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Same exact symptoms (the bass guitar string he heard is a thing that gave me ptsd like symptoms/crippling anxiety for a long time after) I had from a TIA when I

Same exact symptoms (the bass guitar string he heard is a thing that gave me ptsd like symptoms/crippling anxiety for a long time after) I had from a TIA when I was overworked. He waited getting a scan so they could've missed it later; my office was next to the hospital: nothing showed on the CT one hour after but on the RMI a couple of hours after they found a tiny lesion in one of the regions involved in forming speech (which, like him, I had issues with for a bit). Sounds more likely than glucose to me but that is because this looks too familiar to me. Edit: with symptoms like this, treat it as an emergency, do not wait. I do not even understand how you go to sleep and not the hospital if you actually suspect a stroke? Within 3 hours they can do a lot even for far more serious strokes.

fho 6y ago
Is that "bass guitar string" thing common? I had it twice, both times in a hot and cramped train and shrugged it up to "heat stroke".
- sciurus 6y ago
  I'm curious about this too. I have also experienced this at times, although I wouldn't have found these words to describe it. I don't think it's been tied to any particular conditions like heat or stress. Usually it happens when I'm in bed and beginning to fall asleep. Googling turns up https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome which sounds like what I've experienced.
  - Out_of_Characte 6y ago
    Mentioning the falling asleep part reminds me of a few cases myself. I have trouble sleeping myself and when I fall asleep very slowly I've noticed similar 'illusions'. flashes of light, voices, fractal patterns, a conscious state while dreaming and the very rare loud noise that comes from nowhere. Usually the noise doesn't prevent me from finally falling asleep. I've always wondered how many people experience these effects. >Despite the name, the sufferer's head does not actually explode. Oh good, now I can sleep at night again
    - dr_kiszonka 6y ago
      Hallucinations, particularly the auditory ones, are relatively common when falling asleep. If you haven't already, you could consider seeing a sleep medicine doctor to help with falling asleep and sleeping "deeper", which could also fix the hallucinations.
    - akomtu 6y ago
      Purposefully inducing the "out of body experience" (whether it's imaginary is besides the point) is almost always accompanied by this rare roaring sound during the transition moment. I guess that most people freak out and snap back to the normal awake state. Edit: I find the wiki article describing the "problem" highly entertaining. It reminded me of a quote (from that gervais principle book probably) that the modern healthcare manufactures well adjustedness, i.e. they try to square peg everything unusual into their rigid grid of normalcy and if something unusual doesn't fit the square hole, the healthcare system doubles down with rough chemicals.
- tluyben2 6y ago
  Not sure, but I had 'lighter versions' of that sound before getting a migraine after this(never had migraines before the tia): those episodes immediately caused extreme anxiety, as in: it is happening again, while I knew it was not because I had no speech issues or foggy brain, just an aura floating in front of my eyes. This is a long time ago and the way of getting rid of all of this was getting rid of and learning to cope with stress. Now I work more hours and take on far more responsibility than I did at the time but I do not feel any stress, at all. Never had any migraines or other symptoms I used to have anymore. For people who do not know what it is: chronic stress is living hell and dangerous. Better recognize it in time so you do not lose years of your life.
  - aero142 6y ago
    I would love to hear how you changed how stressed you feel.
    - ta988 6y ago
      For me: accepting I have "down" days. And trying to never push during those days. Put breaks, read a book (not related to work, not reading it to be better at anything because thats work as well), go out, exercise. Learning to say no. Not overengineering things (because thats a time sink and I have to throw away 2/3 of the prototypes I'm making anyway). Freeing weekends (or free days). Taking time to talk to people about things not work related. Reduced the "arguing because someone is wrong" (on the internet or not) helped as well, it takes a LOT of emotional energy. edit: typo
      - ta988 6y ago
        I forgot! Reducing caffeine from coffee and using tea instead when I feel stress is increasing or when I didnt sleep well (thats the worst time to drink coffee for me as it starts a tiredness and anxiety circle that may last a few days). This reduced my anxiety a lot. And I also noticed that coffee increase my procrastination. Not sure why but I would likely put that on increased anxiety.
  - tartoran 6y ago
- cgio 6y ago
  In a hot, cramped train it could also be a panic attack. Go see a doctor in any case.
- ta988 6y ago
  I've had that as well. Especially in stressful or tiredness situations. Exercising and better food made them go away. That may be a spurious correlation with my n=1 but I guess exercise and better food will help long term anyway.
treeman79 6y ago
Had very similar symptoms as post. Was getting constant tia symptoms. 3 years of doctors visits later. Oh you have a genetic disposition for clotting. (Factor 5) Started on blood thinners and the TIA symptoms stopped in a few days, brain fog lifted. Plus lots other symptoms. I had been having minor strokes constantly, just not large enough to show up on MRI.
- tluyben2 6y ago
  My old-aunt had this. She would have small ones a lot even with blood thinners.
  - treeman79 6y ago
    If I miss 1 days doses I start getting visual artifacts. Recovery is about a day. 2-3 days and I start to lose feeling one side and can no longer write. Recovery is usually 1-6 weeks. I had more leeway before catching covid. Older ones had higher chance of not being effective.
derangedHorse 6y ago
I wouldn’t go to the hospital either. It’s funny because the more one tries to work and escape debt and financial ruin, the higher the chances are of needing to take an unexpected hospital and getting an unreasonably high medical bill. Some people aren’t in a place to pay insane medical debt, especially in the case where a multitude of tests need to get run and a problem isn’t found. There are a lot of weird things that can happen with the body that some have observed goes away with time, and this “wait it out” approach is sadly encouraged by the American healthcare system because the insanely high bills from previous emergency situations (coupled with the subpar treatment) are typically not worth the price.
- tluyben2 6y ago
  Ah sorry, I am in the EU, so I guess it is slightly different. I see your point if this risks paying yourself. These visits cost me 0$ even in countries I frequent but am not resident in the EU. But yes, since this scare, I definitely go faster, especially considering how bad this can get. You might wake up in a better or in a far worse state.
- brundolf 6y ago
  On top of that it sounds like this person was a contractor, which means their health insurance situation was probably even more shaky and/or non-existent
- sizzle 6y ago
  A stroke deprives your brain of oxygen, you literally do not want to ‘wait it out’ or ‘sleep on it’ cause you might not wake up from it and the damage is acute, to put it bluntly.
mjgs 6y ago
What the f is there in the head that can make a sound like a bass guitar string?
- op00to 6y ago
  Neurons constantly oscillate - firing at least to us randomly. It makes sense that after a “reboot” of sorts, your neurons may fire in something resembling the “frequency” that triggers “bass string” experience. Like the “bong” when you boot an old Mac.
  - mjgs 6y ago
    So an auditory hallucination?
- tedajax 6y ago
  Could be auditory processing of random synaptic firings.
  - mjgs 6y ago
    I wonder how random that sort of thing is. I mean if the brain needs to make you pay attention because you’re overworked / burnt out, what better way than to fake a bass string sound? That would totally freak me out.
- dTal 6y ago
  Your brain. All sound perception ultimately comes from there.
  - mjgs 6y ago
    It’s wild that the brain can just make sounds up like that. Now I’m wondering how much of the soundscape I hear is real. Seems like that’s something that could be exploited.
    - hprotagonist 6y ago
sizzle 6y ago
I agree a suspected stroke deprives your brain of oxygen, you do not want to sleep on it! Slurring speech and facial droop are textbook warnings to call 911 immediately, you might not even be able to speak anything but gibberish so get someone’s help immediately if possible. Stroke awareness is sadly lacking by the young and generally healthy SV demographic.

