Dave's Story - Ischaemic Stroke at 49

My name is Dave, I’m 49 and wanted to help others by sharing my story. I work as an airport firefighter doing 12 hours shifts of days and nights (and which I’ve been doing for 14 years). When I’m not there I work as a on-call firefighter running my own station as a Watch Manager, having to be available for 90 hours a week and responding to my pager going off (and I’ve been doing that for 19 years).

On Friday 12th May I was up and dressed in the afternoon and ready to go in early for a night shift starting at 7pm. I have an 80 mile journey to get to work.

I had just turned off the laptop after finishing some paperwork for my on-call station. I remember bending down to stroke the cat and as I got up it was like something pinged in my head. I sat on the sofa and my left-hand fingers just started to tapping, like they were not mine. It looked like it was the hand off the Addams Family! Then I couldn’t stop my hand and arm from shaking, but then my arm and hand went completely numb.

My partner called an ambulance. At this stage I went through the F.A.S.T. check list (as I am medically trained at work) but nothing was showing as a stroke. The Ambulance came and did an ECG on me, but nothing was found. It was suggested I went to hospital with my hand and arm still shaking violently and now leaning to one side. I went to hospital where they thought I was having a fit. It took five people to hold me down to sedate me for a CT scan, which came back clear, but I was still shaking and numb on my left arm. Also any bright lights were killing my eyes and it felt like I was having pins pushed in them, and to the back of my head – and my head felt like someone was pushing a knife in my right temple all the time.

I was sent home from the hospital that night, but by midday on the Saturday the 13th I was in another ambulance going go back to A&E. My eyes and head were killing me and felt like I was being constantly stabbed in the head on my right-hand side. I was taken for another CT, but nothing showed up. They then called an eye specialist in but again nothing was found. They moved me out of A&E and on to a holding ward where I was given oral morphine to help the pains in my head and other drugs to relax me and to stop me from shaking, as I started shaking in my arm again and also to stop my hand from spontaneously moving.

On Sunday the 14th they did a lumber puncture as they thought I might have meningitis, but again that came back clear. Then on Monday 15th they sent me for a MRI scan and I was told me that I’d had an ischaemic stroke in the right side of my brain. They also found that behind where the clot had happened there was a small bleed on the brain as well. I was transferred to the stroke ward, where I spent 5 days. I was told that the stroke has affected my cognitive skills, memory and processing skills.

It’s now been 7 months since the stroke and I am now at home and under the care of the stroke team, who are great, but I find it hard to accept what has happened to me – as I can’t see anything wrong with me, since it’s my brain that’s affected. I am so lucky as my limbs are all OK, but its just the brain that’s ‘not working right’. Its amazing that when you tell people you have had a stroke how they say “you look great” – but they just don’t know how much of a struggle it is when it’s your brain that’s not working correctly.

Post stroke I found that my speech would stutter and slur, so I’ve worked hard with the stroke team to overcome this. Now this only happens when fatigue sets in and WOW, how that fatigue can really take it out of you!

I find my processing, cognitive and memory skills are still not good. My partner finds the bleach in the fridge, the milk in the toilet and the marmalade in the dishwasher… but we do laugh about it – and I also ask a lot of the same questions during the day. I find in loud, busy places I ‘zone out’, my world shuts down and I hate not being my old self.

The consultants think the stroke was due to stress, with the clot going through the hole in the right and left upper chamber of my heart and into the brain, so they are going to patch my PFO (patent foramen ovale).

I have massive fears of not working as a firefighter, as I love my job. It looks like both jobs are going to make me unfit for active duty due to ill health and to be honest, I can understand why, but it’s so hard to accept. I think some days I’m hard on myself, looking back at all I could do before the stroke rather than looking at my progression day to day and what might be the ‘new normal’ for me now.

I think the NHS needs more support and recognition of younger stroke, and I’m living proof that not all strokes follow the F.A.S.T. rule.

I guess like every stroke survivor you may be finding ways to live with the new you daily, so don’t be to hard on yourself. Remember that your partner or families or close ones are adjusting to the new you as well. As my partner says

“Dave you are still you but just a little bit different now.”

I think it’s great to have sites like Different Strokes where you can read other survivors’ stories and then know that it’s just not facing the same kinds of problems and it’s somewhere to get great information and advice from.

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There are 100,000 strokes in the UK each year with 1 in 4 happening to somebody of working age or younger. Different Strokes aims to promote independent stroke recovery and help these younger stroke survivors reclaim their lives.

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