Random MomBlog

My grandmother died a few months ago from a stroke, so I take it seriously. (Did you know that one-quarter of women who have a stroke are under 65?) I also know that women’s stroke symptoms differ from men’s, and often aren’t ‘traditional’ signs. And that leads to the big question, what are the signs of a stroke, and what are the signs of a woman’s stroke? (Keep in mind that most people only mention a few of these symptoms!)

The short answer with graphic is a good start, and the long answer only adds a few more points. I’ll summarize.

The classic symptoms of a stroke are:

• sudden numbness, weakness, or paralysis of face, arm, or leg (usually on one side of the body)
• sudden difficulty speaking or understanding speech
• sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes (blurry, double, or decreased vision)
• sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance, or loss of coordination
• sudden confusion, trouble talking, or understanding speech
• sudden problems with memory, spatial orientation, or perception
• sudden severe or unusual headache with no known cause, possibly accompanied by a stiff neck, facial pain, pain between your eyes, vomiting or altered consciousness

Women may also report these stroke symptoms:

• sudden face, chest, arm, or leg pain
• seizure
• sudden hiccups
• sudden nausea (feeling sick to your stomach)
• sudden tiredness
• loss of consciousness or fainting
• sudden shortness of breath (feeling like you can’t get enough air)
• sudden pounding or racing heartbeat
• falls or accidents

So the next question is, What should you do? The answer is, Act F.A.S.T.

Health, Tips

My right hip (aka “greater trochanter”) bursitis has been waking me up at night, hardly what I need while pregnant. I’ve had this bursitis pain constantly for the past 7 years. Around the one-year mark, I went to a doctor who knows me well, and had four corticosteroid injections. The injections hurt, the swelling from the injections lasted about two weeks and hurt the whole time, and then the regular bursitis pain came back. So we tried again, tweaking the injection formula for me, and it never helped. We also tried large doses of NSAIDs with the same lack of luck. I figure I must be doing something regularly, for seven years, to keep it so irritated. *sigh*

So it’s time to look for other ideas.

Here’s an overview of trochanteric bursitis treatment. The good information here is to stretch tight iliotibial bands (ITB) as well as tensor fascia lata (TFL). I’ve had the corticosteroid injections and I wear my orthotics. I haven’t used deep heating, but it feels a lot better when it’s warm/hot than when it’s cold! So maybe I should try ITB and TFL stretches, and use a heating pad.

The most helpful “cure” for me tends to be physical therapy. Previous research turned up that hip bursitis is often a tight piriformis muscle, and sure enough, my right piriformis is significantly tighter than the left. I was surprised because I’m used to my benign hypermobility, and here I am with a very tight piriformis. So not only does PT work on me in general, I’ve got the lack of range of motion to back up this specific case too. Here’s a description of, with link to pictures of, trochanteric bursitis rehabilitation exercises. It targets piriformis and iliotibial, the main culprits. (However, when my ITB is tight, I get a characteristic pain in my knee that feels like I twisted my kneecap. The pain is on the edge of my patella, from the bottom to the outer side. I haven’t had that in a while. ITB stretches are good, but I think piriformis stretching is best for my right hip bursitis.)

Heading to the fringe, there’s also a list of herbs for bursitis and tendinitis (the number of leaves represents the confidence level). Willow is just aspirin, and I’ve tried that route, so I’m not interested. Ginger might have promise, and possibly magnesium (Mg also helps glucose tolerance / insulin resistance).

So I think I’ll stretch my right piriformis muscle right now, and maybe put a heating pad on it tonight.

Health, Insulin Resistance, Personal

I ran out of the flax oil pills that I take with my multivitamin every morning about three weeks ago. I was out for about a week, and my bursitis really flared up that week. (A co-worker said Omega-3 had really helped her bursitis, which is why I started taking it years ago.) So it could have been the cold weather, or it could have been the (lack of) flax, but I decided to start taking two pills every morning to see if I could tell a difference.

So far, the experimental result (on a sample size of one, me; not statistically sound) is that the tendinitis in my wrists is much better. That’s good, but my wrists don’t wake me up at night. If anything else changes, I’ll update you, but so far it’s not what I had hoped.

Health, Personal

Resetting preferences is always a good one, and this tip for iMovie 08 crashing at launch seems pretty useful. Hopefully I’ll remember it when I need it … I’ve been using an older version of iMovie on purpose just so I can keep using the pass-through feature on my camcorder.

Macintosh, Tips