Comments on: After Delayed Stroke, Jeff Gets Recovery Back On Track

By: jeff stoveken

jeff stoveken — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:57:26 +0000

hi everyone , thank you for all the encouragement. to answer jane : they never said what had caused the pain. they said it may have been pressure against other organs as the aorta grew larger, or it may have been something totally unrelated. but i can tell you that the very minute the E.R. doctor informed me that i had an aneurysm, the pain stopped immediately. that was unexplainable ,and to think that unknown pain actually saved my life because it may have burst before my next echo ! both my cardiologist and my surgeon agreed that the aneurysm should be taken care of as soon as possible.and i agreed, i couldnt imagine worrying about something like that for months. Cathy, i experienced total diziness and was unable to walk. now i am left with difficulties when my sight changes from near and far. i still also get dizzy easily, such as closing my eyes to wash my face, i feal very unsteady and its been 6 months since my stroke. the doctors said these symptoms may clear up, time will tell. Kevin, no doctor would commit to an exact cause for my stroke. i was actually flown by medivac to meet with a brain surgeon to stop the bleeding in my head. fortunately by the time i arrived at the trauma center, the bleeding had slowed down to where my condition was being monitored in icu. if i had gotten brain surgery, perhaps i would know what had caused it ,(very thankful i didnt), but the doctors only had cat scans to go by. i will say that i bumped my head a week before and thought nothing of it. the surgery itself can cause a stroke( a risk that i read where i signed for surgery)and the only other possibility was that my INR was over 4 when tested during my stroke in the E.R. so it could have been a combination of all of those or something all on its own. needless to say , my INR is monitored rather closely now and i do recommend that people take that seriously.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:00:30 +0000

Jeff, your surgery is almost identical to the one I had in Oct. 2008, and I also have a St. Jude Mechanical value. In addition, I had a stroke prior to my surgery that was caused by calcium build up on my aortic value. Thus it had to be replaced. Curious to know what caused your stroke ? Good luck to you,

By: Cindy

Cindy — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:20:06 +0000

Hi Jeff,
So glad you are on the mend! I am wondering if you can describe what visual symptoms you experienced with the stroke??? I have migraine & am used to the visual aura BUT the last few days I’ve been having a small dark area in my vision that is only there while walking fast or uphill. I was going to write Adam about this … but maybe you can be of some help. It is NOT interfering with reading or any daily activities. And it is a sort of transparent dark area when it does enter my vision. At rehab yesterday while on the treadmill it came on & they monitored my heart closely … there was nothing that showed up.
Today is my 8 week anniversary of valve repair. I celebrated by giving one of my horses a much needed tail bath … NEVER thought I’d be doing anything close to that so soon!! Now, if this annoying “spot” would just leave me alone…

By: Jane

Jane — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:57:24 +0000

Hi Jeff,

Good to hear stories like yours. Were the chest pains the result of the aneurysm? My husband also has a 5 cm aneurysm and was told chest pains he had were not related to that, makes me a little worried.