Hacker News Reader

Comment by stouset | Hacker News Reader

Anecdata of n = 1 but two weeks ago I was hospitalized due to a stroke (IA).

I'm 38 years old, exercise vigorously for 10-12 hours per week, am a healthy weight for my height, have good blood pressure and cholesterol, and have zero known risk factors other than a COVID infection a bit under a year ago. I'm not ready to blame COVID just yet (we're still searching for an underlying cause) but my doctors and nurses all described a highly concerning uptick of strokes over the past few years, including for those like me who are generally in good health.

I was lucky to have recovered with essentially no noticeable deficiencies, but many of those with similar stories I've spoken with in the weeks since weren't so lucky and have permanent impairment.

View on HN

Sorry to hear about your experience. Meanwhile everywhere I talk to Americans about this they casually claim it's all down to obese people.

That sounds terrifying, sorry that happened to you.

Really sorry to hear that. Thanks for sharing. Was it sudden onset or a slower process?

Sudden onset as far as I can tell. I woke up almost entirely unable to move anything on the right side of my body, and was only able to speak individual words with significant effort.

I had a mini stroke, with long lasting problems. Look up “dormant neurons” and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. I did a relatively extended treatment and it helped me tremendously. I really wish I would have done it sooner. I might have been able to save a bit more of my brain.

Besides significant improvements in my work life, the big win for me was eliminating some anger problems that showed up after the TIA, and getting my sense of humor back! Considering my brain is my money maker, it was completely worth it (around $4k for 30 or 40 sessions, I believe).

My TIA involved significant turbulence in my blood flow, so perhaps my capillaries were extra clogged, but you should seriously consider it, if you have any lingering changes. There are quite a few studies about it. The most promising I found involved Oxiracetam, so I included that, as part of my treatment (with my doctors approval, and proper choline supplementation).

I'm sorry to hear about your situation but extremely glad to hear you've found a path towards recovery!

As I said in my previous post, I'm extremely lucky. I recovered on my own about 30 minutes post-onset, although I do have a small remaining permanent clot (presumably from the original one breaking up) that has caused permanent injury to a small area that my neurologist says should cause no noticeable impact.

I'm terrified though that even though we haven't found any deficiencies yet, there might be long-lasting personality changes that are harder to pin down. At least so far all my friends seem to believe that I'm still pretty much the same person I was prior to the stroke, which is an enormous relief. But I'll look into that therapy just in case we do find a reason to pursue something like that, thanks!

If I may ask, the worst part of it for me so far is that I haven't had a good night of sleep since. Since it happened while I was sleeping, it's like I don't trust that my body won't try to off me in my sleep again for no reason. So I wake up halfway through the night in a panic that my body is betraying me again, and it takes awhile for me to convince myself that everything is alright to be able to go back to sleep. Have you dealt with anything that at all?

> Have you dealt with anything that at all?

Yeah, I think I went through something similar. The realization of fragility really got to me for a while, and I think my perspective about how temporary life is has permanently shifted. I feel like I'm just more anxious, in general, because I feel like it's going to crash down at some point. It makes me feel like I'm always in a hurry. Maybe it will eventually be a positive, where I came to terms with it, and put more effort to cherish every day, rather realizing it when I'm old, and it's too late?

I would still consider the oxygen therapy, since it could bring back some of the tissue around that clot. I also did it in an attempt to reduce the chances of Alzheimers, which we are now many times more likely to get.

I know people might be offended by me asking this question, but did you get COVID vaccinations? And if so, which brand(s)?

Regardless of your opinion, the one bit of information provided by answering this question has little value other than to spark a pointless argument.

Not really and this is the problem.

My quality of life decreased after my booster shot. Had severe reaction and my athletic performance dropped quite a bit afterwards never going back to the baseline pre-vaccine. Also having more heart palpitations and a decrease on VO2max.

But apparently when I talk about this, I am either labelled anti-vaxx (even though I got the damn vaccine), a conspiracy crazy or people try to justify my issues with something else that magically coincided with the date I took the booster.

My young healthy sister got myocarditis after her booster and had to be hospitalized. This is after successfully fighting off a covid infection months prior.

I'm far from antivax, and have had 3 shots myself. But it's crazy that you aren't allowed to talk about this stuff without being labeled a conspiracy theorist.

Another point of anecdata here: After my AZ booster (2 first vaccines were pfizer) I got a micro stroke (Lacunar Tia). My QoL also decreased after that. Too bad it's currently a taboo to talk about these sort of things.

Filing with the vaccine injury court and reporting this adverse event will have a far more effective impact than encouraging people to draw conclusions and take action based on selection-biased anecdata posted to Hacker News.

I did, of course, post my own anecdata. But it's much harder for people to choose whether or not to actually become infected by COVID than it is to decide whether or not to vaccinate.

You'll also note that we are now in fact having the pointless argument I predicted.

Honest question without "shady" purpose or intention.

Are you vaccinated ? If so, before or after your COVID infection ?

Thanks

Reply on news.ycombinator.com