Stroke Awareness May Prevent Neurological Damage

If you are the adult child of an elderly or chronically ill person, you should know the signs of an impending stroke, or CVA (cerebral vascular accident).  Early diagnosis can lead to early medical intervention, and perhaps avoidance of a stroke’s outcome.

What is a stroke? “Cerebrovascular disease; CVA; Cerebral infarction; Cerebral hemorrhage; Ischemic stroke; Stroke - ischemic; Cerebrovascular accident; Stroke – hemorrhagic.”  Stroke is an umbrella term for many brain conditions that can lead to paralysis, loss of speech or understanding of speech, and perhaps death.

Strokes can be divided roughly into two varieties, ischemic or hemorrhagic.   Ischemic strokes are caused by a blockage of oxygen to a portion of the brain until that section literally starves to death.  This blockage can be from a detached blood clot or piece of cholesterol detached from a semi-blocked vein.  A hemorrhagic stroke is caused by bleeding, either from a head injury or the rupture of a weakened vessel.  The ensuing blood clot can cause potentially fatal pressure on the brain.

Heartwarming Care is a company that helps today’s sandwich generation to improve the care they can give to homebound relatives.  Knowing the symptoms of a CVA can prompt the caregiver to intervene medically before severe neural damage is done. Stroke awareness can be lifesaving.

As there are many causes of strokes, there can be many symptoms.  Perhaps most commonly, the patient may have slurred or incomprehensible speech.  There may a pin and needles sensation or weakness on one side of the body.  BP will probably rise and the patient may complain of an unbearable headache, lapsing into unconsciousness.

Heartwarming Care encourages you and other caregivers of your loved one to increase your stroke awareness.  Remember, it is better to seek medical care on a false alarm than see a member of your family or employer suffer a deadly CVA.