Be aware: Strokes can strike at any age

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Even now, nearly three years later, Kandi Schmitz finds it hard to believe that she actually suffered a stroke.

Just days after turning 32 in September 2015, Schmitz, an insurance agent and married mother of two, was running in the annual Turtle Crawl 5K road race in Melbourne, Florida.

"It was my first time in that race, and I was training to run a marathon later that year," she recalls.

Throughout the race, she felt off: headachy ... woozy ... a little faint.

She struggled to finish what should have been a quick, easy jaunt.

"I just figured that a really bad migraine was coming on, so I took my prescription medication to prevent it."

An hour later, though, at a fast food restaurant, she felt worse.

"I was dizzy and nauseous and needed to lie down."

But nobody -- not her paramedic husband, nor her family and friends (which included another paramedic, as well as nurses) -- thought anything was seriously wrong.

"We figured I was just dehydrated or maybe had a virus -- but to be safe, my husband took me to the emergency room at Holmes Regional Medical Center."

Good thing he did.

By the time they arrived at the hospital, Schmitz's husband noticed that her speech had become slightly slurred.

A quick CT scan revealed what two hours prior would have been unthinkable: Schmitz had suffered an ischemic stroke.

The cause: carotid arterial dissection.

"The artery had a microscopic tear and, while it was trying to heal itself, a blood clot formed, blocking blood flow to my brain," Schmitz explains.

Because she was diagnosed so quickly, Schmitz could receive the clot-busting drug tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), which must be administered within four hours of the onset of symptoms.

Late that night, she was transported via paramedics to the Comprehensive Stroke Center at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where she'd spend the next three days.

Schmitz's doctors explained that arterial dissections like hers are one of the leading causes of strokes in young, otherwise healthy people.

Within six weeks, Schmitz says she felt mostly recovered -- but notices that she sometimes becomes fatigued more quickly than she used to.

She was on blood-thinning medication for six months after the stroke and will need to take 325 milligrams of aspirin daily for the rest of her life.

Overall, though, she feels blessed to have survived an episode that she admits "scared the hell out of me."

However, there is one bit of unfinished business: "I need to run -- and finish -- the Turtle Crawl 5K the right way."

Steve Dorfman writes for The Palm Beach Post. Email: sdorfman(at)pbpost.com.

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