Mom, 32, has had headaches and blurred vision for five days. She was having an stroke. In January, Amanda Lenza’s head hurt. Five days later, the pain spread from the back to the front of Amanda Lenza’s face. She woke up one morning with double vision after she wobbled. “That really caught me off guard,” says the 32-year old freelance ghostwriter from Lorain, Ohio, to TODAY.com. “I began texting my husband. I thought, “This is really strange.” “I don’t believe something is wrong. She lost feeling on the left side. Her husband called an ambulance when he returned home. She recalls: “I asked the paramedics, pretty much to their faces, “Am I having stroke symptoms because I feel that these are stroke-like symptoms?” Each stroke symptom in 15 minutes Lenza was watching cartoons with her daughter when she noticed that her balance had shifted. She then started seeing twos of everything. Her symptoms worsened after she texted her husband to ask for help. She was unable to stand and slumped on the couch. Her speech felt garbled. She couldn’t move her left arm. Her face began to droop on the left. Her symptoms were at their peak when she arrived at the hospital. She says, “I could not speak at all.” “I couldn’t move this side of my body… I began having trouble breathing.” Amanda Lenza was watching cartoons with daughter when she experienced double vision. She also couldn’t stand up without wobbling. Courtesy Amanda Lenza The doctors in the emergency room noticed that her vertebral vessels were blocked after a CT scan. They gave her a drug called a “really powerful clot-buster” to help break up blood clots that could lead to a stroke. Lenza’s case was not one of those times. “I got much worse, she says. She was transported by helicopter to the main campus of Cleveland Clinic. “I could not sit up or see straight, but I was aware,” she says. “All my brain damage was in the cerebral cortex and pons, (part of my brain stem), so it was physically affecting me. Mentally, I still had full awareness.” She was terrified and wanted to be with her daughter. She was terrified after the staff confirmed that she had a stroke. “I was wondering if I survived, how much of my body function would I be able to regain? Will I ever be able speak again? “Am I going to be in a position to care for my toddler?” Lenza asks. “I was afraid.” The doctors rushed her to surgery to place stents into her vertebral arterioles, the two arteries which run from the back of her neck to her brain. They only opened one. Rarely do people experience tears in both eyes. “The left one has been completely blocked.” She says it’s permanently damaged. “They put three stents in my right vertebral arterial.” After doctors removed her breathing tube she was able to sit up, move and speak again. After a day, she was able to get up and walk. She says, “It took a couple of weeks for me to re-learn to walk completely.” The National Institutes of Health states that the condition causes abnormal cell growth in artery walls, which contributes to the arteries bulging or contracting. She says that most people don’t even know they have it. “In my case (my arteries) are too weak.” She explains that doctors suspect that Lenza’s recent illness may have contributed to her problems. She had been ill for three weeks at the beginning of January. She was lying down and coughing hard with her head turned. This likely caused the rupture. Lenza explains, “It felt as if I had a torn neck muscle. So I ignored it.” “I never would have thought it was an artery damage. I thought I had just tweaked my neck. Bilateral dissection stroke Dr. Shazam Hassain, the doctor who treated Lenza, says that dissection of both vertebral arterioles is “unusual”. The director of the Cerebrovascular Centre at the Cleveland Clinic told TODAY.com that “we have two arteries running up the back our neck, called the vertebral vessels. These arteries go up to the rear of the brain.” “(She) had tears on both sides. Both on the left and right. When we see tears in blood vessels, there is probably a fragility to the blood vessels. Her doctors suspected that there was a underlying cause for her stroke, and this is how they discovered she had fibromuscular Dysplasia. The tears in her arteries made them “collapse,” which limited the blood flow to her head. Most people have it on one side, so they still receive some blood to the brain. Hussain claims that “Both tears limited the blood flow which resulted in… stroke”. They were only able to open the one side. “(With one) supplying blood flow… you’re good,” he says. “The other side was already closed.” It was not going to help her if she tried to open it, and it increased the risk.” He says that people often feel “very intense pain” when they dissect an animal. He says that “most people feel it is quite painful.” “It is unlike anything they have ever experienced before.” Amanda Lenza hasn’t been able to play with or carry her 16-month-old daughter as much since her stroke. She began walking while Lenza was hospitalized and that little bit independence helped. Courtesy Amanda Lenza Lenza’s symptoms are typical stroke signs. When it comes to stroke, people should be aware of BE FAST. BE FAST is: B : Balance E : Trouble with vision such as double vision or loss of sight F : Facial weakness A : Asymmetry, as in drooping on one side S : Slurred speech T : Time is brain Hussain says that a person who suffers a stroke will lose 2 million brain cells per minute. “The quicker you get to the emergency room, the faster the two types treatment will be provided.” Lenza’s life will be a little bit different now that she has experienced dissection. She cannot ride a rollercoaster anymore, she can’t keep her neck in an odd position for long periods and she shouldn’t lift anything. But her brain should be able to recover. Hussain claims that the brain has the ability to heal. Relearning and recovering Lenza estimates that she has regained ‘about 90% of her functions. She says, “I’m relearning how to type without looking at my hand.” “I don’t have that connection between my brain and hands anymore.” My balance was a bit off, but that’s improving gradually.” She also says that she has a delay in her speech and thoughts. She is grateful that she received treatment so quickly. “If I hadn’t acted so quickly, I don’t think I would still be here,” she says. “Time is crucial with strokes.” She hopes that her story will encourage others to take their own health concerns seriously. She says that mothers tend to put other things before themselves and don’t care for themselves as they should. “Paying more attention to my body and being a bit kinder on myself is the new model.”

