h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Got a phone call a couple of weeks ago, from one of my daughters friends.
They were in A&E at Kingston hospital, No. 4 had a headache and had gone numb all down the right side of her body.
My wife set off to catch the train.

Halfway down they say the hospital have sent her home - they say it's a migraine and she should go to a chemist and get some pain-killers. After 4 hours waiting ~ do I spot a Government target here ?

She's so ill her friends take her to Charing Cross Hospital, the neurologist there gets her admitted, does a cat scan and a lumber puncture, he want to do an MRI, but because its been out-sourced only the consultant can arrange it. By now my wife is there and I'm driving down.

Next day the boss neurologist arrives, says its migraine, no MRI, go home, have a nice weekend.

We bring her back to Coventry.

Next day she is worse so we go to our local hospital. They manage to pull up her tests from London, and they decide to do an MRI.

She has had a stroke. She's 21.

Two weeks later she is still numb down her right side, and they don't know why.

I feel useless.

Words fail me.

Dang, that's tough Keep us posted won't you? The human body's an immensely frail thing and it's a wonder to me that it works as well as it does. At the same time it's also immensely resilient and can often, with enough time, repair itself and restore normality (or something almost indistinguishable from it) amazingly well.

Numbness two weeks after a stroke is pretty usual isn't it?

Every question I ask is answered with - "It's all individual. There is no standard recovery."

How awful for you all. Is she getting any physio & such like? A cousin of mine had a stroke in his 30s & has made a full recovery. I sincerely hope the same for No. 4.

They say physio is inapproriate for the area of the brain where she has had a stroke - its in the centre, and thus doesn't affect motor movement.

Just wait & see then? The brain does have remarkable powers of recovery - I guess being such a young age improves the odds. Finding how why she was so unlucky must be a problem, though.

2 people i know have had strokes and they are both back at work

the human body is a wonderful machine with amazing capabilities

and s

She's been a bit more cheerful today, though no change in her actual condition.

She walked to her friends house and went into town today, she's a tough cookie.

Three years ago I had shingles in the right hand side of my face and I still have numbness there. Nerves is weird.

I can see why you would want to know why it happened just in case it might occur again.

However her youth and apparent stubbornness will probably really aid in her making a complete recovery.

Hope that improvement is a rapid one.

Give her a from all of us..