In December 2022 I had a bit of a health scare by the means of a Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) or mini stroke as its more commonly known.

It was just another normal day with me being in the office and at lunch time I tend to go for walk, especially as it was close to Christmas and I still hadn’t got Heather her present. I was walking up towards Bridalsmith Gate in Nottingham and look down at my right arm and it looked a little strange.. It didn’t seem to be part of me and I had absolutely no control of it al all, I used my left hand to push my right had but it just wobbled there not so sensation at all. My mind immediately went in to overdrive and I quickly walked over to the nearest shop window, I was a nail salon, to look and my reflection. I remembered, I don’t know her from, the FAST test – Face – Arm – Speech – Time. My reflection in the window clearly showed that my face was fine (I know, as fine as it can be) and I started talking to myself and that seemed ok. Within 15 seconds my right arm dropped and I had full control of it again. I looked in to the shop window again and this time saw people looking at me thinking why on earth was this nutter pulling faces. I decided to dial 111 and ask for their opinion, they answered quickly and I explained what happened and they suggested I contact my doctor and see them the next day, but something still did not feel right. As I walked back to the office he happened again…wtf…. Once everything was back to normal I went straight to my car and drove to QMC, and yes I know I should not have driven but I didn’t want any fuss.

I arrived at the QMC and as usual there was no where to park so instead of waiting in the long car park queue I drove down Middleton Boulevard and park on one of the side streets. I put on my coat, put my iPad in my pocket (I knew there was going to be a long wait), found a charger and cables and wobbled my way to Accident and Emergency. I checked in and sat down and started people watching. At this point I crossed my mind that I should tell somebody where I and and obviously Heather came to mind, but I knew she would not be able to answer the phone and would be in class until 4, so I decided to just sit there and continue to people watch. It was now 1pm on Tuesday 20th December 2022, I was sat in a packed A&E, watching people. After about 3 hours of waiting I was seen by the Triage Nurse who did all the normal checks and got quite annoyed with me when she realised I had been there that long and hadn’t told anyone about what exactly happened, I tried to explain that I explained everything in great detail to the receptionist but that dint appease her. 5 minutes later I was in front of the consultant who immediately gave me a handful of aspirin and sent me for a CT scan, they obviously knew what was wrong and have me some leaflets about TIA’s to read whilst I was waiting for the scan.

At this point, about 4ish I thought it would be a good time to call Heather. She answered straight away and I quickly explained what had happened, and to say the least she wasn’t very happy with me… The wait for the CT scan was only 10 minutes, and after that back in to the main room to people watch. 45 minutes later Heather and Alex appeared, so I had to explain everything that had happened in great detail. I was called in to see the consultant who said that the tests had confirmed that I had had a TIA and that they would be admitting my in to hospital for monitoring and further test, especially as it happened twice in quick succession. So I sent Heather and Alex off to get me a change of clothes, PJ’s etc and waited for the porter to wheel me away. An hour later heather and Alex were back and as if my magic a porter arrived at the same time, and I was only my way to the stroke ward.

I quickly got settled in to my bed, and sat chatting to Heather and Alex for about an hour at which point I told them both to go and get some rest and I would call them if there was any news. The ward was a strange place with only me, and another Peter, who had TIA’s with all the others have ‘proper’ strokes. The old bloke facing me also had dementia and at one point started flicking shit around so I moved my curtain so I didn’t have to look at it. During the night every hour they woke me to take my blood pressure which caused my blood pressure to rise and I hate being woken up. So it was a crap night sleep but at least the food was ok.

The next morning the consultant did his rounds and the conversation went something like this :

Consultant – Hello Peter, how are you feeling today

Me – Im good, a little tired but ok.

Consultant – So, yesterday morning you woke up with tingling in your arm

Me – No

Consultant – and then your wife noticed your slurred speech

Me – No

Consultant – Are you Peter Nicolas

Me – No

Consultant – OMG we have the wrong patient, what the hell is happening

After lots of running around and paper checking they realised that they had confused me with the guy in the next bed. Once they got the right file the consultant explained what had happened to me and that he would like to get an MRI done and then I could go home.

So 6 hours later I was back at home being looked after by Heather.