Unexpected symptoms of Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy

Symptoms may not look like a stroke

My husband woke up one morning feeling a bit dizzy when he got out of bed. He started to vomit soon after and couldn’t keep anything down all day. I assumed that he had some sort of gastro. The vomiting continued and I was concerned that he was becoming dehydrated. So, I took him to hospital. Much to my surprise the A & E doctor, after examining him, was doubtful that it was gastro-intestinal in nature and was of the opinion that he’d had another stroke. The CT scan showed nothing and he was kept in hospital over night, given some anti-nausea medication and hydration, and discharged the next day to have an MRI a few days later.

The MRI (his first one for a couple of years), revealed that he’d had a stroke in his Cerebellum (hence the vomiting and reduction in balance) and a further six recent strokes in addition to many more microbleeds since his last MRI. The radiologist was somewhat perplexed given the number of bleeds and it took him a long time to report on the scan as he tried to count all the spots in his brain. It had never occurred to me that CAA could cause bleeds in brain structures like the Cerebellum. This only added to the weight and breadth of concerns for what the future could become.

The A and E doctor saw us again and explained the results. By this stage my husband was feeling pretty well and pretty much back to "normal". It was actually my birthday so afterwards we went out for lunch as planned. Sounds pretty weird doesn’t it. He had just been diagnosed as having a stroke in his cerebellum and a number of recent smaller strokes and yet we go about out lives as usual; continuing to roll with the punches and putting one foot in front of the other.

This was the first time that I became aware that the CAA amyloid plaques not only cause the blood vessels in the brain to bleed easily but these plaques can also block the blood vessels to cause ischaemic events.

Up until then, my husband had not had a neurologist that he saw regularly. There didn't seem to be a lot of point. However, it became clear that it was time to arrange this. The A & E doctor said it would be helpful to be able to speak to a treating neurologist the next time he was admitted to hospital. I felt it was time to have someone that we developed a relationship with who could guide us through whatever was to come in whatever time we have. 

There are going to be some difficult conversations and circumstances to come and I needed someone to help guide us through this. I could no longer manage these conversations on my own.  

 


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