[Disease] A Stroke Struggle
And now for the second Action Project of the year! This one is for this term’s STEAM class, Disease. In this class, we have gone in-depth about the human body and when it malfunctions. We learned about all of the body systems and each chose one to learn about in particular. I chose the Circulatory System. We then went on City Health Dashboard to observe the health situation in different cities and how they compare to other cities and different areas inside of each of those cities. For this Action Project, we chose one disease or condition that we have a personal connection to and interviewed someone who has had that disease or condition, or if they are unable to talk for one reason or another, a relative who has extensive knowledge of the patient's particular situation. We now are tasked with creating a somewhat fictional (to keep anonymity) patient profile based on their situation as well as describing the disease as a whole. The purpose of this AP is to combine an objective look at a disease with an in-depth, subjective look. I chose strokes and here is my patient profile!
My patient was an elderly man of 92. He was in very good health for his age group. He had remarkably full movement, to the point he could even play frisbee with his grandson. He had amazing eyesight. He was still passing his driving test every year! He had to, how else could he make it to choir rehearsals at his church? He retained all of the intelligence that he had throughout his entire life. He read books all day long and played bridge masterfully. He had an absurd amount of songs memorized in his head. He could sing a different song every day for years.
It was then when he suddenly had a lack of eyesight in one of his eyes. His first thought was that it might be Cataracts, an eye disease where your eye is clouded and it appears as though you are always looking through frosted glass. Then, he started to have trouble walking. He went from walking under completely his own power to walking with a cane to walking with his wife’s walker in about a week. He and his son had both enough background knowledge to figure out that it might be a stroke, which would mean that my patient needed immediate attention. When he arrived, his doctors inserted an IV into his arm. The IV fluid dissolved the clot that was happening in the blood vessels of his neck. He then stayed in the hospital for the next couple of days to monitor his condition. It was a moderate to massive stroke on the right side of his brain.
Recovery after the stroke was about a six-month process. He was transferred out of his independent living facility and into an assisted living nursing home, away from his wife. Incredibly, my patient made almost a full recovery. He regained most of his vision, although his left eye’s vision was slightly worse than it was previously. Through physical therapy, he was able to regain a lot of the maneuverability he had previously. While he still needed a walker at the end of the six months, when he started he was nigh paralyzed on the left side of his body. His mind was affected by the stroke but in a bit of a strange way. He was no longer able to navigate very well, and as such had to designate landmarks everywhere to find his way. He retained most of his memory. He remembered his wife, son, and grandson. He did lose some of his memory, while still holding an impressive library of songs in his brain he had to practice a lot of them frequently.
We’ve identified a couple potential causes for this stroke. The first is that he was under a lot of stress. He was pressured by the rest of his independent living facility to become president of the facility again and he did not want to take this responsibility upon himself, but he did anyway. He also had suffered two fairly severe injuries in the past couple of years. The first was that he tripped over some landscaping outside the facility. He hit his head on concrete and had to go to the emergency room. He also was in a fairly major car crash, luckily it wasn’t the crash but the airbag that caused the head injury. This has been the tragic disease and impressive recovery of my patient.
A stroke is when your brain cells are dying from a lack of blood. This happens for two reasons when a blood vessel that leads to your brain bursts (Hemorrhagic stroke), or when a blood vessel that leads to your brain clots (Ischemic stroke). Here is a diagram of an Ischemic stroke:
My patient was an elderly man of 92. He was in very good health for his age group. He had remarkably full movement, to the point he could even play frisbee with his grandson. He had amazing eyesight. He was still passing his driving test every year! He had to, how else could he make it to choir rehearsals at his church? He retained all of the intelligence that he had throughout his entire life. He read books all day long and played bridge masterfully. He had an absurd amount of songs memorized in his head. He could sing a different song every day for years.
It was then when he suddenly had a lack of eyesight in one of his eyes. His first thought was that it might be Cataracts, an eye disease where your eye is clouded and it appears as though you are always looking through frosted glass. Then, he started to have trouble walking. He went from walking under completely his own power to walking with a cane to walking with his wife’s walker in about a week. He and his son had both enough background knowledge to figure out that it might be a stroke, which would mean that my patient needed immediate attention. When he arrived, his doctors inserted an IV into his arm. The IV fluid dissolved the clot that was happening in the blood vessels of his neck. He then stayed in the hospital for the next couple of days to monitor his condition. It was a moderate to massive stroke on the right side of his brain.
