TIA's or mini strokes

Mini strokes or  little strokes are what people are referring to when they have a Transient Ischemic Attack, or TIA. It's when a person has stroke-like symptoms lasting up to two hours.

TIA's can be quite varied, but normally present themselves in one of these ways:

• Muscle weakness, normally on one side of the body - like your arm, your leg, or your face.
• Tingling or numbness on one side of your body.
• Difficulty swallowing.
• Difficulty reading or writing.
• Trouble with speech - either speaking yourself, or understanding what someone else is saying.
• Mood changes, personality changes.
• Problems with your vision - could be double vision or partial or full loss of sight.
• Sudden loss of memory or confusion.
• Experiencing a change in sensation - pain, temperature, hearing, pressure, etc.
• An abnormal change in your alertness - all the way to being asleep or unconscious - or the inability to maintain focus.
• Vertigo or dizziness.
• Clumsiness, uncoordinated - hard to walk. Balance and coordination issues.
• Can't recognize external stimulus - your senses aren't working right.Control of body functions - bladder and bowels.

I had a TIA during a hike up a mountain after we had reached the top and were resting. I experienced what I can only call "rubberyness" on my right side, and some coordination issues - it required abnormal focus to get down the mountain. Just like they said - the symptoms lasted for an hour or two, and then I was fine. I didn't know anything about TIA's at the time, and so I ignored the whole event.

The next day, on the phone to one of my work colleagues, I found that my handwriting was like chicken-scratch, that I made dozens of errors in my typing (of which I am normally fast and accurate) and there was a slight slurring of my voice. I went to my doctor and he got me into a stroke clinic right away. I was evaluated, and it was determined that my TIA must have been a very minor stroke. All the symptoms were gone in a few days, and everything returned to normal. Fifteen months later I had a much more major stroke that affected things in a much more serious and long-term way.

There's not much you can do about a TIA except get yourself to a doctor or emergency room. They can evaluate you, and try to make sure that your TIA doesn't turn into a full blown stroke (for me, they tried everything they could think of - I have no risk factors - but it happened anyways)...