An Ohio mom is urging everyone to familiarize themselves with the signs of a stroke — after her painful headache turned out to be one.
Amanda Lenza, 32, said she suffered pain that radiated from the back of her head to the front of her face over five days in January.
As she watched cartoons with her daughter, the freelance ghostwriter knew instantly something was wrong. She said she started to lose her balance and see double.
As Lenza’s symptoms worsened, she texted her husband, and eventually found herself struggling to sit upright and speak clearly.
She couldn’t move her left hand, and her face drooped on the left side.
“I couldn’t speak at all,” she told the “Today” show. “I couldn’t move that side of my body at all … I started having trouble breathing.”
When her husband arrived home, he called an ambulance, and she was rushed to the emergency room.
Doctors performed a CT scan and administered a drug to break up blood clots clogging her vertebral arteries, the two arteries that run through the back of the neck to the brain.
Unfortunately, it didn’t help the mom of one.
Lenza was airlifted to the Cleveland Clinic’s main campus via helicopter. She reported being still “aware” of her surroundings, but unable to physically move.
“I was just wondering how if I made it, how much of my bodily function would I get back? Would I ever be able to talk again? Am I going to be able to take care of my toddler?” Lenza worried. “I was scared.”
Doctors rushed her into surgery to place stents in her vertebral arteries — but they could only open one.
Lenza said it’s rare for people to experience tears in both arteries, claiming her left artery is still completely blocked.
“It’s permanently damaged,” she said. “They put three stents into my right vertebral artery.”
But Lenza continued to improve, and she was taken off the breathing tube.
She could sit up and talk again, even walking a few days later.
Doctors later discovered she has fibromuscular dysplasia — which explains why she suffered a stroke at such a young age.
According to the National Institutes of Health, fibromuscular dysplasia is characterized by unusual cell growth in the artery walls that can cause them to contract or bulge.
The rare disease leaves people vulnerable to strokes or high blood pressure.
“Most people live with it and never know they have it,” Lenza explained. “In my case, (my arteries are) too weak.”
Lenza’s condition was most likely triggered by a three-week illness she had in January.
She said she had been lying down when she coughed hard one day, which left her feeling like she had torn a muscle in her neck.
“I would have never even thought that it was damage to my artery,” she admitted. “I thought I just I tweaked something in my neck.”
Lenza said she has regained 90% of her function, crediting her knowledge of stroke symptoms with allowing her successful recovery.
“If I hadn’t acted as quickly as I did, I don’t think I would be here anymore,” she said. “Time is so important with strokes.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, someone in the US suffers a stroke every 40 seconds, and it’s the country’s fifth leading cause of death.
