His blood pressure was 260 over 150. He was having excruciating headaches.
That was not Raymond Sims, Sr., but Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference in February, 1945.
Two months later the president would be dead of a severe hemorraghic stroke.
After learning that and much else at a community stroke prevention program in Newhallville, Sims decided no longer to ignore his own occasional episodes of dizziness.
Thursday night Sims and his wife of 51 years, Ellecia, were among 60 people who gathered at the Christian Tabernacle Church on Newhall Street for the program.
The program on both how to prevent a stroke and how to recognize one at its onset was organized by self-described “health literacy” advocate and TV personality N’Zinga Shani as part of her her OneWorld Progressive Institute‘s “21st Century Conversation” series.
The tips were provided by Dr. Reversa Mills (pictured left with Shani) and Karin Nystrom, both of the Yale University stroke program.
After introducing Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Ariel Sharon, younger folks like Sharon Stone and other celebrity stroke victims, the Yale staffers defined stroke: a condition caused by denial of blood to the brain due either to clot-induced blockage (ischemic stroke) or bleeding vessels (FDR’s hemorraghic problem).
The tips to avoid a stroke appeared not new to the generally elderly audience: exercise, eat right and less, and control blood pressure and diabetes.
What appeared to intrigue the audience more were the tips the Yale medical experts offered to recognize stroke, contained in the acronym FAST, which people studied as they sat around the U‑shaped table in the church’s community room: F is for facial numbness; A is for arm or leg weakness; S is for impaired speech; and T means it’s time to call 911.
“Every minute that goes by that you’re having a stroke you lose two million brain cells,” said Nystrom, who is a nurse and clinical coordinator of the program.
Click on the play arrow to hear Nystrom graphically describe the administering of Tissue Plasminogen Activator or TPA, the one approved drug, known as the “clot buster.” It can do that, but must be administered within 4 hours of the stroke.
But you can’t go to the hospital every time you have an ache and a pain, said Kim Martin, one of the leaders of the church’s wellness ministry that coordinated the program with Shani.
Martin (foreground) said she suffers from tendonitis. If she worried it was a stroke each time weakness or pain occurred, “I’d spend all my time in the E.R.”
There were also concerns about co-pays and the costs of being ambulanced to the hospital.
“Sudden onset,” said Nystrom. And of a condition not experienced before.
Shani urged audience members to “know your bodies.”
She described a neighbor who was overweight and eating French fries which she sprinkled with lots of salt. Shani said she asked why. “It’s OK, I’m taking my medicine,” came the reply.
Wrong! This is why Shani was so passionate about talking to the community, especially to black women, she said. “These [stresses and conditions] are endemic. We as black people and women in particular we tend to defer our own needs.”
Throughout the two-hour session, Shani peppered the technical, medical discussion with personal stories and a passionate plea: “Change something in your life that will lead to better health.”
Ellecia Sims said that while she has been on blood pressure medicine for 30 years, there were periods when she just forgot about it.
“My kids reminded me,” she said as she noticed her husband coming back from the repast tables at the break with a second slice of pizza.
All the pizza was cheese only with no stroke-inducing toppings. Dessert was fresh fruit.
When the session was over, Ellecia Sims said that she had known much of what she heard but that hearing it again was useful. She also said that she had thought the TPA window was three hours and seemed pleased to have another hour, just in case.
Her husband Raymond said that he and his wife take care of each other and that he is generally in good health. He’s been walking two to three miles a day since retirement 20 years ago. Her knees prevent her that exercise.
On those walks and at other times he said he gets occasional dizzy spells. “I have had a habit of usually ignoring them. I’m going to pay attention now.”
Wait until 2014 when the healthcare bill kicks in at full force.There will be a whole lot of people with excruciating headaches.
The tips to avoid a stroke appeared not new to the generally elderly audience: exercise, eat right and less, and control blood pressure and diabetes.
They why are they giving people pizza.