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Mom, 32, has had headaches and blurred vision for five days. She was having an stroke.

 In January, Amanda Lenza's head hurt. Five days later, the pain spread from the back to the front of Amanda Lenza's face. She woke up one morning with double vision after she wobbled.


 "That really caught me off guard," says the 32-year old freelance ghostwriter from Lorain, Ohio, to TODAY.com. "I began texting my husband. I thought, "This is really strange." "I don't believe something is wrong.


 She lost feeling on the left side. Her husband called an ambulance when he returned home.


 She recalls: "I asked the paramedics, pretty much to their faces, "Am I having stroke symptoms because I feel that these are stroke-like symptoms?"


 Each stroke symptom in 15 minutes


 Lenza was watching cartoons with her daughter when she noticed that her balance had shifted. She then started seeing twos of everything. Her symptoms worsened after she texted her husband to ask for help. She was unable to stand and slumped on the couch. Her speech felt garbled. She couldn't move her left arm. Her face began to droop on the left. Her symptoms were at their peak when she arrived at the hospital.


 She says, "I could not speak at all." "I couldn't move this side of my body... I began having trouble breathing."


 
  Amanda Lenza was watching cartoons with daughter when she experienced double vision. She also couldn't stand up without wobbling. Courtesy Amanda Lenza
 


 The doctors in the emergency room noticed that her vertebral vessels were blocked after a CT scan. They gave her a drug called a "really powerful clot-buster" to help break up blood clots that could lead to a stroke. Lenza's case was not one of those times.


 "I got much worse, she says.


 She was transported by helicopter to the main campus of Cleveland Clinic.


 "I could not sit up or see straight, but I was aware," she says. "All my brain damage was in the cerebral cortex and pons, (part of my brain stem), so it was physically affecting me. Mentally, I still had full awareness."


 She was terrified and wanted to be with her daughter. She was terrified after the staff confirmed that she had a stroke.


 "I was wondering if I survived, how much of my body function would I be able to regain? Will I ever be able speak again? "Am I going to be in a position to care for my toddler?" Lenza asks. "I was afraid."


 The doctors rushed her to surgery to place stents into her vertebral arterioles, the two arteries which run from the back of her neck to her brain. They only opened one. Rarely do people experience tears in both eyes.


 "The left one has been completely blocked." She says it's permanently damaged. "They put three stents in my right vertebral arterial."


 After doctors removed her breathing tube she was able to sit up, move and speak again. After a day, she was able to get up and walk.


 She says, "It took a couple of weeks for me to re-learn to walk completely."


 The National Institutes of Health states that the condition causes abnormal cell growth in artery walls, which contributes to the arteries bulging or contracting.


 She says that most people don't even know they have it. "In my case (my arteries) are too weak."


 She explains that doctors suspect that Lenza's recent illness may have contributed to her problems. She had been ill for three weeks at the beginning of January. She was lying down and coughing hard with her head turned. This likely caused the rupture.


 Lenza explains, "It felt as if I had a torn neck muscle. So I ignored it." "I never would have thought it was an artery damage. I thought I had just tweaked my neck.


 Bilateral dissection stroke


 Dr. Shazam Hassain, the doctor who treated Lenza, says that dissection of both vertebral arterioles is "unusual".


