Personal and Medical History of a Stroke Patient
This week part of my clinical experience involved taking care of a patient 51 year old female named L.B. who has a history of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and who had a stroke last December. She was hosting a christmas party at home when she had a stroke. She was drinking and socializing with her family. At first her son-in-law thought she just had too much to drink because she wasn’t “making sense” so he helped back to her bed to “sleep it off”. It was only a when her daughter checked on her that the family realized that something was off with her when she noticed facial drooping and one arm couldn’t move. She was immediately rushed to Parkland where she was seen and admitted after CT showed she had a stroke. She had to undergo rehabilitation after discharge. Due to insurance changes, she has stopped going to therapy more than a month ago. She is …show more content…
Other possible medical complications need to be addressed such as fever with antipyretics, shortness of breath with supplemental oxygen, IV fluid administration for hydration. Although streptokinase use has been beneficial for acute MI patient, it has shown to pose major risk for stroke patients which may lead to intracranial hemorrhage and death and so do fibrinolytic. Thus for patients who cannot make use of fibrinolytic therapy, the current guidelines suggest permitting moderate hypertension in individuals with acute ischemic stroke since they tend to undergo spontaneous reduction in blood pressure within one day without treatment (American Heart Association, 2016). On the other hand, aspirin therapy has shown its benefits in reduction of recurrent stroke so much so that AHA/ASA guidelines advice providers in prescribing aspirin, 325 mg orally, within 1-2 days of ischemic stroke onset since the International Stroke Trial and the Chinese Acute Stroke Trial or CAST has shown its positive benefit (He et al, 2014). Another antiplatelet medication
This week part of my clinical experience involved taking care of a patient 51 year old female named L.B. who has a history of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and who had a stroke last December. She was hosting a christmas party at home when she had a stroke. She was drinking and socializing with her family. At first her son-in-law thought she just had too much to drink because she wasn’t “making sense” so he helped back to her bed to “sleep it off”. It was only a when her daughter checked on her that the family realized that something was off with her when she noticed facial drooping and one arm couldn’t move. She was immediately rushed to Parkland where she was seen and admitted after CT showed she had a stroke. She had to undergo rehabilitation after discharge. Due to insurance changes, she has stopped going to therapy more than a month ago. She is …show more content…
Other possible medical complications need to be addressed such as fever with antipyretics, shortness of breath with supplemental oxygen, IV fluid administration for hydration. Although streptokinase use has been beneficial for acute MI patient, it has shown to pose major risk for stroke patients which may lead to intracranial hemorrhage and death and so do fibrinolytic. Thus for patients who cannot make use of fibrinolytic therapy, the current guidelines suggest permitting moderate hypertension in individuals with acute ischemic stroke since they tend to undergo spontaneous reduction in blood pressure within one day without treatment (American Heart Association, 2016). On the other hand, aspirin therapy has shown its benefits in reduction of recurrent stroke so much so that AHA/ASA guidelines advice providers in prescribing aspirin, 325 mg orally, within 1-2 days of ischemic stroke onset since the International Stroke Trial and the Chinese Acute Stroke Trial or CAST has shown its positive benefit (He et al, 2014). Another antiplatelet medication