I was watching television recently and after about 15 minutes, paused the film. When I returned I noticed that the film was “signed”. A woman had been superimposed on the film to do Sign Language for the Deaf.
I was astonished as I hadn’t noticed her before.
I wrote to my neurologist and asked her if there was any neurological reason for this weird event.
I got her letter this morning which I’d like to share with all you lovely people.
This is her reply;
“My short answer is …this was simply an attentional lapse … or transient ischaemic attack.”
Now I understand. My MS it is all down to lack of blood to parts of my body (no surprise there) or “not paying attention”.
My understanding of transient ischaemic attack is that it’s a ‘mini stroke’. That’s quite a step from an attention lapse.
I’ve seen people doing signing over TV programmes. They’re pretty hard to miss. I don’t have an explanation for your experience, but I’m not sure that mini-stroke or attention lapse are the answer.
She can’t help it. She’s from Down Under. Even the word ischaemic has two spellings. Neither of which are in this spell check.
As the main symptoms of a TIA include face/mouth/eye drop, not being able to smile, slurred or garbled speech and being speechless, and I have those signs anyway, I can’t tell the difference between MS and a mini-stroke. They even have the same initials!
A couple of my friends have recently had parents who had TIAs. These were taken extremely seriously by the medical profession. I think if your doctor really thought you had had one, she would be booking you in for an MRI. Here’s the NHS mnemonic for what you need to check on whether you’ve had one:
The main symptoms of a TIA can be remembered with the word FAST: Face-Arms-Speech-Time.
Face – the face may have dropped on one side, the person may not be able to smile, or their mouth or eye may have dropped.
Arms – the person with suspected stroke may not be able to lift both arms and keep them there because of arm weakness or numbness in one arm.
Speech – their speech may be slurred or garbled, or the person may not be able to talk at all, despite appearing to be awake.
Time – it is time to dial 999 immediately if you see any of these signs or symptoms.
As far as I understand it, Old Speckled Hen is an excellent medicament for many ailments. As is Chardonnay (as long as it doesn’t come from Australia that is!).
My current neuro has a double barrelled, doubly hard surname to pronounce…sounds eastern european! She has ruffled curly hair, specs, a thin bony face and a look of what you might imagine to belong to someone who has never smiled or been kissed in her life!
One of my carers said she looked like she might even be a spy!
I dont know any good, nor even bad, jokes about neuros!
Actually I’m revising my answer. Professor Giovannoni (Barts Blog) has a sense of humour. He’s a lovely man too. And certainly 15 years ago when I used to see him, he was a rather gorgeous specimen all round. At least I thought so.