 The director of the Cerebrovascular Centre at the Cleveland Clinic told TODAY.com that "we have two arteries running up the back our neck, called the vertebral vessels. These arteries go up to the rear of the brain." "(She) had tears on both sides. Both on the left and right. When we see tears in blood vessels, there is probably a fragility to the blood vessels.


 Her doctors suspected that there was a underlying cause for her stroke, and this is how they discovered she had fibromuscular Dysplasia. The tears in her arteries made them "collapse," which limited the blood flow to her head. Most people have it on one side, so they still receive some blood to the brain.


 Hussain claims that "Both tears limited the blood flow which resulted in... stroke".


 They were only able to open the one side.


 "(With one) supplying blood flow... you're good," he says. "The other side was already closed." It was not going to help her if she tried to open it, and it increased the risk."


 He says that people often feel "very intense pain" when they dissect an animal.


 He says that "most people feel it is quite painful." "It is unlike anything they have ever experienced before."


 
  
 
 
  Amanda Lenza hasn't been able to play with or carry her 16-month-old daughter as much since her stroke. She began walking while Lenza was hospitalized and that little bit independence helped. Courtesy Amanda Lenza
 


 Lenza's symptoms are typical stroke signs. When it comes to stroke, people should be aware of BE FAST. BE FAST is:


 
  B : Balance
 
 
  E : Trouble with vision such as double vision or loss of sight
 
 
  F : Facial weakness
 
 
  A : Asymmetry, as in drooping on one side
 
 
  S : Slurred speech
 
 
  T : Time is brain
 


 Hussain says that a person who suffers a stroke will lose 2 million brain cells per minute. "The quicker you get to the emergency room, the faster the two types treatment will be provided."


 Lenza's life will be a little bit different now that she has experienced dissection. She cannot ride a rollercoaster anymore, she can't keep her neck in an odd position for long periods and she shouldn't lift anything. But her brain should be able to recover.


 Hussain claims that the brain has the ability to heal.


 Relearning and recovering


 Lenza estimates that she has regained 'about 90% of her functions.


 She says, "I'm relearning how to type without looking at my hand." "I don't have that connection between my brain and hands anymore." My balance was a bit off, but that's improving gradually."


 She also says that she has a delay in her speech and thoughts. She is grateful that she received treatment so quickly.


 "If I hadn’t acted so quickly, I don’t think I would still be here," she says. "Time is crucial with strokes."


 She hopes that her story will encourage others to take their own health concerns seriously.


 She says that mothers tend to put other things before themselves and don't care for themselves as they should. "Paying more attention to my body and being a bit kinder on myself is the new model."

In January, Amanda Lenza’s head hurt. The pain radiated from the back of her head to the front of her face for five days. One day, she stood up, wobbled and suddenly experienced double vision.

“That really took me off guard,” the 32-year-old freelance ghost writer from Lorain, Ohio tells TODAY.com. “I started texting my husband. I was like, ‘This is really weird. I don’t think something is right.’”

Then she lost feeling on her left side. Her husband returned home and called an ambulance.

“I asked (the paramedics) pretty much straight to their faces, ‘Am I having a stroke because I feel like these are stroke symptoms,’” she recalls.

Every stroke symptom within 15 minutes

Lenza and her daughter were watching cartoons when she noticed her balance was off kilter. Then she started seeing two of everything. After she texted her husband for help, her symptoms worsened. She could no longer sit up and slumped onto the couch. Her speech felt garbled. When she tried to move her left hand, she couldn’t. Then her face drooped on the left side. When she got to the hospital, her symptoms peaked.

“I couldn’t speak at all,” she says. “I couldn’t move that side of my body at all … I started having trouble breathing.” 

Amanda Lenza
While watching cartoons with her daughter, Amanda Lenza experienced double vision and couldn’t balance without wobbling. Courtesy Amanda Lenza

Doctors in the emergency room performed a CT scan and noticed her vertebral arteries were blocked. To help, they gave her a “really strong clot buster,” a type of drug that breaks up blood clots clogging arteries that can lead to stroke. While that often helps, it didn’t for Lenza.

“I got worse, much worse,” she says.

Doctors sent her to Cleveland Clinic’s main campus via helicopter.

“I couldn’t really see straight or sit up, but I was cognizant,” she says. “All of my brain damage was in my cerebral cortex and pons (part of the brain stem) so, physically, it was affecting me. Mentally, I was still completely aware.”