fho 6y ago

Is that "bass guitar string" thing common? I had it twice, both times in a hot and cramped train and shrugged it up to "heat stroke".

sciurus 6y ago
I'm curious about this too. I have also experienced this at times, although I wouldn't have found these words to describe it. I don't think it's been tied to any particular conditions like heat or stress. Usually it happens when I'm in bed and beginning to fall asleep. Googling turns up https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploding_head_syndrome which sounds like what I've experienced.
- Out_of_Characte 6y ago
  Mentioning the falling asleep part reminds me of a few cases myself. I have trouble sleeping myself and when I fall asleep very slowly I've noticed similar 'illusions'. flashes of light, voices, fractal patterns, a conscious state while dreaming and the very rare loud noise that comes from nowhere. Usually the noise doesn't prevent me from finally falling asleep. I've always wondered how many people experience these effects. >Despite the name, the sufferer's head does not actually explode. Oh good, now I can sleep at night again
  - dr_kiszonka 6y ago
    Hallucinations, particularly the auditory ones, are relatively common when falling asleep. If you haven't already, you could consider seeing a sleep medicine doctor to help with falling asleep and sleeping "deeper", which could also fix the hallucinations.
  - akomtu 6y ago
    Purposefully inducing the "out of body experience" (whether it's imaginary is besides the point) is almost always accompanied by this rare roaring sound during the transition moment. I guess that most people freak out and snap back to the normal awake state. Edit: I find the wiki article describing the "problem" highly entertaining. It reminded me of a quote (from that gervais principle book probably) that the modern healthcare manufactures well adjustedness, i.e. they try to square peg everything unusual into their rigid grid of normalcy and if something unusual doesn't fit the square hole, the healthcare system doubles down with rough chemicals.
tluyben2 6y ago
Not sure, but I had 'lighter versions' of that sound before getting a migraine after this(never had migraines before the tia): those episodes immediately caused extreme anxiety, as in: it is happening again, while I knew it was not because I had no speech issues or foggy brain, just an aura floating in front of my eyes. This is a long time ago and the way of getting rid of all of this was getting rid of and learning to cope with stress. Now I work more hours and take on far more responsibility than I did at the time but I do not feel any stress, at all. Never had any migraines or other symptoms I used to have anymore. For people who do not know what it is: chronic stress is living hell and dangerous. Better recognize it in time so you do not lose years of your life.
- aero142 6y ago
  I would love to hear how you changed how stressed you feel.
  - ta988 6y ago
    For me: accepting I have "down" days. And trying to never push during those days. Put breaks, read a book (not related to work, not reading it to be better at anything because thats work as well), go out, exercise. Learning to say no. Not overengineering things (because thats a time sink and I have to throw away 2/3 of the prototypes I'm making anyway). Freeing weekends (or free days). Taking time to talk to people about things not work related. Reduced the "arguing because someone is wrong" (on the internet or not) helped as well, it takes a LOT of emotional energy. edit: typo
    - ta988 6y ago
      I forgot! Reducing caffeine from coffee and using tea instead when I feel stress is increasing or when I didnt sleep well (thats the worst time to drink coffee for me as it starts a tiredness and anxiety circle that may last a few days). This reduced my anxiety a lot. And I also noticed that coffee increase my procrastination. Not sure why but I would likely put that on increased anxiety.
- tartoran 6y ago
cgio 6y ago
In a hot, cramped train it could also be a panic attack. Go see a doctor in any case.
ta988 6y ago
I've had that as well. Especially in stressful or tiredness situations. Exercising and better food made them go away. That may be a spurious correlation with my n=1 but I guess exercise and better food will help long term anyway.

