I'm 36 years old and I had a stroke last month.

I had no history of headaches or migraines. I was just changing my shoes for the gym and my right arm stopped working. It felt like heavy dead weight rubber. My arm came back "on line" and was able to move again. I went to my computer to WebMD symptoms ... and i couldnt think of my password.

I went to a coworker to get help, but I couldn't talk. I was able to walk, move both arms at this time. I had no pain. I just couldn't talk. He thought I was really frustrated about something and being super emotional and wasn't able to use my words.

You think you're good at charades and it would be easy to get help until you can't speak or can't write. I got to a hospital and turns out I had a clot in my brain. Scary stuff.

Strokes can happen to younger people! Facial drooping, one side of their body is weak, and speech problems. With me, a coworker just saw me not talking and emphatically moving my hands and getting frustrated; not talking was my only stroke symptom. I didnt look sick or ill or anything (again, my right arm was working well enough by the time I got to someone). I was able to eventually slur a word or two out.

If you suspect someone is having a stroke, get to the ER. Not a health clinic. If it's a clot, the faster the doctors can get to the clot, the person will have a better shot of not having any long term disability from the stroke ("fast" as in 3 hours). And this is really only for "younger" folks (like 55 and under), I don't know anything about older people or the brain hemorrhaging types of strokes.

This happened to me so recently, everything is FINE and then BOOM ... your life stops. I was putting on shoes to get to the gym and then 2 hours later, I was in an amberlamps.