I understand that he had a major stroke and is now having mini strokes.
Have his doctors referred to his mini strokes as TIAs? If so, my husband had many TIAs (transient ischemic attacks) which are tiny pieces of debris in the bloodstream that pass through the brain and cause temporary symptoms. They can be tiny blood clots, cholesterol or other plaques getting into the bloodstream, etc. possibly even debris caused by infections or healing from infections and are not always caused by blood clots which is why my husband and others have had these when their INRs were in range, when they were too high and when they were too low. So if it is being caused by anything other than a blood clot, Coumadin and/or Plavix and/or aspirin would have no affect on them. Sometimes they can come from Carotid artery plaques breaking off. Some doctors call them mini strokes. Some of Joe's manifested this way:
loss of vision in one eye, several times
slurred and unintelligible speech
suddenly forgetting how to do mundane tasks, like how to wind up the garden hose on the reel
stabbing pain in his head
fainting or feeling like passing out
TIAs are temporary and usually resolve in a few to several minutes leaving you feeling very tired and a little strange for a few hours. They should all be evaluated in the ER, because the same symptoms can be a symptom of stroke or impending full blown stroke. The eye ones, in particular should be evaluated very fast. My husband, on Christmas Day, lost vision in his one eye. He thought it was the same old, same old, and never told me about it. He didn't want to go to the ER on Christmas. It never went away. He lost his vision permanently in that eye. It wasn't a TIA, and the eye doc told him that had he gone to the ER right away. they could possibly have saved the vision in that eye. There was a 3 hour window of opportunity to save the eye.
He also had several fainting spells which were caused by a heart arrhythmia which slowed his heart. He had a pacemaker implanted for that and it stopped that problem.
So ask the doctor about TIAs or transient ischemic attacks and see if that is what he is having now. If so, they need to try to track down the root cause of them.
Best wishes.
