“My Nagging Headache Turned Out to Be a Stroke.”

In 2013, Latarsha Jones got a doozy of a headache. Jones, a mother of three, assumed that her busy schedule and long hours working as an assistant principal of an elementary school were just taking their toll.

The aching persisted for several weeks and was often so bad that Jones had to hold her head when she coughed or sneezed. One afternoon, the pain suddenly intensified. “I felt like everything was going in slow motion. I couldn’t get words out, and my

speech slurred. I was numb on the left side.”

When first responders arrived, Jones was unable to lift her left arm or say her ABCS, two tests used to determine whether a patient has suffered a stroke. At the hospital, an MRI revealed she had indeed experienced an ischemic stroke, which occurs when a vessel supplying blood to the brain becomes blocked.

“Doctors are still looking into factors that may have caused it, because my blood pressure was not extremely high and the other tests were borderline. I believe my obesity was the main factor,” Jones says.

In response to her terrifying ordeal, Jones has stepped up her activity and cleaned up her diet. Today, the 47-year-old is an American Heart Association Go Red for Women Real Women volunteer. She is still recovering from her stroke and takes medication daily to prevent another.

WHAT ELSE COULD IT BE?

Nearly everyone gets skull-throbbers. Dehydration, poor posture, certain foods, and stress are common causes, but some head pain indicates a bigger issue. If a headache wakes you up in the morning or doesn’t get better with medication, it might be a brain

tumor. And if it’s coupled with a high fever and a stiff neck, you might have

meningitis. Headache accompanied by blurry vision or trouble focusing could be an aneurysm.