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Summary
On episode 495 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Vivian King, a communications leader and former broadcast journalist who spent more than ten years at Milwaukee’s WTMJ-TV, and author of When the Words Suddenly Stopped: Finding My Voice Again After a Massive Stroke.
At 49, healthy and active, Vivian had a seizure and a rare stroke, a cerebral venous thrombosis, that wiped out roughly ten days of memory and took her speech for about three and a half weeks. A contributing risk factor she did not know about was taking birth control pills over the age of 40.
She and Coach Allan walk through stroke risk factors worth knowing, the support system that got her to care fast, and the physical, occupational, and speech therapy that brought her all the way back.
Links
- https://vivianlking.com
Key Takeaways
- Vivian’s stroke was a cerebral venous thrombosis, a rare ischemic stroke. A blood clot on the left side of her brain, over the area that manages speech, killed brain cells and caused a seizure, then a second seizure in the ambulance, before she spent 32 days in the hospital.
- Birth control pills after 40 were a hidden risk factor. The estrogen in the pills can raise the risk of a blood clot at that age, a warning often buried in fine print that many doctors do not routinely raise once a patient has had no prior issues.
- Know the common stroke risk factors. High blood pressure (especially prevalent in African Americans), a family history of stroke, and smoking all raise risk. Several of these are reversible through exercise, diet, and medication when needed.
- Ask your doctor and your pharmacist about medication risks directly. A pharmacist or pharmacologist is often better positioned than a physician to flag how a specific medication or combination of medications could interact and create risk.
- A support system has to be set up before you need it. Vivian’s sorority sisters and close friends identified themselves as “sister” to hospital staff so they could stay with her and relay information to her family. She now lists a close friend, not just her mother, in her advance directive.
- Recovery took three coordinated therapies. Physical therapy rebuilt strength on her weakened right side. Occupational therapy retaught basic daily actions, including how to spit out toothpaste and a mock shopping trip at a store. Speech therapy rebuilt her language, writing, and organizational thinking.
- “Time is brain.” The faster a stroke is treated, the better the odds of reversing the damage, which is why Vivian now checks in with a close friend every morning and night just so someone always knows if something is wrong.
- There are three types of stroke. Ischemic (a clot blocks an artery, what Vivian had), hemorrhagic (bleeding in the brain), and TIA, a transient ischemic attack that is often a milder warning sign of a bigger stroke to come.
- Vivian’s three strategies to get and stay well: move every day in whatever form is genuinely fun, whether that is walking, dancing, biking, or swimming; start each morning with gratitude; and stay closely connected to friends or family you can call on and lean on.
“In a stroke, time is brain.”
Vivian King
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