .

It's also happened to at elaxst 5 of my friends on one ocation or another. . . that's what sleep depravation and fatuge can do to you. That's why interigators will try to stop their "clients" from getting any sleep. Petty soon they are saying things they don't think/know they are saying, and something slips. . . .

Going to a doctor won't hurt, but other than checkign your blood pressure, I doubt there's much they can do otehr than to tell yo to get more sleep and less stress.

Later,
Justin

X-Kill welcome to the world of Migrains.Slurred speech,dizzieness,nausia, and other simular side effects are common with high amounts of stress.I was in the same boat and thought holley shit im to young to have a stroke.After many tests it turned out that I was suffering from migrains and didnt even know it.Best cure for me was just take things in stride and focus on more enjoyable activities like going to the range.  [:D]

Though I wouldn't rule out a stroke, I would put my money on a migraine also.  Just go to the doctor and make sure.

Keving67

The last time I felt like that, it turns out I was just dehydrated.  Have your blood pressure checked and go see the doctor.  In this case, better safe than sorry.

I have the answer, but you're not going to believe me....



[img]http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/bilder/ill2.gif[/img]

Wow!

Lots of info.........which, is what I was looking for.

Although I cant't really put into words how this episode felt I can say tht I have not experienced such a thing before.

As I said, stress and being tired are probably two things which are foremost in "Me" right about now.  Up to the seperation from my wife I had been on medication to help control stress, anxiety, anger, frustration etc etc and for the most part it worked.......well kinda anyhow.

Enter the seperation, signing up with the Guard and moving and you can just imagine how much of a load I've been under.  

The military is not keen on you bringing meds with you so I had to drop the stuff I was on.  typically, this must be a slow process and must be accompanied by another drug to ease the withdrawal symptoms but in my case I quit cold turkey.  A few expected problems but allright for the most part.  My blood pressure has gone up though because of coming off that particular med and I am a bit more wired than I was w/o it.

The final day for my divorce hearing has been looming over me like a constant cloud and it has preoccupied me the majority of the time no matter how much I tried to act like it was easy.  It was not.....is not.  

Today I had the hearing and the divorce was final.  Just me, the judge and my atty. and it was very simple and mostly painless.  

I hope this was a major contributing factor to my overall condition.  Now, I am awaiting a medical waiver with the military and that wait is driving me nutz!  No choice though.

As much as I want to make it all out to be stress I will admitt to being somewhat surprised that mere combinations of sleep deprivation/long work hours/worry/stress can cause such an occurance as I experienced.

Am gonna take an aspirin a day and will check into what medical advice I need to seek.

Until later

And, to copy Mr. Hun a bit as I always think he is funny

X--(the older than he thinks)Kill  

Dude, I had a childhood friend who was very active, non-smoker and ate right fall dead from a heart attack while playing a pick-up game of basketball, he was 32.  Go see a Doctor NOW while you still have a choice.

Listen up beekeeper,
you wanna throw names around, you incompetent asswipe...!?!
[i][b]You told the guy he had a freakin stroke!!![/i][/b]
What clinical background do you have to make such an assesment ?!?!?!?

I really dont see how simple exhaustion or stress would cause these symtoms which said were only two minutes long.  Then again I am not a neurosurgeon either but I have been a critcal care nurse for 15 years.  It might be something, it might be nothing.  But the first thing a person tries to do is rationalize that nothing is wrong with them. "Its only stress"  "I didnt eat nothing that day".  It may be nothing X-Kill but dont let these guys tell you its nothing. Even a Neurologist wouldnt give you any diagnosis without seeing you and doing some neuro tests.  Its your life you are jacking around with and I too have seen many people in their 20s-30s die of strokes and bleeds for no apparent reason.  As some others said, go see a doctor.

no, he said "it sure sounds like a stroke."
and then he said "you should see a doctor."
sounds like reasonable advice to me.

Go get checked by the doctor ASAP!  You have no way to know if it is serious or not.  I have seen people with migraines do really strange things like you described.  I've had a couple myself.  A migraine may not be painful.  I have also had my blood sugar drop so low a couple of times that I lost pretty much all reasoning ability.  Get it checked out.  Do it now!  Watch-Six

Hey X,

I have the dubious honor of having felt exactly the way that you described, and also of being a Paramedc for 10 years,(no longer on the streets).

I had just returned from a vacation and had a lingering low grade headache for about 4 months. They were not severe at first I just thought it was jet lag, but then I began to have strong episodes of dyslexia and aphasia. They would last a few moments and then I would feel more OK. In visits to 6 different Dr.s I was finally told that thre was a problem but that there was nothing to be done about it besides supportive care (drugs). As I don't want to be on meds for the rest of my life,(I am 33), I continued to pursue a treatment.

I finally was referred to a Nuerosugeon, he looked at my several MRI's, CAT scans and lumbar punctures. He asked about previous issues with my head and brain. I told him of a couple of concussions and a bout of menningitis. His immediate diagnosis was hydrocephaly due to an impaired drainage of Cerbral Spinal Fluid. This caused the brain to swell and the aditional pressure would press on the speech center causing the reduced cognition.
An hour long surgery to implant a ventricular-peritoneal shunt, and I felt like a fog had been lifted from my brain, even with the remnants of sedation still in effect.

Do a search on hydrocephaly and ventricular peritoneal shunt. See if the signs and symptoms seem familiar.

It is my professional opinion that you get checked by a Dr. as soon as possible as a two minute episode as you described is a serious sign and needs to be evaluated.

Email me with any info or help you may need.