John Doole
On July 3rd 2006 while enjoying a great BBQ in Portland Maine, I started having really bad nystagmus and vertigo. I thought I was dehydrated from drinking alcohol all day and playing out in the hot hot sun. It was around midnight and I decided to call it a night and go to bed on my friends sofa which was down stairs in the basement.
I attempted to walk down the stairs and fell head over heels. I thought to myself I would try to rest for a little bit and see how I feel after that. The nystagmus seemed to be better so I thought that re hydrating was doing the trick. I feel asleep and awoke the next morning to have the symptoms continue. I had my friend drive me to the hospital where I waited the day until I. I had a really bad headache. All my motor tests were ok and my CT was a bit "weird". I took a turn for the worse around 6pm and lost consciousness.
I had an emergency ventriculostomy and craniotomy performed the next day. I awoke on Wednesday to find that I had extra tubes coming out of my head. I had a cerebellar stroke (PICA vessel) due to a PFO (which I was unaware I had). I threw an embolus and was stroking for over 18 hours. I had about ~30-40% of my cerebellum removed. Remarkably I have very little sequlae because of it. I was really depressed for a while and somewhat delusional. I have made an excellent recovery and am awaiting PFO closure in the summertime. I am not looking forward to more surgery. I look forward to meeting others that have had a stroke, especially younger people as I am 30 years old.
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