treeman79 6y ago

Had very similar symptoms as post. Was getting constant tia symptoms. 3 years of doctors visits later. Oh you have a genetic disposition for clotting. (Factor 5) Started on blood thinners and the TIA symptoms stopped in a few days, brain fog lifted. Plus lots other symptoms. I had been having minor strokes constantly, just not large enough to show up on MRI.

tluyben2 6y ago
My old-aunt had this. She would have small ones a lot even with blood thinners.
- treeman79 6y ago
  If I miss 1 days doses I start getting visual artifacts. Recovery is about a day. 2-3 days and I start to lose feeling one side and can no longer write. Recovery is usually 1-6 weeks. I had more leeway before catching covid. Older ones had higher chance of not being effective.

derangedHorse 6y ago

I wouldn’t go to the hospital either. It’s funny because the more one tries to work and escape debt and financial ruin, the higher the chances are of needing to take an unexpected hospital and getting an unreasonably high medical bill. Some people aren’t in a place to pay insane medical debt, especially in the case where a multitude of tests need to get run and a problem isn’t found. There are a lot of weird things that can happen with the body that some have observed goes away with time, and this “wait it out” approach is sadly encouraged by the American healthcare system because the insanely high bills from previous emergency situations (coupled with the subpar treatment) are typically not worth the price.

tluyben2 6y ago
Ah sorry, I am in the EU, so I guess it is slightly different. I see your point if this risks paying yourself. These visits cost me 0$ even in countries I frequent but am not resident in the EU. But yes, since this scare, I definitely go faster, especially considering how bad this can get. You might wake up in a better or in a far worse state.
brundolf 6y ago
On top of that it sounds like this person was a contractor, which means their health insurance situation was probably even more shaky and/or non-existent
sizzle 6y ago
A stroke deprives your brain of oxygen, you literally do not want to ‘wait it out’ or ‘sleep on it’ cause you might not wake up from it and the damage is acute, to put it bluntly.

mjgs 6y ago

What the f is there in the head that can make a sound like a bass guitar string?

op00to 6y ago
Neurons constantly oscillate - firing at least to us randomly. It makes sense that after a “reboot” of sorts, your neurons may fire in something resembling the “frequency” that triggers “bass string” experience. Like the “bong” when you boot an old Mac.
- mjgs 6y ago
  So an auditory hallucination?
tedajax 6y ago
Could be auditory processing of random synaptic firings.
- mjgs 6y ago
  I wonder how random that sort of thing is. I mean if the brain needs to make you pay attention because you’re overworked / burnt out, what better way than to fake a bass string sound? That would totally freak me out.
dTal 6y ago
Your brain. All sound perception ultimately comes from there.
- mjgs 6y ago
  It’s wild that the brain can just make sounds up like that. Now I’m wondering how much of the soundscape I hear is real. Seems like that’s something that could be exploited.
  - hprotagonist 6y ago

sizzle 6y ago

I agree a suspected stroke deprives your brain of oxygen, you do not want to sleep on it! Slurring speech and facial droop are textbook warnings to call 911 immediately, you might not even be able to speak anything but gibberish so get someone’s help immediately if possible. Stroke awareness is sadly lacking by the young and generally healthy SV demographic.