36 has been a doozie.
In July I had what they called a mini-stroke. Was on my way in work and got light headed and when I went to take my sunglasses off, my left hand was numb and like it fell asleep. Felt weird and not myself for about 20 minutes and my speech was off. Went to the Dr. and they did all the tests for a full blown stroke but said it wasn't that. It was a 'transient' event, meaning it didn't leave any permanent issues. So I had an MRI that night to check things out and see if blood flow to the brain was an issue. Checked out ok, but they found two small white spots. I guess any white areas are to be concerned about and could be signs of things like MS but they said they were in areas that were not specific to anything like that really. So they suggested just keeping an eye on them for any changes.
In addition I also had an ultrasound on my heart and neck to further check blood flow. Upon investigation of my heart they found that I've got a small, they called it tiny, hole in my heart that is called a PFO. Guess I was born with it and just never realized I had it. Doesn't seem to be any huge cause of alarm, but it could be part of what caused the mini-stroke. They think I might have had a small blood clot that passed through the hole and into my brain.
So I then had a TEE done...which is when they put a camera down your throat for a more detailed image of your heart. That came back finding no other defects and only confirmed what they saw on the ultrasound.
I have another MRI next week to keep tabs on the little white spots to see if there's any change there. Hopefully not.
But for the heart thing, they basically just said I have to take 2 low dose aspirin a day for the rest of my life to help keep my blood thinned out to help prevent any clots. They could potentially close the hole in my heart, but I guess studies haven't shown that there's any real benefit from it and any future events are not reduced by this. The fact is they really haven't done enough research to know if this helps at all so they just aren't doing it now unless you do have a second event, etc.
So just sitting tight, trying to stay healthy by keeping cholesterol and whatnot in check. Fun stuff...
So ya, maybe TMI, but damn getting old kind of sucks.