I had a stroke

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Having experienced stroke myself, I know how shocking and scary it can be. Take it easy for a few months if you can, and avoid stressful people. It takes a while for the disrupted enzymes in your brain to settle down and return to normal levels, so you may notice some mood changes in the next few weeks. You can make a complete recovery without residual impairment, and if it was an ischaemic stroke, this is more likely. I am assuming that it was? Wishing you a speedy and trouble-free recovery APOM.

No, I don't belong to any stroke forum. I did have lots of questions, of course, which I answered by going to the library and reading books written by neurologists who specialised in stroke. My strokes were caused by an irregular heartbeat, which caused clots to form near the heart and they travelled to the visual cortex in my brain, so it wasn't immediately obvious that I had had a stroke (with the first, one a few years ago) because the main symptoms were visual (and were misdiagnosed by the GP). Fortunately, an optometrist correctly realised what was going on (I had 2 strokes in 10 days), one of which made me completely blind for a very short period, and I was hospitalised for a short time while they stabilised my heartbeat, trialled me on blood thinners and carried out the MRI which showed the location. Three years later I had two more strokes, again no residual damage, both were a terrifying experience.

I did notice (particularly before the first two) that they followed a short period of extreme stress in my life - what had happened was that in the space of one week, someone (unknown psychopath animal hater) slashed my cat, my apartment was flooded (badly), and there was a very unpleasant neighbour who was doing her best to be a nuisance in the ways that crazy neighbours can, if they have serious mental problems! (Thank God she is no longer a neighbour).

The second set of two strokes years later were also precipitated by a period of extreme stress, and although the stroke books don't mention this, it seems relevant to me, at least in my case. My family noticed this too,

Arrhythmia(irregular heart beat) may be caused by many different factors, including:

Coronary artery disease
Electrolyte imbalances in your blood (such as sodium or potassium).
Changes in your heart muscle
Injury from a heart attack
Healing process after heart surgery
Irregular heart rhythms can also occur in "normal, healthy" hearts

Re visual symptoms I experienced:

Stroke 1: total sudden blindness which lasted a short time (minutes only)
Stroke 2: sudden onset double vision which persisted more than half an hour (I don't drink alcohol)
Stroke 3: tried to read the computer screen, the text was "rock and rolling" all over the place and macular
degeneration (which I also have, I am slowly losing my central vision) symptoms were dramatically
worse
Stroke 4: macular degeneration symptoms suddenly hugely worse (all straight lines were bent in my visual field)
and inability to use my hands normally for a short time

Visual symptoms may be the ONLY presentation of stroke - a lot of doctors don't seem to know this and the stroke websites rarely mention it, though it is not rare.

I'm glad you're doing well, OP. I really must applaud you for being able to get through an MRI. I was supposed to have one last year, but I couldn't get though it because of the noise. The people who were trying to do it were really nice about it and everything, and they were going to try again and put me out for it the next day, but thankfully I ended up not needing it after all. I hope you keep feeling better!

Was it a stroke or a transient ischemic attack?

My mom had a similar thing recently. Right half of body went numb. Strange feeling in head. Feeling of unn=easiness but difficult to describe. Very scary, but she is doing better at the moment. I think it was a TIA.

Hope you feel better. This stuff is scary.