Recovery after the stroke was about a six-month process. He was transferred out of his independent living facility and into an assisted living nursing home, away from his wife. Incredibly, my patient made almost a full recovery. He regained most of his vision, although his left eye’s vision was slightly worse than it was previously. Through physical therapy, he was able to regain a lot of the maneuverability he had previously. While he still needed a walker at the end of the six months, when he started he was nigh paralyzed on the left side of his body. His mind was affected by the stroke but in a bit of a strange way. He was no longer able to navigate very well, and as such had to designate landmarks everywhere to find his way. He retained most of his memory. He remembered his wife, son, and grandson. He did lose some of his memory, while still holding an impressive library of songs in his brain he had to practice a lot of them frequently.
We’ve identified a couple potential causes for this stroke. The first is that he was under a lot of stress. He was pressured by the rest of his independent living facility to become president of the facility again and he did not want to take this responsibility upon himself, but he did anyway. He also had suffered two fairly severe injuries in the past couple of years. The first was that he tripped over some landscaping outside the facility. He hit his head on concrete and had to go to the emergency room. He also was in a fairly major car crash, luckily it wasn’t the crash but the airbag that caused the head injury. This has been the tragic disease and impressive recovery of my patient.
A stroke is when your brain cells are dying from a lack of blood. This happens for two reasons when a blood vessel that leads to your brain bursts (Hemorrhagic stroke), or when a blood vessel that leads to your brain clots (Ischemic stroke). Here is a diagram of an Ischemic stroke:
As you can see, this diagram shows the central nervous system and central circulatory system. It shows the brain being blocked from the blood by a clot.
Strokes are multifactorial diseases because they are caused by a number of factors. They could be genetic, if your family has a history of strokes you are more likely to get one. They could also be environmental, it can be caused if you are obese or even if you were stabbed through the neck, although if you were you probably have bigger problems. Strokes have a variety of risk factors. A risk factor is someone who has a greater chance of having a stroke. They include but aren't limited to:
Strokes can do a number of things to the human body, but some of the most common are:
Once at the hospital, you will likely have a few tests performed on you. The doctors will likely perform a physical. That is the normal exam where they take your blood pressure and listen to your heart. They might then perform The possible tests are:
As you can see, this was a very fun action project! I learned a lot about strokes, I always knew they existed but didn’t know much about them. It is always handy to learn about an illness, because now if I encounter a situation where someone is having one, I might know how to help them and when to call 911. If I were to do something different, I would have to do a disease that is communicable, that is to say, can spread from one person to another. In general, I really enjoyed every piece of this project and am glad you read it!
Citations:
Strokes are multifactorial diseases because they are caused by a number of factors. They could be genetic, if your family has a history of strokes you are more likely to get one. They could also be environmental, it can be caused if you are obese or even if you were stabbed through the neck, although if you were you probably have bigger problems. Strokes have a variety of risk factors. A risk factor is someone who has a greater chance of having a stroke. They include but aren't limited to:
- People who are overweight or obese
- People who use illegal drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine
- People who have high blood pressure
Strokes can do a number of things to the human body, but some of the most common are:
- Not being able to speak or understand other people speaking
- Paralysis in the face, arm, or leg - this often only affects one side of the body.
- Issues seeing
- Sudden, painful headache - could include vomiting
- Trouble walking
Once at the hospital, you will likely have a few tests performed on you. The doctors will likely perform a physical. That is the normal exam where they take your blood pressure and listen to your heart. They might then perform The possible tests are:
- Blood tests. These tests are to check your blood to see if it’s all at healthy levels.
- Computerized tomography (CT) scan. A CT scan uses X-rays to create a detailed map of your brain. They may also inject your blood with dye to get a detailed view of it.
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). An MRI uses radio waves to create a map of your brain. It can find Ischemic strokes.
- Carotid ultrasound. Similar to an ultrasound to see inside the uterus, this looks inside of your neck arteries to find any blockage
- Cerebral angiogram. Insert a tube into the groin and snake it up until you can inject X-ray dye into the right area.
- Echocardiogram. Uses sound waves to see into the heart, allows viewing of blockages
As you can see, this was a very fun action project! I learned a lot about strokes, I always knew they existed but didn’t know much about them. It is always handy to learn about an illness, because now if I encounter a situation where someone is having one, I might know how to help them and when to call 911. If I were to do something different, I would have to do a disease that is communicable, that is to say, can spread from one person to another. In general, I really enjoyed every piece of this project and am glad you read it!
Citations:
- H, L A, and K A H. “Relative's Stroke.” 17 Jan. 2022.
- “Stroke.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 20 Jan. 2022, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/stroke/symptoms-causes/syc-20350113.
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