I'm 49 and was diagnosed 18 months ago. A friend called 111 Saturday 5th July as my right arm had gone completely numb and I had pins and needles (right side is the side most affected by PD). I was taken to A&E and put on the "Stroke" highway and ended up staying in hospital for 5 days with all the stroke tests coming back negative (despite being woken up at 3am and having aspirin shoved down my throat whilst being told you have to take this you have had a stroke). I begged the stroke consultant, when I finally saw him after two and a half days in hospital, to contact the Parkinson's specialist and discuss this with him. This fell on deaf ears and I ended up taking up a hospital bed for five days and leaving with no diagnosis other than a recommendation to bring my PD consultant appointment forward (easier said than done and particularly frustrating as he works from the same hospital to which I was admitted).
Due to quick CT scanning in hospital - tests for iscemic stroke often come back negative. Stroke can therefore be a "clinical" diagnosis ie the history and symptoms. Sometimes though a consultant may do an MRI scan and that will be pretty conclusive of stroke.
I would say that getting to hospital quickly was an excellent move by your friend as even people with parkinson's can have a stroke. A stroke being a "sudden loss" of movement, speech or sensation. PD symptoms progress slowly. With PD patients the admission to a hospital as "maybe stroke", is often for urine/chest infection that makes existing symptoms worse - hence they are initially felt to be a stroke. Better to get it checked out though, as I said just because you/we have pd dosen't mean we cant have a stroke!
Peanut, this doesn't help on your diagnosis but a discharge letter should go to your GP, and be in your medical notes. do you have a pd nurse who can check? ring the consultant's secretary to get a copy of the discharge letter? It is important that you know if you did or not as you need to be aware of how to try and prevent another stroke! - medication, exercise, weight, etc.
Hopefully your arm has recovered, and you can get an answer soon.
). I begged the stroke consultant, when I finally saw him after two and a half days in hospital, to contact the Parkinson's specialist and discuss this with him. This fell on deaf ears and I ended up taking up a hospital bed for five days and leaving with no diagnosis other than a recommendation to bring my PD consultant appointment forward (easier said than done and particularly frustrating as he works from the same hospital to which I was admitted).