A close friend had an emergency situation. She started speaking in word salad, went by ambulance to the hospital and it turned out to be a benign brain tumor. It was removed, she's recovering and it looks like she'll be fine with therapy. I'm grateful and shook. Can't stop crying for some reason.
@StillIRise1963 It's the relief after acute fear and worry. Glad it was sorted for her.
@Judeet88 Me too. It's quite a shock.
@StillIRise1963 On the plus side it does mean that you'll be more likely to notice odd behaviour or speech in others now and be confident enough to take action.
@Judeet88 I hadn't thought of it that way, but you're right. Thanks. As a caretaker for my parents, it could come in handy.
@StillIRise1963 Strokes can also manifest themselves like that but will usually also have significant weakness in the grip of one hand...
@StillIRise1963 @Judeet88
Strokes certainly can have one sided weakness, but in my experience it hasn’t been usually. Any single one of the changes (or any combination) of the sudden changes from the BEFAST mnemonic can indicate a stroke: Balance problem, eye vision changes, face dropping, arm or leg weakness, speech changes, time to call emergency services. I’ve cared for people that’ve had a random variety of these changes, and others. I used to think the weakness was more prevalent when my work experience was limited to nursing homes, but that was a skewed view of the situation… the stroke patients that had those effects needed nursing home care. Lots of stroke patients don’t end up needing that type of care, so at the time, I wasn’t seeing those other stroke patients that are able to go home from the hospital because they had some of the other symptoms that weren’t the one sided weakness, like vision or speech changes that don’t require nursing home care.
@nursetonyf @StillIRise1963 I was a nurse for nearly 30yrs in the elderly acute medicine field then in nursing homes. Eye vision changes cannot always be determined by an outsider and the patient may not be able to tell you anyway. Ditto balance when many are barely mobile or immobile. For someone who's caring for elderly at home, it's best to keep it really simple and unscary.