I received this message today on Whatsapp and this has inspired me to pen his article today.
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One fine Saturday Morning in 2005.
Got myself a Cuppa and booted my PC and started looking at my emails.
There was a Message from "Carol Barclay from USA". I will tell you about the Message right at the End.
Carol had joined my VAD Club Yahoo Group, I had Created in 2001 and was hosting with about 50 odd members mostly from USA, Canada & UK
VAD stood for "Vertebral Artery Dissection" that causes Brain Stem Strokes. This is exactly the opposite of the Common strokes suffered by most due to high blood pressures causing arteries in the brain to rupture and bleed and fill up the free spaces in the brain and forming a huge blood clots that kills brain cells around the clot. Most often causing irreversible damage like paralysis.
"My Stroke" was exactly the Opposite caused when blood supply to the Brain was partially cut off, also known as "Hypo-perfusion". 70% of the Blood to the Human Brain is supplied by the two Carotid Arteries in the neck. The remaining 30% of the Blood is delivered by the two vertebral arteries that pass through rings on either side of each Cervical Vertebrae.
The Brain needs Power like the Computer and the energy is made up of Oxygen and Sugar. Without Oxygen or Sugar the Brain will be Dead in No time and the Brain Feeds on Oxygen and Sugar supplied by the blood.
To make it simple, think of the main Brainmass as the Hard Disc of your Computer where everything is Stored to be retrieved when necessary
The Brain Stem on the other hand is the "RAM" (Random Access Memory) of the Computer that controls all operations. The Brain Stem controls "Life" virtually as it controls the autonomous system from Head to Toe; from Blinking to Seeing with our eyes to Breathing to Swallowing to Heartbeat to Digestion You Name it the Brainstem controls it. The main Brain mass is just for storing information; a Memory Bank in fact like the Hard Disc.
Now this is an Engineers way of Simplifying the human brain functions comparing blood flow to flow of water in pipes in a building and the nervous system is the power supply or electricity. Not as simple as it seems but this should do for the average human being who is not a medico. This is just basic Physics. Body Chemistry is way too complex.
Body Chemistry is an extremely important topic in physiology. Most physiological processes occur as the result of chemical changes that occur within the body. These changes include the influx/efflux of ions across a neuron's membrane, causing a signal to pass from one end to the other.
In year 2000, even Google and Yahoo searches were in their infancy and most neurologists did not know much about my condition besides telling me it is a "Text Book Case", meaning they only read about it but never seen one in their careers. Dr. Gilles, Head of Stroke Department at Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney summed it up for me in a Brilliant way. He said "Mr. Krishnaswamy in the last 16 Years as Head of Stroke Dept at POW Hosp the only time I have seen cases like yours is in autopsies of patients mostly from Car accidents. Let us say you are Blessed to be able to get up and walk away like you have done. So you should count your Blessings".
That summed it all up for me and I knew I was alone in my battle
In 2001 my internet searches using Altavista Yahoo and Ask Jeeves. (Google was in its infancy then) helped me locate the Massachusetts General Hospital's Official Neuro Forum. This was like winning the jackpot in year 2001 when most of us used the Windows-XT Desk Top Computers with a 40Meg RAM and a floppy disk. Most 25 year olds won't have a clue what I am talking about, sounding like a caveman. I was so excited as this forum had 56000 members mostly from USA. That is how far advanced USA was in 2001.
Neurology is so Complex with many complex diseases like Epilepsy, Dementia, Parkinsons, Motor Neuron Disease, Alzeimers, Aphasia.... The List was endless and Strokes were under General category as most stroke patients were too disabled and bed ridden to be active in the forum. So I registered and joined the Stroke Forum. OMG what a Bonanza it was. The Moderators were Fantastic people with about 500 members who were mostly carers who asked for help. Majority of the Patients had suffered hemorrhagic strokes meaning bleeds in the head. I was so disappointed as there was not One Vad survivor and none of the members were familiar with my kind of stroke. I remember one of my doctor sisters telling her colleague "so little is known about VAD kind of strokes'.
The Good thing about the forum was that all posts were archived from the day the forum was created in the 90s. I was not going to give up and say die. It took me a few days to find one very old Post from Sheila sharing all her symptoms which were like a photocopy of all I had and was experiencing. Unfortunately for me Sheila posted just once and vanished into thin air suggesting she had bit the dust. I was so alone and desolate as family and friends were there trying to cheer me up and even tell me I looked Great to cheer me up but that is where it ended.
There were two members who had responded to Sheila's post in the Stroke Forum. John xxx and Andrea Conway. So I wrote to both of them. John was not a stroke Victim but a carer but Andrea. Oh man she was my God send. She was young and had gone on a Roller Coaster Ride and by the time the ride finished the violent jolts from the ride to her fragile neck meant both her Vertebral arteries got squeezed and cut of blood supply to the Brain and she was paralysed when she was taken out of the ride to ER
Andrea was the one who inspired me to start the VAD Club Yahoo Group. The Group is still alive thought many are no more and the other survivors have moved on in life. I was in contact thro FB until I quit FB in 2017 with Andrea Conway a speech Pathologist Married to a Medical Doctor and Living in Florida.
All you wish to know about My Vad Club is in my Blog. ( https://vad-club.blogspot.com/ )
Back to the story:
Carol wrote to my yahoo address asking to join the VADS Club group which I approved straight away.
Carol explained all her symptoms, from burning in the face, mouth and tongue to tingling all on one side of the face on the right hand side and then the entire left side of her body feeling tingly and going numb from time to time, nausea dizzy spells, fuzzy feeling in the head, visual disturbances and double vision at times, feeling weak, tired and short of breath.
Carol was listing virtually all the symptoms I had experienced for weeks before my stroke and my GP called me a hypochondriac but in "a roundabout way" saying she had a few more patients like me who imagined a lot of symptoms.
Alarm bells started to ring and I responded immediately to Carol telling her that she should go to ER and get it checked out immediately and that time was of essence . At the ER they did an MRI and the neurologist said they found nothing and that she was imagining everything and sent her home..
I wrote to Carol immediately and told her the neurologist is wrong and that the MRI only shows what is there at the time of the scan and that she had not suffered a stroke as yet and so MRI wont show anything.
I insisted she go back to the same neurologist and insist on an Ultrasound of the arteries of the neck as I suspected she was suffering from Blood Flow problems in the neck. She thanked me and said OK.
Did not hear again from Carol for about three days until I got the email on that wonderful Saturday morning.
Email From Carol said Nothing besides:
Thank You. Thank You, Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,Thank You,
She followed it up with another email saying Ram you saved my Life as my Carotid arteries and Vertebral arteries in the neck were 90 to 97% blocked and thanks to you they put stents in them and in the next few days I should be going home.
MRI is an imaging tool and can capture Damage only after the damage has occurred not before.
How do you teach a Radiologist and neurologist this ? Unless the doctors believe the patients and think outside the Box they are bound to fail.
Feels Good to remember that I was responsible for Carol Not becoming another VAD Victim.
"In Fact not Just Good but Feels Great"
Have a great Weekend Folks
