Jennifer Reilly was 28 years old when she began experiencing some odd symptoms. Half of her left hand went numb. She could move her fingers, but she couldn’t feel anything on the outer part of that hand.
Because she was so young, Reilly just assumed it was nothing. She was wrong.
She was having a stroke.
The numbness recurred off and on for several days. Then one night she had a piercing headache, an uncommon event for her. She mentioned her symptoms to a work colleague, who urged her to see a doctor.
“I didn’t know I was having a stroke at the time,” said Reilly, now 35. “I just assumed I was a healthy, normal 28-year-old.”
Reilly saw several doctors and finally landed at UCLA in the neurology department, where she said Dr. David Liebeskind, professor of neurology, director of Outpatient Stroke and Neurovascular Programs and director of the Neurovascular Imaging Research Core. After a battery of tests, Reilly was diagnosed with Moyamoya disease - a rare, progressive cerebrovascular disorder caused by blocked arteries at the base of the brain, cutting off blood flow. One of the first symptoms of Moyamoya is recurrent transient ischemic attacks, or TIAs, commonly referred to as “mini-strokes,” exactly what Reilly was experiencing.
She had no idea the danger she was in, Liebeskind said.
“The worst and a very likely possibility is that she would have had a significant stroke,” he said, one that could have been extremely debilitating or even fatal.
Reilly was referred to Dr. Neil Martin, chair of neurosurgery at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and head of the neurovascular surgery section. What he told Jennifer was alarming.
