My experience of having a Stroke

Gary, hi. You had a stroke? Yes, in 2014 I had a stroke, which I didn't actually notice myself. It was something that I was walking up the pathway to a neighbour's house and as he opened the front door he said, what on earth's wrong with you? And immediately he said, Gary, I'm ringing an ambulance. I was admitted to hospital where I was informed I'd had a stroke. What did your neighbour notice? I was quite sluggish in my speech and I was weaving sort of towards one side. I was trying to walk up the path in a direct line and I kept weaving to the left. At first he said to me, have you been drinking? And I said, no. And then he said, Gary, I'm calling an ambulance. And he did so. And yes, as I was admitted and informed, I had had a stroke and as a consequence of which further examinations were done as to why this would happen and a thrombus, a clot was discovered in my lower ventricle. In the heart itself? In the heart itself and that the lower ventricle of the heart since the heart attacks and bypass that I had previously had in 2010. Ballooned up a little bit and clotted formed on the inside. Yes, but it was non-functioning. There's very little blood flow through the lower ventricle. And a bit of that clot had broken up and gone into the brain. And caused me to have a stroke. So the treatment for that is Warfarin therapy. As a consequence, I was put onto Warfarin and because of significant heart-related issues, issues, it was considered a good idea that I have an implanted defibrillator and so went to see Dr. Zachary Winnett at the Hammersmith Hospital and discussed it at length with him and I agreed to take part in a trial known as the Praetorian trial regarding two different implants, a traditional implant and a new implant that was being tried out. However, because of the thrombus in my lower ventricle after an echocardiogram, it was decided that it would be safer that I have the standard recognized defibrillator inserted. But since you've been on Warfarin, you haven't had any further strokes at all? No, no I haven't. And the thrombus is being monitored? On a six-monthly basis. With a echocardiogram, the opposite. Echocardiogram, yes, I have six-monthly echocardiograms. Thanks.