I never thought about stroke until I had one
By Euan Beamont
I live in Geraldton Western Australia and have a young family. I am a wheat farmer by trade, but now work in the biochar industry. My business partner and I are developing technology to convert organic waste to energy, and the by-product of the process is a charcoal-like substance called biochar, which is used for improving soil and as a fertiliser supplement. Because the industry is an emerging one in Australia, and our business has largely been research and development up to this point, we are not ready to pay ourselves a wage, so I do farm work to pay the bills.
I am very active and I kitesurf, so I always considered myself a fit bloke, but when you’re harvesting or planting a crop, the days are long with a lot of sitting down.
In November 2021, I learned that I wasn’t as fit as I thought the hard way.
I was working on a friend’s farm harvesting at the time, and we had been working 12–13-hour days for about three weeks. On the day of my stroke, we had finished up and were back at the donga (portable house, out bush).
It was about 10pm, and I’d had a couple of beers with dinner. I was lying on my bed doing 'the scroll' on my phone, when suddenly I couldn't control my fingers, my vision went blurry, and I heard a rushing sound in my head.
I didn’t know the signs of a stroke, but for some reason I was pretty sure I was having one. I remember thinking at the time “shit, I think I’m having a stroke”, and my very next thoughts were, “shit, what if I die”. I wondered what would happen to my family, and in particular, my 5-year-old son. Within 10-20 seconds it was all over, and I was walking around. Because it was late, I went back to bed – I didn't realise the seriousness of what had happened.
The next morning, I woke up very early and felt bloody terrible. I had a bad headache and was feeling very flushed in the face. I had a chat to the boys, and decided to take myself to hospital in Geraldton, which is about 150 kilometres away from the farm. In hindsight, I should have asked one of them to drive me, but they were busy.
When I was in the car, I felt like I was getting worse and was having a bit of a panic attack, so I stopped on the side of the road and searched for stroke symptoms on my phone. The StrokeLine number came up, so I called 1800 787 653 and talked to Kath at StrokeLine, who told me to call triple zero (000) immediately.
Bloody hell, it was too difficult for an ambulance to pinpoint my location. I was getting worse and frustrated that the ambos couldn't find me, so I hung up and kept driving. This was the most terrifying hour or so of my life.
I don't mind saying that I was shit scared. I kept thinking about my wife and son. I knew that parts of my brain were dying.
I called 000 again as I was coming into town. I gave them my address and as I pulled into the driveway of my house, and the ambulance pulled in behind me. When they put me on the blood pressure (BP) machine - my BP was 190/110!
I was at the emergency department at the hospital for most of that day. I had a CT scan in the morning, which showed nothing, so they told me I’d more than likely had a TIA. They put me on medication, and when my BP got down to about 140-50/90, they let me go home.
A few days later I was at the park with the family, and the vision in my left eye started to go blurry. I’d often got this when I was younger, and it was always the sign that I was getting a migraine. It went away after about 30 minutes, but then came in the other eye, which had never happened before.
I took myself back to the hospital. This time I had an MRI, which showed that I had suffered an Ischemic stroke. After a lot more tests my BP was still in the high range and so was my cholesterol. The combination of high BP and cholesterol, plus the fact that I was fatigued from the long days of work, could have caused the stroke, but the diagnosis is still ‘no known cause’.
I knew my BP was high, as on my last check up my Doc had told me my BP was "up a bit". But he didn’t tell me the numbers, and I wasn’t too concerned. In the country it's hard to get tested regularly anyway. I also didn't know that high BP could lead to a stroke, or a heart attack.
I do now!
Since my stroke I have made some significant changes, especially to my diet and the amount of exercise I do. I have swapped crackers for carrots and eat a more plant-based diet. I also try and manage my stress by practicing mindful breathing. I try to do 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise every day, and at least 2 or 3 times a week I lift something heavy. I really don’t want this to happen again, I have a son and he needs his dad around.
I realise my recovery has been pretty good, and I give thanks every day for that, but stroke is always nipping at your heels. I find I am often thinking about it, and I have had to focus on keeping a positive attitude. Getting control of my risk factors and learning everything I can about stroke and how to prevent it - has helped me.
If there is anything to learn from my story, it's that this is a lesson for the blokes. If you're in your 40s or 50s, and it's been a while since your last check-up, go and organise one now….and I mean right now.
High blood pressure has no symptoms; you could be walking around with a ticking time bomb.