Mini stroke, dont tell anyone!

OUT OF HOURS HEALTH AND FAMILY (INTERACTIVE)
1

Hi all,

my name is Gary, i,m 46, i,ve been driving 26 years, as the preverbial says, i,ve done the lot, general, UK and all of Europe, fridges, skips, flats, demountable drags.
Ok thats the un-interesting bit now here is my story and i,m hoping for some advice with this.

After waking up one morning in november 2010 with no vision in my left eye i discovered that i was,nt superman and vunerable to all the ailments that you hear and see happen to other people.
I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol and was a suspect diabetic. These sysmptoms, along with myself and a drivers mate trying to carry a 185kg medical laser up two flights of stairs in the middle of london, caused this loss of vision ( its known as a central retinal vein occlusion).
anyway after doing a circus act with the DVLA i managed to regain my LGV licence through a little known clause in the driving regs that allowed a driver of experience prior to 1991 to continue driving with monocular vision.

So everything is great, i,ve got a cracking job, short distance drop and swop trailers. the pay is ok and i,m only on 45 hours a week.

On the 21st May this year i went to bed and as i started to fall asleep i noticed my left hand had gone dead, it seemed weird but as i sleep on my side i have woken up and had to shake my hands to get the blood rushing back. next morning it felt better but still a bit strange so as i was a day off i managed to get a booking to see the local quack. i needed a new prescription so off i went and asked for the medication.As i went to go he said " anything else" and this is where i went wrong because i mentioned this hand numbness. he completed this "score " chart and told me he thought i had a transient ischemic attack “mini stroke”. i laughed and said it must be a joke but he told me i must not drive for a month with a car and should not drive on my hgv until i had been checked at the hospital.

well you can understand that i walked out of the GPs in total shock. i seen the specialist the following week and in the last 6 weeks i,ve had an M.R.I scan and a ultrasound doppler on my caretoid artery and bloods taken and a nerve conduction test. All these tests have proved clear and i have no symptoms whatsoever, however i met with the specialist yesterday and was told that i must inform the DVLA of this “mini stroke”, even though he can not prove it and the only diagnosis he can use is my description of what occured.

as has been discussed on this forum if i inform the DVLA i am in for a 3-6 month fight over something that cannot be proven. i havent told them before this as on the medical questionare it asks have you had a T.I.A, how can i answer yes if it has not been medically diagnosed?

sorry this has been a drag to read this, i have demanded a second opinion, hopefully this monday and if that fails i will have to spend rent money and get a private assessment for the spire hospital.

so the morale of this story is DO NOT TELL THE GP ABOUT ANY NUMBNESS UNLESS YOU WANT TO LOSE YOUR HGV AND YOUR JOB (and in my case probably the house, wife sodding off and the kids out of uni)

Thanks, Gary

2

So, you’d rather drop down dead at the wheel one day then?

3

Hi, and I hope you are feeling better now.
Be careful with this TIA thing. I understand why you don’t want to inform the DVLA, especially as there is no actual proof that you have suffered a TIA. My son had something similar happen to him (he’s 30). He had a couple of unexplained blackouts, lasting just a few seconds each time, and had an absolute barrage of tests, none of which proved anything. He had to inform DVLA, and they took his licence back and stopped him from driving for 12 months. The diagnosis has been put down to stress, there is nothing sinister going on, my son is fine, and in the 12 months that he has been unable to drive, he has had NO further blackouts. He works in Birmingham, and has had to rely on public transport to get to his job (absolute nightmare). He wanted to carry on driving after the attacks stopped, BUT his insurance cover would have been void, because he had a ‘pre-existing condition’ - even though there was no actual diagnosis, and had he been involved in any kind of accident, he would have been liable. He has now been discharged from the neurologists care, and a letter was sent to DVLA informing them, and he has now got his licence back.

4

thanks, just as an update…

after all the tests had been done and proved negative the nhs consultant, completely in his element of having the power over my life!, decided that he still would,nt give his authorisation to drive again. We had a stinking row for about an hour and i demanded an second opinion. he informed me he would arrange a second opinion with his colleague next door for a weeks time after “he had a word with him to explain the situation”, yeah right oh !!! :unamused:

Anyway seeing as this was going nowhere fast i decided to borrow the cash and went to see a neurological consultant at the local private hospital the very next day.
He checked all my nhs records and the test results and gave me a full physical and then gave me a letter confirming that no episode had occurred and i was fit to drive :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :smiley:

Back to work next day and 5 weeks later here i am still alive, doing exactly what i was doing before this " sickness" the only difference is i am short 5 weeks money. gonna take me another 4 months to get back financially but as long as i am earning who cares !!!

5

A friend of mine had a very mild stroke on his day off and has lost his licence for a year is there anyway he could get it back any earlier as it was very mild in fact the next day he felt perfectly ok.

Luckily our company kept him on doing a bit of warehouse training work and general odds and sods stuff but he really wants to get back driving.

6

Hope your feeling better.
Had series of blackouts myself just mini ones as have asthma put it down to that then had the big one fell over 2 am in bathroom broke and split my nose wife said to do get it stitched next thing I am in medical assessment ward feeling stupid as felt fine then as consultant was doing rounds had another turned blue and woke up to intensive care nurses around me now I know it was bad as they don’t make house calls.
told to inform dvla haven’t but have stopped driving till we get to see him again which is tomorrow now been two months off work as self employed no pay no benefits but time to catch up on paperwork.
had oxygen meter test ,tilt test ultrasound of my heart that was a amazing experience works fine so all those ladies in my younger life sorry you haven’t broke it. had mini mri scan . all come back clear but to all those who are in position like me get it checked don’t drive get yourself well again.
yes there needs to be more leeway from dvla to get us back to work when were well again.
just remember although the test seem to all be negative bit like truck with intermittent fault shows nothing wrong when they plug it in computer but still wont go . good luck to you all get well soon as I hope I do too.