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Terry Streetman (Host): Welcome back to Well Within Reach, presented by Riverside Healthcare. I'm Terry Streetman, Marketing and Communications rep, and today we are here with Kendra Pauley, Nurse Practitioner with Riverside Neurology Specialists, and we're going to talk about stroke awareness, signs, risk factors, and how Riverside can help.

Thanks for joining us, Kendra.

Kendra Pauley, FNP-C: Thank you for having me.

Host: Of course. So before we jump into our questions, we'll take a quick break for a message about MyChart.

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Host: Okay, we're back. Kendra, this is your first time here, I believe, on the podcast. Is that true?

Kendra Pauley, FNP-C: Yes.

Host: Okay. So can you tell our listeners a little bit about your background and your role?

Kendra Pauley, FNP-C: So my name is Kendra Pauley. I grew up in Chebanse. Background is I first became an LPN, then an RN, then an NP. My role right now is currently with the neurology group and I do all the inpatient rounding for the neurologist.

Host: Excellent. Okay, so you got all those letters that tells us that you, you know, your stuff,

Kendra Pauley, FNP-C: Right.

Host: I love that. So we'll start with the basics here. What is a stroke if people are not aware and what are some of the signs that people should be aware of?

Kendra Pauley, FNP-C: So there's two types. There's an ischemic stroke, which is essentially a blockage in the artery, or a hemorrhagic stroke, which is a rupture of a vessel.

We use BEFAST for stroke symptoms. So balance, if your balance is off or having difficulty walking. Eyes, double vision, blurred vision. Loss of vision. Face like a facial droop, arms, weakness in one arm or the other, or numbness or tingling. Speech if your speech is off. And then T is for timing, time to call 911.

Host: Okay. Excellent. Yeah, I like that way to remember. It keeps it simple. So when it comes to strokes then, what are some of the risk factors that people might need to be aware of, and are there things that people can do to reduce those risks?

Kendra Pauley, FNP-C: For sure. So obesity, is an, a big risk factor. So diet and exercise can help. Smoking really increases your risk of having a stroke, so not smoking or quitting smoking. High blood pressure, making sure that's under control. Diabetes increases the risk as well, so controlling that or any high cholesterol as well.

Host: Okay. So a lot of the good, you know, taking care of your overall health. Right. Seems like it will help. Okay, great. So we talked about those signs of a stroke, and you talked about the time. What should somebody do if they notice the signs of a stroke?

Kendra Pauley, FNP-C: Call 911 immediately. Okay. Don't wait. There's medicines we can give if you're in a certain timeframe, so we just say call 911.

Host: All right. Yeah. Call 911 and say, take me to Riverside. Right. All right. So before we move on to our next question, we're going to take a moment to talk about the importance of primary care. Consistency is being able to count on someone to be there when you need them. At Riverside Healthcare, your primary care provider is dedicated to being in your corner, helping you and your family stay healthy and thrive.

Find the right primary care provider for you at myrhc.net/acceptingnew. From annual screenings to well checks and everything in between, having a primary care provider that you can trust makes all the difference. Okay, we'll get back into our questions then. So once somebody has called 911 and said, take me to Riverside. When they arrive at the hospital, at the ER, what happens then?

Kendra Pauley, FNP-C: So if they come by ambulance, our ambulance will notify the ER that they have a stroke suspected. ER doctor will meet them at the door, do a quick evaluation. The patient goes straight to a CT scan. We do that to rule out any bleed. It won't show a stroke right away.

And then in the ER we use Rush tele neurology and they'll evaluate the patient and see if they're a candidate for our clot busting medicine.

Host: Okay. And so we've done several podcast episodes with neurosurgeons about stroke and that kind of thing. Can you talk about, in terms of neurology, what role do you play in that emergent situation when people come in?

You mentioned some of that telehealth, tele neurology, and then how do neurologists provide care during the recovery from a stroke?

Kendra Pauley, FNP-C: So we try to figure out the patient's risk factors and ways to decrease that, the best medicine for them to prevent another stroke. And just, it's a lot of education on, preventative measures from there.

Host: Okay. What would you say makes Riverside Stroke Care special?

Kendra Pauley, FNP-C: We're a primary stroke care center. We can give TPK, the clot busting medicine and we don't have to ship them out. Now if it's like a large vessel occlusion, we do ship them out somewhere else for a thrombectomy. And the patient can really just stay there. And we have a great rehab unit as well.

Host: Okay. Yeah, that's great to hear. And definitely when you talk about that time is of the essence being able to stay in the community, which I think we'll touch on in the next question, instead of having to go somewhere else. So, on that subject, I guess for patients and families, what does it mean overall to have advanced stroke care, like right here in their community?

Kendra Pauley, FNP-C: Closer to home, so they're not traveling up north or down south. And then if they do come to our rehab unit and they're there for a few weeks, family can still come visit and not have to worry about fighting traffic and traveling far away to come visit them.

Host: Awesome. And I'm sure between the team that we have between neurology and neurosurgery and rehab and PT and all that, plus being close to home, I assume that helps people sort of with some of that nervousness and that recovery. Yes.

Kendra Pauley, FNP-C: And then their follow-ups are close to home too as well.

Host: Awesome. And that's all of course, within that MyChart, Riverside MyChart system. So it's easy to coordinate that, which I think is for me is always great. Right. We're getting towards the end here then. What would be your biggest takeaway for our listeners from this episode?

Kendra Pauley, FNP-C: So my biggest takeaway would be if you notice signs of a stroke, call 911 immediately. Don't wait. We see that happen a lot, that people are like, oh, I'll take a nap. It'll go away. By the time they come in, they're out of the window for that clot busting medication. And it's really, time is brain. So the longer you wait, the more that brain tissue is dying.

Host: All right, well, yeah, that's a very important, very urgent message for people. So remember that BEFAST, abbreviation for the signs of stroke. And remember, it's better to be safe than sorry. And we've heard this from our neurosurgeons, our EMTs, they would rather come help you and turn out to be nothing.

Kendra Pauley, FNP-C: Exactly. People all the time are like, well, I didn't want to waste your time. No. We'd rather you come in and let us check you out and, make sure everything's okay.

Host: Awesome. Well that's what we're here for. So, thank you for all this good information. Hopefully that helps some folks who are curious about this and we hope they never end up in the situation, but if they do, folks like you are here for them.

Kendra Pauley, FNP-C: Thanks for having me.

Host: Yeah, of course. If you're interested in learning more about Riverside Neurology Specialists, you can visit myrhc.net/neurologycare. And thanks for tuning into Well Within Reach, presented by Riverside Healthcare.

Please take a moment to rate and leave a review for Well Within Eeach on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about Riverside, visit riversidehealthcare.org.