Could The Diagnosis Be Wrong?

The TIA that wasn't, now that's a relief.

Fact - did you know that fully 30% of the stroke diagnosis made at Dr. offices and emergency rooms aren't really strokes.  That certainly surprised us last week.

When we visited the Heart and Stroke Clinic last Friday is was a real eye opener.  They asked what seemed like a few hundred questions and reviewed all of the test results they had obtained from the hospital and my Dr.  They are going to do one more test to be absolutely certain but they have already sent a letter to my Dr. saying that, subject to confirmation by this last test, I didn't have a stroke.

So what happened?  I had a migraine attack, in other words a severe migraine with no pain.  The telltale sign was the length of time this went on for.  Apparently, according to the clinic, a TIA is fast and usually accompanied by sharp pain.  Mine lasted for hours and hours and did not involve any pain.  They have a whole bunch of other determining factors but those two were the tip off.  A web search of TIA + Migraine yields a lot of data.  As you can likely imagine I have spent a lot of time doing that search since last Friday and I'm getting more comfortable with the new diagnosis every day.  Apparently migraines, which are pretty common in my family, can do this.

Emergency rooms, especially American ones, have to diagnose and treat on a "worst case" scenario for liability reasons.  Canadian ones don't have the same type of liability issues but they to must treat based on a "worst case" basis.  That's what happened in this case.  To their credit they gave me excellent care and did the job exactly the way it should have been done.  It's no ones fault it's gone this way, but we're more than a little happy it has.

Bernie and I have taken to calling it the "$35,000 Painless Headache."  One could say the $35000 pain in the _____ but we won't go there.

So what now?  Well the diagnosis is on file and all insurance companies will have access to that from now on which makes medical insurance a bit tough to get.  On the other side, once I have this last test finished, the Heart and stroke Clinic will give me a document saying that I had a migraine event, not a stroke.  That will certainly help.  If I can get coverage that excludes migraine events we'll be OK.  If it were to happen again, with no insurance, I know now what it could cost us.  If I can't get that and we're forced to go with no coverage for cardiovascular events, we're toast.  There is no way, at this age one, could leave Canada without coverage for cardiovascular/stroke events.

We took a trip to Steinbach Man. yesterday.  As some of you may know Steinbach is home to some huge trucking companies and I figured that all those commercial drivers needed to have travel insurance.  It was a correct assumption and we got some really good help.  Once again thanks to Darcy from Integrity Ventures (diesel repair.)

As it stands now I need to get this last test and then we can move forward.  They told me it could take a month to six weeks to get it done.  I have an appointment with my Dr next week at which time we're going to see if we can speed it up a bit,

All in all - another blessing.  If a person was so inclined you could look at this as a headache that screwed up a winter.  We don't, we believe we're back here for a reason and everything is working out as it should be.  We're spending time with friends and family and this is just another part of our "Excellent Adventure."  We'll be back on the road soon and someplace out there we'll have a toast to the "$35,000 Painless Headache," after all it made the winter of 10/11 much more memorable.

Stay well, stay warm, be happy, and please leave us a note when you can.