Interview Section : Healthtalkonline

Full list of topics

What happened? The first few days after a stroke :
The event: A stroke or transient ischaemic attack
Getting medical help
Getting a diagnosis
Early care experiences
A doctor speaks – an introduction to stroke

What problems did I have, and why? :
Changes to movement
Changes in sensations
Changes to vision
Continence and cathererisation
Eating and drinking
Speech and communication
Thinking, understanding, memory and fatigue
Emotional Impact of stroke

Why me? Why now? Reducing risk of another stroke? :
Causes and risk factors
Medication to prevent another stroke
Surgery
Preventing another stroke: Changes in life style

What happens now? Rehabilitation & care :
Stroke recovery: daily activities and personal care
Stroke recovery: physical aspects and mobility
Stroke recovery: communication disorders
Leaving hospital

Life after stroke. What is the long-term like? :
Major disability
When stroke is coupled with other health problems
When stroke happens at a young age
Coping strategies and resilience
Continuing care at home and institutional care
Driving and transport
What's important in care
Social support
Support from patients and support groups
Sex life and impact on relationships
Messages to others
Finding information

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Stroke

People's stories

Age 21-45

Michelle - Interview 65

Michelle - Interview 65

Age at Interview: 28
Sex: Female
Age at Diagnosis: 26
Background: Michelle is single and lives with her parents. She is currently not working due to ill health. Ethnic background; White British

Brief outline:Michelle experienced her TIA at the age of 26. She experienced visual disturbance and was unable to speak coherently but after five or ten minutes the symptoms gradually subsided. She had several of these episodes over the following months which were not diagnosed specifically as TIA and then later went on to experience a full stroke.

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Michelle experienced a TIA before her stroke and feels that her symptoms did not correspond to the signs outlined in the FAST campaign.
Print I was just wondering about that the TV campaign on the stroke, symptoms of stroke. Have you seen that? The… The F.A.S.T? Yeah, FAST. Have you found that, I mean, would you say that’s helpful? Is there something about it that doesn’t really ring with you? Or could be changed to make it more effective? It doesn’t mention TIA for example, and do you think that, there’s a need for more public awareness about … Well, yeah, if more people knew about TIAs they could prevent stroke in the, in the first place, so I would tend to focus more on TIAs than the stroke itself. But the F.A.S.T. advert, there’s, it does have its advantages but it, they don’t show all the signs and, yeah, you’ve got to act fast but it doesn’t necessarily just affect your arm or your speech, there’s a lot more to it than that. So there’s lot of different symptoms and signs that you could miss because they’re not part of… Yeah, ..that campaign? Yeah, you would just be looking for the arm and the speech and... it’s not necessarily that.

Michelle feels that is she was diagnosed sooner she would have recovered better.
Print I think if they’d had, if they’d had realised what was happening earlier they could have possibly stopped the big stroke from being as severe as it was and then my symptoms wouldn’t be as bad as they are. And it wouldn’t have impacted on me as bad. So do you feel quite, a bit bitter about that? That they didn’t act on that, or understand what was going on in the first place to prevent that from happening? Yeah. Yeah. Hm. So in terms of your message for the health professionals in that case, what would that be? Just because of the age doesn’t rule out anything. Young babies, children can have TIAs, stroke and people that are presenting with them kind of symptoms should be checked and not just disregarded.

Michelle found out that she had a stroke from her father. She was frustrated by the lack of direct communication with medical staff.
Print When you heard the word stroke and that, told that’s what’s happened, what did you feel? I was really shocked to be honest because the, it wasn’t even the doctor that told me, it was my dad. As I came out from the CT scanner there was no doctors there and I could see by my dad’s face. And I said, “What’s wrong?” And he said, “You’ve had a stroke.” How did he know? I don’t know. Oh. I presume the doctor must have been in the room when I was being scanned and he’s come out and told my dad I’d, I don’t know. I think because we are a lot younger doesn’t necessarily mean we don’t want to know what’s going on. Instead of going to parents or partners they need to focus more on the, on the patient and tell them what’s going on rather than everybody else because if we don’t’ understand that makes it so much worse for us.

Michelle felt that staff did not explain what was happening to her.
Print They didn’t explain why it was happening. And for me that made it much worse because if they had explained to me I could have understood. Did it feel difficult to ask questions? Would it have felt difficult, do you think? It did, yeah. Because they’re much, much used for it for older people so they just kind of do, did what they would normally do, for me, for them, which wasn’t acceptable. Do you think that they were inexperienced in dealing with a younger person that had a stroke? For younger people, yeah. Right. And so in the ward that you were in, were you, were there anybody else your age or was it mostly older people? Do you remember? I would say the youngest person there was about 70. Right. I mean, in the whole scheme of things then how did that make you feel being in the hospital and the health professionals not really communicating very effectively with you? I think that really impacted on my recovery, because I really suffered afterwards. In what way? I kind of like went into a depression but it wasn’t a depression, normal depression it was from the stroke. But it was so bad, even medication didn’t help.

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