I was prescribed standard "post-ischemic stroke of unknown origin" drugs. So: statin-blood pressure-blood thinners to add up to a anti-stroke cocktail that "studies have shown" will deter that other stroke. Will lessen the chances. Even though my chances are elevated because I already had one.
Thing is. Those drugs suck. I took them for one year, 3 months. Daily. Religiously. Because. I. Did. Not. Want. Another. Stroke. And that is the only way I was told was proven. Yeah. Exercise. Yeah. Weight loss. Yeah, diet. Did those inadvertently because I was so freaked out.
I did not want my kids to experience another stroke. They are still dealing with the ramifications of July 2011, it drastically changed how we all see life. It put fear in their life when honestly, I wish they did not have it. (But we don't control lives now, do we?)
Those drugs. Made me dizzy. Gave me dozens of gallstones. Thing is: when you have a dead zone in your head how do you know you are recovering from a head injury vs. side effects from a prescription? I did not know. I blamed it all on stroke recovery. I am off Plavix and the statin. I have no dizziness. I have no jerky muscle movements. I have no firework sparks going off in my skull randomly. I was blaming all that on the stroke and the bullshit thing is it was the drugs. Which every doctor denied "that is not a usual response to this drug" but the pharmacist confirmed as a possibility. There is a strange loop we get into. The insurance. The doctors. The "norm". Pre-stroke I did not drink. I barely took aspirin because I really don't like drugs. When I was put on an overabundance of pharmaceuticals it makes sense my body had difficulty navigating both head repair and drugs.
My liberty is I can say this all because my cholesterol is low. My blood is thin. Honestly, if I was in a risk zone, I would still be on them. And yes, I am going against doctors wishes my dropping these drugs, but whether that is for litigious self protection on their part or a true belief that drugs help... I need to listen to another voice. And that voice is not based on studies that are not my demographic, not my physiology. Sucks, but there it is.
