A woman who suffered from a stroke at just 32 without realising has explained what it felt like after the symptoms hit her out of the blue, admitting the ordeal was 'really scary'.
YouTuber Footless Jo, real name Jo Beckwith, is an American content creator who boasts over one million subscribers on the social media website, having built up a following for creating content around her life as an amputee.
Jo decided to undergo below knee amputation when she was 27, 14 years after she shattered her ankle in a horse riding accident, which never fully recovered.
A lot of her videos focus on mental health and wellbeing, as well as her life following the surgery and how she has adapted to it.
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But earlier this year, Jo had a stroke without even knowing it, telling the full story in a video posted to her channel titled 'What having a stroke *actually* felt like'.
It all began when the 32-year-old was doing some training in the sport of Jiu-Jitsu, calling it the 'love of my life', as she had her first competition since her amputation coming up and was training four to five times a week.
She continued: "I was at a very normal day of training, I happened to be partnered up with someone who was a guy, much larger, much stronger and very inexperienced in the sport,
"It was rough but I thought just like normal aches and pains, kind of fine.
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"I went into the next match and about a minute in, out of nowhere, I felt like a baseball bat had been cracked against the back of my skull, like night and day, I was on the ground, I couldn't even lift my head up," she revealed.
Jo said that vertigo couldn't even sum up how dizzy she felt at the time, adding that she was 'completely incapable' of opening her eyes or lifting her head up.
"I couldn't put words together, there was a lot of head pain associated with it, my whole body was shaking and I couldn't stop it and that went on for minutes," she explained.
"I had no idea what was happening no one else had any idea what was happening, it was bad and it was really scary.
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"It probably took me about an hour to be able to eventually sit up and eventually start to form words," Jo said.
After being driven home, Jo said that she got out of the car and fell on the rocks in front of her house, but due to bad experiences in doctors in the past, she didn't contact them for two days and chose to rest instead.
But she soon 'realised she couldn't really use her hands' as they were taking a second or two to register movements, with head and neck pain along with struggles to speak proving unbearable.
Just one minute into a virtual urgent care meeting, a medical professional told her to go to the ER immediately without driving, which Jo still didn't think much of.
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The doctors and nurses at Denver Health saw it as a serious issue straight away, as she explained: "[The doctor] told me that they had seen something and that I was going to be admitted to the ICU - I had a vertebral Artery Dissection.
"Which basically means that one of the arteries in my neck which supplies oxygen and blood to your brain had been very damaged...
"I think that it was that first roll with the big guy where it was pretty rough, I believe my neck was damaged then. It probably took a few minutes for the clot to form then be released.
"That's my best guess anyways," she theorised.
But several months on, Jo is sharing her recovery journey and is on her way back to being 100 percent again.
What are the symptoms of a stroke?
- Face – the face may have dropped on one side, the person may not be able to smile, or their mouth or eye may have drooped.
- Arms – the person may not be able to lift both arms and keep them there because of weakness or numbness in one arm.
- Speech – their speech may be slurred or garbled, or the person may not be able to talk at all despite appearing to be awake; they may also have problems understanding what you're saying to them.
Other possible symptoms of a stroke
- complete paralysis of one side of the body
- sudden loss or blurring of vision
- being or feeling sick
- dizziness
- confusion
- difficulty understanding what others are saying
- problems with balance and co-ordination
- difficulty swallowing (dysphagia)
- a sudden and very severe headache resulting in a blinding pain unlike anything experienced before
- loss of consciousness
If you suspect you or someone else is having a stroke, phone 999 immediately and ask for an ambulance.
Topics: Health, Mental Health, YouTube
Joshua Nair