Stroke is a medical condition where medical treatment should be sought immediately. If you have reason to believe that you or someone else is suffering from a stroke, call the emergency response number right away. Also, ideally take note of the time when you noticed the first symptoms since this is good information for the medical staff to have when they make treatment decisions.
For each moment that blood flow to the brain is blocked, the brain gets more damaged as neurons die. Every minute counts when it comes to preserving a person’s ability to speak, move, remember things, and so on. Last but not least, a stroke can be fatal – especially if not treated quickly.
Examples of common stroke symptoms
- Sudden weakness and/or numbness of face, arm or leg – especially if only one side of the body is impacted.
- Sudden severe headache.
- Sudden dizziness.
- Sudden eye sight problems in one eye or both eyes.
- Sudden confusion.
- Sudden trouble speaking and/or understanding speech.
- Sudden trouble walking.
- Sudden loss of balance.
- Sudden loss of coordination.
As you can see, sudden is a key word here. If your arm has been getting progressively weaker over the course of a few weeks its probably not a stroke but something else.