Seek Expert Stroke Care at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center — Lake Pointe

What Is A Stroke?

There are two types. One is a hemorrhagic stroke, where there is a bleed around the brain or in the middle of the brain. Those are usually caused by trauma or severely high blood pressure that causes ruptures in the blood vessels. The more common stroke type that most people experience are called ischemic strokes. This is where there is a lack of blood flow to the brain due to narrowing of the arteries or development of a small clot. To treat strokes, we use medicine that opens the area and allows blood to flow again. The quicker we get a healthy blood flow, the better.

How Do I Know If I’m Having A Stroke?

Strokes can be scary for a lot of reasons. We often feel, “I will have a large stroke, and nothing will work on my body. I won’t be able to move or talk.” A large stroke can indeed happen where you can’t move your right side or left side of your body. But strokes don’t come in that severe fashion all the time. They can be as simple as “I can’t find the words I want to speak today, and it happens over and over again in my speech.” Smaller neurological deficits may be weakness, numbness, tingling, speech trouble, dizziness, etc. Seek help if these are more persistent. Baylor Scott & White Medical Center — Lake Pointe has an excellent stroke program. Please visit us at BSWHealth.com/locations/lake-pointe-hospital.

How Quickly Should I Get To The Hospital?

It’s natural to say, “I want to walk this off and see if it goes away.” In the stroke world, we don’t have that type of time. If you’re having a severe stroke, we have a narrow time to treat that — so we need you to get to the hospital as quickly as possible. The typical timeline to treat you is within three hours from stroke presentation. In recent years, we can stretch that to four hours, but there are caveats where the doctors need to make some decisions on how we treat you.

What Happens If I Come Later Than That Timeframe?

It depends. Even if you wake up in the morning with stroke symptoms or delay seeking treatment, it’s still important to get to the hospital quickly. We need to do a further workup and see if we need to seek further intervention to reestablish blood flow to the brain.

Can I Make A Full Recovery From A Stroke?

That’s the wonderful thing about the brain. Often, we can make a larger recovery than we expect. It’s usually harder at first to tell how well a patient will do because the brain has to reset and reestablish blood flow. Some patients immediately resolve symptoms, and others have weaknesses afterward. But with rehab, they can eventually regain some functionality. It depends on your issue, how quickly you seek care, and how quickly we can re-establish blood flow.