She felt terrified and wanted to see her daughter. After the staff confirmed she was having a stroke, she worried she was going to die or never recover.

“I was just wondering how if I made it, how much of my bodily function would I get back? Would I ever be able to talk again? Am I going to be able to take care of my toddler,” Lenza says. “I was scared.”

Doctors rushed her into surgery to place stents in her vertebral arteries, the two arteries that run through the back of the neck to the brain. They could only open one. It’s rare for people to experience tears in both.  

“The left one is completely blocked. It’s permanently damaged,” she says. “They put three stents into my right vertebral artery.”

After doctors took out her breathing tube, she could sit up and move and talk again. A day later she could get out of bed to walk, though it took time before she felt confident moving.

“It took me a couple weeks to re-learn how to walk completely,” she says.

Doctors wanted to understand why Lenza experienced a stroke at such a young age and discovered she has fibromuscular dysplasia, “which affects the main arteries in your body.” The National Institutes of Health says the condition causes unusual cell growth in the artery walls that contribute to the arteries contracting or bulging.

“Most people live with it and never know they have it,” she says. “ In my case, (my arteries are) too weak.”

Doctors suspect that a recent illness had contributed to Lenza’s problems, she explains. In early January, she had been sick for three weeks. She had been lying down and coughed hard with her head turned, which likely caused the rupture.

“It felt like a torn muscle in the back of my neck, which is why I ignored it,” Lenza says. “I would have never even thought that it was damage to my artery. I thought I just I tweaked something in my neck.”

Bilateral dissection and stroke

Experiencing dissection in both vertebral arteries is “unusual,” says Dr. Shazam Hussain, who treated Lenza.

“We have two arteries coming up the back of our neck called the vertebral arteries that go up to the back of the brain,” the director of the Cerebrovascular Center at the Cleveland Clinic tells TODAY.com. “(She had) tears on both sides, both on the left and the right. Basically, when we see these tears that occur in people’s blood vessels there’s probably somewhat of an underlying fragility to their blood vessels.”

Her doctors understood there might be an underlying mechanism causing her stroke and that’s how they found she had fibromuscular dysplasia. The tears in her arteries caused them to “collapse down,” which limits the blood flow to her brain. In most people, it occurs on one side so they’re still receiving some blood to their brain.

“Both tears restricted the blood flow, which resulted in … stroke,” Hussain says.

While they were able to open one side, the other will remained closed.

“(With one) providing blood flow … you’re fine,” he says. “The other side, it was already closed down. It wasn’t going to help her to try and open it — and it also increased risk.”

He says that when it comes to dissection people often experience a “very intense pain.”

“Most people feel that it is quite painful,” he says. “It’s unlike anything that they’ve really experienced before.” 

Amanda Lenza
Since her stroke, Amanda Lenza can’t carry her daughter, now 16 months old, like she used to or play with her as long. She started walking when Lenza was in the hospital and that little bit of independence helps.Courtesy Amanda Lenza

The symptoms Lenza experienced are typical of stroke signs. People should think of BE FAST when it comes to stroke. BE FAST stands for: 

  • B: Balance
  • E: Trouble with vision, such as double vision, or loss of vision
  • F: Facial weakness
  • A: Asymmetry as in drooping or weakness on one side
  • S: Slurred speech
  • T: Time is brain

“In the situation of a stroke, a person will lose somewhere of about 2 million brain cells a minute,” Hussain says. “The faster you get to the hospital, the faster you get the two types of treatment.”

Life will look a little different for Lenza now that she’s experienced dissection. She can no longer ride a rollercoaster, she can’t hold her neck in odd positions for long periods of time and she shouldn’t strain to lift anything. But her brain should recover.

“The brain actually does have the capacity to heal,” Hussain says.

Relearning and recovering

Lenza estimates she’s regained “about 90% of her function.”

“I’m re-learning how to type on a keyboard without looking at my hands,” she says. “I don’t really have that connection between the brain and my hands now. My balance was a little off but that’s getting better progressively.”

She says she has a delay between her thoughts and speech, too. Still, she feels grateful she received treatment so promptly.  

“If I hadn’t acted as quickly as I did, I don’t think I would be here anymore,” she says. “Time is so important with strokes.”

She hopes her story encourages others to take their health concerns seriously.

“Mothers tend to put everything else before them and don’t take care of themselves they way they should,” she says. “Paying better attention to my own body and being a little easier on myself in that regard is the new model.”