Mom, 32, has had headaches and blurred vision for five days. She was having an stroke. In January, Amanda Lenza’s head hurt. Five days later, the pain spread from the back to the front of Amanda Lenza’s face. She woke up one morning with double vision after she wobbled. “That really caught me off guard,” says the 32-year old freelance ghostwriter from Lorain, Ohio, to TODAY.com. “I began texting my husband. I thought, “This is really strange.” “I don’t believe something is wrong. She lost feeling on the left side. Her husband called an ambulance when he returned home. She recalls: “I asked the paramedics, pretty much to their faces, “Am I having stroke symptoms because I feel that these are stroke-like symptoms?” Each stroke symptom in 15 minutes Lenza was watching cartoons with her daughter when she noticed that her balance had shifted. She then started seeing twos of everything. Her symptoms worsened after she texted her husband to ask for help. She was unable to stand and slumped on the couch. Her speech felt garbled. She couldn’t move her left arm. Her face began to droop on the left. Her symptoms were at their peak when she arrived at the hospital. She says, “I could not speak at all.” “I couldn’t move this side of my body… I began having trouble breathing.” Amanda Lenza was watching cartoons with daughter when she experienced double vision. She also couldn’t stand up without wobbling. Courtesy Amanda Lenza The doctors in the emergency room noticed that her vertebral vessels were blocked after a CT scan. They gave her a drug called a “really powerful clot-buster” to help break up blood clots that could lead to a stroke. Lenza’s case was not one of those times. “I got much worse, she says. She was transported by helicopter to the main campus of Cleveland Clinic. “I could not sit up or see straight, but I was aware,” she says. “All my brain damage was in the cerebral cortex and pons, (part of my brain stem), so it was physically affecting me. Mentally, I still had full awareness.” She was terrified and wanted to be with her daughter. She was terrified after the staff confirmed that she had a stroke. “I was wondering if I survived, how much of my body function would I be able to regain? Will I ever be able speak again? “Am I going to be in a position to care for my toddler?” Lenza asks. “I was afraid.” The doctors rushed her to surgery to place stents into her vertebral arterioles, the two arteries which run from the back of her neck to her brain. They only opened one. Rarely do people experience tears in both eyes. “The left one has been completely blocked.” She says it’s permanently damaged. “They put three stents in my right vertebral arterial.” After doctors removed her breathing tube she was able to sit up, move and speak again. After a day, she was able to get up and walk. She says, “It took a couple of weeks for me to re-learn to walk completely.” The National Institutes of Health states that the condition causes abnormal cell growth in artery walls, which contributes to the arteries bulging or contracting. She says that most people don’t even know they have it. “In my case (my arteries) are too weak.” She explains that doctors suspect that Lenza’s recent illness may have contributed to her problems. She had been ill for three weeks at the beginning of January. She was lying down and coughing hard with her head turned. This likely caused the rupture. Lenza explains, “It felt as if I had a torn neck muscle. So I ignored it.” “I never would have thought it was an artery damage. I thought I had just tweaked my neck. Bilateral dissection stroke Dr. Shazam Hassain, the doctor who treated Lenza, says that dissection of both vertebral arterioles is “unusual”. The director of the Cerebrovascular Centre at the Cleveland Clinic told TODAY.com that “we have two arteries running up the back our neck, called the vertebral vessels. These arteries go up to the rear of the brain.” “(She) had tears on both sides. Both on the left and right. When we see tears in blood vessels, there is probably a fragility to the blood vessels. Her doctors suspected that there was a underlying cause for her stroke, and this is how they discovered she had fibromuscular Dysplasia. The tears in her arteries made them “collapse,” which limited the blood flow to her head. Most people have it on one side, so they still receive some blood to the brain. Hussain claims that “Both tears limited the blood flow which resulted in… stroke”. They were only able to open the one side. “(With one) supplying blood flow… you’re good,” he says. “The other side was already closed.” It was not going to help her if she tried to open it, and it increased the risk.” He says that people often feel “very intense pain” when they dissect an animal. He says that “most people feel it is quite painful.” “It is unlike anything they have ever experienced before.” Amanda Lenza hasn’t been able to play with or carry her 16-month-old daughter as much since her stroke. She began walking while Lenza was hospitalized and that little bit independence helped. Courtesy Amanda Lenza Lenza’s symptoms are typical stroke signs. When it comes to stroke, people should be aware of BE FAST. BE FAST is: B : Balance E : Trouble with vision such as double vision or loss of sight F : Facial weakness A : Asymmetry, as in drooping on one side S : Slurred speech T : Time is brain Hussain says that a person who suffers a stroke will lose 2 million brain cells per minute. “The quicker you get to the emergency room, the faster the two types treatment will be provided.” Lenza’s life will be a little bit different now that she has experienced dissection. She cannot ride a rollercoaster anymore, she can’t keep her neck in an odd position for long periods and she shouldn’t lift anything. But her brain should be able to recover. Hussain claims that the brain has the ability to heal. Relearning and recovering Lenza estimates that she has regained ‘about 90% of her functions. She says, “I’m relearning how to type without looking at my hand.” “I don’t have that connection between my brain and hands anymore.” My balance was a bit off, but that’s improving gradually.” She also says that she has a delay in her speech and thoughts. She is grateful that she received treatment so quickly. “If I hadn’t acted so quickly, I don’t think I would still be here,” she says. “Time is crucial with strokes.” She hopes that her story will encourage others to take their own health concerns seriously. She says that mothers tend to put other things before themselves and don’t care for themselves as they should. “Paying more attention to my body and being a bit kinder on myself is the new model.”