Symptoms Before a Stroke
When you hear the word stroke, images of individuals with droopy faces favoring one side of their bodies will come to mind. In many cases, such signs of a stroke victim are true. Fortunately, many stroke victims will also recover from the debilitating effects through early intervention and physical therapy. And herein lies the most important aspect of stroke rehabilitation – you must know the symptoms before a stroke.
Things to Look Out For
You never know when the life of a loved one rests in your knowledge of said symptoms, which in general consists of the following:
- Sudden paralysis or numbness or weakness in one side of the body particularly on the arms, legs and face
- Difficulty in walking up straight and tall
- Sudden changes in vision either in terms of the peripheral vision or in blurriness or in the partial or total loss
- Difficulty in getting out the words especially when speech is slurred and accompanied by uncharacteristic drooling
- Sudden, severe headache characterized as very different from previous episodes, which may or may not be accompanied by feelings of confusion and irritability
These symptoms before a stroke can be detected even by a layman just as long as you know what to look out for and how to perform simple tests. These tests can include talking to the person to determine if he has slurred speech, asking him to raise both arms to take note if one arm falls faster than the other, and asking him to walk a few steps to see if he is favoring one side over the other.
Also, do take note that the signs of an impending stroke will not manifest themselves in the space of a minute or two. You will notice them progressing over several minutes then stretching into hours and days until such time that you or the person simply cannot ignore them.
Things to Do
If you have no experience whatsoever in dealing with a possible stroke victim, there are only two things you can do that are, nevertheless, life-saving in themselves. First, you should immediately call 911 or the emergency medical services in your area. Take note of the time when the symptoms before a stroke appeared so that clot-busting drugs can be administered within the 3-hour window of opportunity.
Second, you should drive the person to the nearest hospital. Or if you are the possible victim, you should ask another capable person to drive for you so as to lessen the chances for vehicular accidents.
No matter which course of action you choose to take, you must not take aspirin before going to the hospital even if you have already been taking aspirin for its blood thinning effects. This is true especially if you are suffering from a hemorrhagic stroke.