Strokes - MRI

[Katlee]

Has anyone experienced any kind of stroke (TIA or otherwise), suffered
aphasia, but not have any damage show according to an MRI or MRA?
I've had a few strokes and had difficulty with expressive aphasia, yet
tests showed nothing. I can't figure it out. I was put on Coumadin several
years ago after the first two. I was on it for some time, but had to go off
because of severe rectal bleeding issues. I've been on 81 mg aspirin for
several months now, but I forgot to take it for almost a week, and when
I went to speak to my husband I couldn't get past the first word. It frust-
rated me to no end. Suddenly I realized I hadn't been taking the aspirin
with my daily meds. Needless to say I haven't forgotten it since, but
the neurologist I saw said I should discuss going back on Coumadin with
my cardiologist. That point is moot unless I get the rectal bleeding address-
ed. I have stage 3 internal hemmroids (sp), they were discovered during
my colonoscopy. I can fully understand the risk of taking blood thinners
and having any degree of bleeding. Not a risk any physcian wants to
take. I don't blame them.

Kat
ASD,ASA, Rheumatic Fever at
16, connective tissue disease (RA)
pulmonary hypertension
a-fib

 

[Ross]

Pardon my ignorance here, but can't they remove them? I would certainly do that before going back on Coumadin, though sometime down the road as you age, you may be put on it anyway for other things.

 

[Nancy]

Kat-

I see you have afib. That alone should have you on Coumadin. Can't you get your hemorrhoids taken care of?

Joe has had about 16 TIAs. They were scary and caused all sorts of symptoms. The symptoms were temporary and nothing showed up in testing.

However, TIAs can sometimes leave microscopic lesions on the brain that CAN be detected with some types of tests. Too many of them in the brain is not a good thing.

TIAs also can sometimes be a precursor to a full-blown stroke. So they have to be checked out in the ER when they happen and are nothing to fool around with.

If the cardiologist wants you on Coumadin, he probably has a very good reason, or several of them.

Aspirin doesn't work the same way that Coumadin does.

So far, Coumadin is the only drug that works the way it does.

You need to schedule an appt. with your cardiologist and discuss many things.

Best wishes.

 

[jeffp]

Hemorrhoids, what a pain in the rear. Seriously, internal hemorrhoids don't resolve on their own and only gradually get worse. It's not a fun procedure, but look into getting it taken care of before you're older and they get worse.
On the topic of the main thread: MRI scanning is done in slices, each about 2mm or so thick and interpolating the area inbetween. I had some small stoke areas during/right after my surgery that affected aural language skills, (and obviously my typing - I had to go over this 4 times to get the spelling right) and had MRI up and down and round and round with nothing noted on the scan. The neurologist figured that the scans would be normal as by the symptoms he was expecting a very small damage area. Sometimes that damage is to a very small isolated area and doesn't show on MRI if it gets caught between slices. Probably would visualize on a PET scan, but they're really expensive for mild symptom suspect areas.
Kat, I see you have a-fib on your profile. How come you're not on warfarin already?

 

[Mary]

Yep,
I experienced several big TIA episodes, but the MRI didn't show any damage.