hi riven, hows your mum doing? did she get a CT scan?

about your brother for both you and your mum.

I just remembered this site that I spent some time on when they thought my dad had had a stroke a few months back. It says there that referral should be within 24hrs if patient assessed as high risk and 7 days if not. If you haven't spoken to the GP yet, might be worth asking why she isn't high risk given heart trouble and colesterol?

Hope it all gets sorted v quickly and with minimum hassle for you.

My mother's had three TIAs in the past three years. The GP and hospital have taken a fairly relaxed approach to the attacks. She's had a couple of scans on her neck arteries and the blood flow is fine. She had a CAT scan (or an MRI, can't recall) after her last one which was a few months ago. The scan showed a slight area of her brain affected by the TIA, but nothing too serious.

She's on blood-thinning medication (but I think she was on that anyhow, following a heart attack) and they seem happy enough to take a laid-back approach. My grandmother's had a huge number of TIAs and a couple of more serious strokes, but not until she was in her late 80s. I think the issue is that there's not a great deal that anyone can do to prevent TIAs - there's certainly an hereditary component (runs in our family) and unless arteries are obviously clogged, then there's no really obvious treatment options.

Hope she feels better soon and that you're not too stressed.

he's not called me back yet although I left a message at 8am.
I did tell my brother about the stroke and told him mum is 75 with a heart conidtion and gets breathless and has weird riger attacks. Told him he needs to come visit before its too late.
He said 'oh, she's fine, I reckon she has agood few years yet'
He does not want to hear.

How did you get on with the dr? I can understand you feel you can't take any more, very natural in your situation I would say .

Can you work on her about your siblings? What would happen if you told them anyway? I'm wondering how they might feel about being kept in the dark.

Hope she's better today and that the appointments are all sorted.

Sorry to hear this Riven, you've had some good info given on this thread and I hope she picks up soon

this sounds hideously selfish but I cant look after her if she has a big stroke

oh, riven, hassle him. Big time. And scare the shit out of your mum if that's what it will take. But that's all you can do: if she won't go, there's not a lot you can do. And it is her responsibility, not yours if you have warned her of the risk.

My dad had 3 TIAs and then a massive stroke a week later: his CT was postponed by a week and the stroke happened 3 days after the scan was supposed to happen, before it was postponed. I still feel i could have pushed and even paid for a private scan if that's what it would have taken, but i live a long way away so left it to him and my mum to sort out.

To clarify - The scar was from the operation, not them mucking up his drugs.
(It truly is impressive though!)

My Dad (63) had series of mini strokes earlier in the year.
He was seen as an outpatient for scans.
They can be an indication of a bigger one coming.
My Mum is a Practice Nurse so didn't take any fobbing off from GP's and really pushed it through. Hassle her Doctors.

Also, when he had his initial scan they said that his carroted artery (big vein in his neck) was only 20% furred up so they wouldn't need to operate. And blood thinning drugs would be fine). They don't usually clear the artery unless its over 60% clogged up
Two days later he had a couple more mini strokes, went for another scan, and hey, guess what. The artery was 75% clogged up. Their mistake.
He was admitted to hospital, in total was in there about a week, but was operated on within 2 days.
Then they lost his notes and couldn't remember which drugs he was on (always good).
He now has a frankenstien like scar down his neck.

What surprised me though is that he was totally not overweight, is very active and very healthy. So they can truly happen to anyone.

Hope your Mum gets the help she needs soon. But, I think you are well within your rights to be very pushy. Worse case scenario - if it is a warning and a big stroke happens, and your siblings live abroad, it will be you picking the pieces up. Do you know any medical proffessionals who can advise you of what to ask for? Or can you ask your own Dr for some advice?

Best of luck x