Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Crazy #$%t!!!

So, I had a normal Saturday, nothing out of the ordinary, and was walking back from the mailbox, when I began having a hard time walking a straight line, staying awake and talking without slurring big-time! DISCLAIMER: I did not polish off a fifth of Jim Beam in the 4 minute walk to the mailbox, or get shot with an elephant tranquilizer!
Well, I got back to the house and all I wanted was to sit down and sleep and sleep HARD!!!! Couldn't form coherent sentences, anything. Well, my 14 year old called 911 and they came, and by the time they were checking things like my grip strength, and loading me into the ambulance, most of it had passed, maybe 30 minutes total. Got to the ER and my bloodpressure, which is borderline high, was now at 217 over 115!! Holy crap, hook up a front end loader or PTO drive, I'm running hydraulics! They gave me HCTZ and some stuff for nausea, and put me on meds overnight. They did an MRI, a EKG, Heart ultrasound and an ultrasound of my carotid artery (basically my neck). They are trying another med now because the HCTZ only dropped me to 150 over 101, and the stuff they have me on now dropped me to 150 over 94, we'll see how it looks in the morning. All they can figure is that I had a TIA, a mini stroke, and the high blood pressure knocked out parts of my brain briefly. What made it flair, who knows. It WAS a perfect riding weekend up till 7pm Sat night, luckily my new boss is really cool about me being out tomorrow, now if the hospital would be as cool about me not having med insurance (COBRA is a f'ing joke at $1800/month, and I haven't got my first paycheck yet to buy new insurance after being laid off, but screw it, I'll just deal with them best as I can) Can't wait to get OUT of this hospital, although the night shift nurse is a blond hottie!!!

Geez, a bit scary. Rest up and get well!

Wow Greg! I can imagine this being a pretty scary thing to go through, and especially from right out of nowhere.

As they say, do what the doctor says, and here's not only a speedy recovery but to have the doctors discover what caused this, also.

That's some heavy stuff. You're in my prayers.

I recently went to the doc for pneimonia and when they took my pressure it was 240 over 130 that is drop dead in your tracks stroke pressure but I had no symptoms. The doc said normally he would send me straight to the ER but just put me on a med.He thought I would be on 3 or 4 meds for my BP. Now here is why I am telling you this, just by cutting out caffine (completely), losing 25 lbs., and no more salty foods (including Chineese that I used to have for lunch 3 days a week)I managed to lower it to 130 over 80. Doc said that is high normal.So my advice would be to look at your diet and see if you can fix anything there, it makes a huge difference.

Weight, diet, smoking, stress.

If you can manage those (especially the first three) you might be able to avoid meds.

I have terrible genes for HTN. Pretty much gave up beer 20 years ago when they first threatened meds. I've never smoked. Pretty lean and mean at 172lbs and I work out a good bit (mostly just keeping up with my Amazon chick wife). I eat a great diet.

I still have to take two different BP meds a day. Fortunately, they come in generic now and I do have insurance so it's just $8/month. Plus, my wife is a nurse and a blond hottie.

Damn genes.

You take care of yourself. That's some serious $hit and you don't take chances with it.

Glad you're okay!

If anything the other posters has said applies to you - follow their lead. And do exactly what your doc says.

I had a TIA while giving a deposition a few years ago. Laywers were asking me questions and all of a sudden, I couldn't even add 2+2. A couple of days in the hospital, lots and lot of tests and all was back to normal. Still no conclusive explanation. My BP runs low, so they said it was probably stress.

i had a stroke a few yrs back because of bp, i am ok and live a "normal' life now there are things that are not in my brain anymore i have the old folks dezeeeze C.R.S. and sometimes thats a problem but for the most part i am good. i then decided i had to make some changes so i got away from where i was working to bring down stress, which made it easy to slow down on the smokes (was doing 3-4 packs a day and am now at less than one) and also corrected my sleeping patern,changed my diet, started really watching sodium intake and now eat a somewhat balanced diet and take my pills and thinner, my bp now runs in the range of normal to high normal and i just do things at my pace to keep it that way. the reason tell ya'll this is that maybe some of this will help you. sometimes little changes in the simplest of ways can accomplish a lot. i have learned that moderation in all things is best and to slow down and dont let anything stress you or anger you and you'll be fine. of course it might be something in your skeletal system that is out of wack cuasing you to have stroke like symptoms that no mri or x-ray would show and if that is the case than.......nevermind. forget what i just said and live it up.

I'm glad you are ok, and made it to tell the tale.

All this talk makes me wish I had some medical insurance so I could get a physical. I'm 20 pounds over weight, but normally always healthy. And you're right about Cobra. A person is out of work, but the gov. makes sure you can still pay the total premium out of pocket. Sure, that makes sense.

I'm in the same boat Rich, since I just started this job, am on contract, so no bennies till July 1 (then $1000/month just for medical, or $800/month for medical privately and 6-12 months pre-existing on any dental unless I buy the $1000 package), and they wanted $1800 a month for COBRA and I was getting $1600! SOOO, all of this crap is happening without insurance, and being contract and hourly, not getting paid like I would as salary. And, to top it off, I got home today for an hour and a half, cleaned up, and had another episode, so got to ride the ambulance back to the ER and was re-admitted. They put me on Plavix, and gave me a shot in the gut of Lovonox, so my blood should be thin as water by now! Hopefully out tomorrow mid-afternoon, they are doing the summer concert thing in the park here in Longmont and doing Celtic Rock, I would love to make it, but have to figure out why this is happening and how to control it, or I will have to park the bike!

Aw, you just went back for the blonde hottie!

Seriously though, I hope it all works out for you.

Go down to the billing office and apply for charity care. Seriously. Do it today. Hospitals have X number of dollars each year built into the system for people that are unable to pay. Once it's gone, it's gone. Then they will take everything you own to get their pound of flesh.

Somebody is going to get it. It might as well be you.

This is the advice of my wife who is a hospital case manager.

That is some seriously scary stuff.

Glad you got medical attention right away and it's more or less under control.

My rule of thumb is, if I don't feel good, I'm getting it checked out ASAP.
An annual physical is a really good plan, especially for us geezers.

Everybody, be safe and healthy. Life is short enough.

well, here's the latest, been out a oouple weeks, couldn't handle work, had some really CRAZY ****** running throuhg my head lately, like looking at eveyrhthing as htough my minds eye is stuck in 1890's California a la Butch and Sundance, and have been drooling over the htought of riding Blue off into the sunset towards the Mountains, even if they arne't he Sierra Madres, have been really fighting to get a grasp on hte current date and time, ana keep that grasp, typing has been a bigvh!! and have been napping like a 95 y4qr old Snior Center inmate!!!! anf ehen i eslk, iy lookd likd domrtjomh ouy of an old Tim cvonway xkig! 9or Benny Hill!!!!) The dignosis is Flemings syndrome, I'm just waiting for the reversible part of RSCV!!!!!!!

Scary stuff. Good luck with the recovery.

Just read about it and glad to see the prognosis is good, here's to a speedy recovery.