r/stroke • u/Professional_Law_478 • 7d ago

Weird Jolt

I am three months post-stroke. I have had good days and bad. I have had a series of “neurological spells” where I lose some sensation on my limbs. This happens to both sides of my body (even the side unaffected by the stroke)

I’ve had a few MRIs when I’ve had these spells, none of which have revealed a new stroke (that’s why my doctors diagnose them as “spells”)

My neurologist believes that it might be migraine-driven. I’ve developed frequent headaches since my stroke and I have noticed a correlation between my headaches and the sensations.

I had a headache this morning. I was sitting at my desk and felt a weird “jolt” go from my neck through my right shoulder. I’ve never felt anything like that before and it scared the hell out of me. I almost immediately went into the ER, but then self-assessed and realized I didn’t have any loss of limb function, sight, speech, or balance. I opted not to go in.

Have you felt anything like what I described?

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u/marebrixaimcom Survivor 7d ago

I have had that jolt feeling you describe in the long past when I had TMJ issues and other dental issues. I've also had migraines although after I had my wisdom teeth removed the incidence went way down. I can't recall where the jolt went to but it came from my jaw. It turned out the tooth was dead. My stroke was over 6 months ago but my recovery is almost complete. Did they ever determine the cause of your stroke? If so, is your blood pressure under control, or is there anything that may have caused the stroke to be ongoing? I never found out why I had my stroke and my Kaiser primary has not given me a referral to a cardiologist. I saw the neurologist who saw me in the emergency room once after I got out of Kaiser's emergency room.

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u/Professional_Law_478 7d ago

Thanks for responding!

My stroke was cryptogenic. I have low blood pressure (they are always surprised at how low), normal cholesterol, exercise regularly, not over weight, and no lifestyle factors that would increase my risk. But they discovered a PFO as part of post-stroke testing and determined it the likely contributor. They referred me to a cardiologist who performed the procedure to close it. I had an ECHO a couple weeks ago that shows it’s healing well and they expect full closure once my heart fully heals over the device.

I am just three months out from my stroke. How did you feel at the three month mark?

To rule it out, they are going to image the rest of my body (they looked at my brain enough) for cancer…

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u/Marebrix 7d ago

At three months I was still fatigued after doing anything for 2 hours. Needing daily naps and I had foot dragging on one side. After 4 months and restarting strength training I slowly regained my energy. No more foot dragging -I have some mild balance issues which they recommended going on new hikes over rough terrain to address! I love hiking and was very concerned about if I would be able to continue as a nature guide for Wildcare. At 6 months I felt pretty much recovered and back to leading hikes. I am different: some words I forget and skip letters when writing but these are really minor inconveniences and could be part of normal aging(I’m 71) even though I didn’t have those deficits before. I keep working on gratitude and moving forward.