This week I had two strokes in my 30s. I realise it's not cool to talk about medical stuff in British culture but I am going to share this story anyway because what I have learned over the last few days in hospital could potentially save a life. 🧵 1/8
On Thursday at an exhibition opening I suddenly lost control of my arm and hand. I stumbled outside and called 111 who dispatched an ambulance. By the time the paramedics arrived I was regaining control but they took me to hospital, blue lights, blazing fearing a stoke. 2/8
I was taken straight to the resuscitation wing where a stroke doctor and their team examined me. I was given medication, a CT scan and, though I now could partially move and feel my fingers, was told I would be kept overnight for constant monitoring and an MRI in the morning. 3/8
Two days, two heart ultrasounds, an MRI and multiple blood tests later, the neurologists had figured it out. I have a hole in my heart just large enough to allow micro blood clots, normally filtered by the lungs, to move to the wrong side of my heart and up to my brain. 4/8
The solution is to plug the hole using a clever "umbrella" inserted into my heart via an arm vein. It sounded scary but the neurologist assured me it was a very safe and common procedure they could do "with their eyes closed" (although I hope they keep them open tbh). 5/8
The bombshell is that all this is fairly common. Lots of people have these small holes which can cause micro strokes but few realise. Since posting about all this, several people have told me about near-identical episodes of mysteriously losing limb control. 6/8
The danger is that a lot of us don't follow it up, especially if the loss of control was just brief. I myself lost movement in my arm for 5 minutes when 18 while living in Nigeria but shrugged it off. The MRI shows a.scar in my brain which could have been that very incident. 7/8
I am now out of hospital and on anti-coagulant meds until they can do the heart opp. But the scoop is this: if you lose, or have in the past lost, control of a limb even for just a few minutes get it checked out! It could mean there's a hole in your heart. 🫀8/8
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