Anyone ever have a small pin stroke that doesn’t show up on an MRI? I was driving down the road Dec. 10 checking traps when I got very dizzy, like vertigo, and couldn’t continue. Had to get help taking them up later. I had vertigo like symptoms a couple days and double vision from Dec 12 to the other day. Couldn’t drive and could hardly walk and keep my balance. I know I’ve seen a couple Drs. Supposed to see an optical neurologist next month. Vision is still funky from about ten feet out on.
It’s been about six weeks, I haven’t set a trap since, afraid of stumbling and falling, very unsteady. I just wanted to ask among trappers if anyone ever had anything like this. Thanks.

I've never heard the term.

Can't say as I have never heard of a pin stroke, but I have had vertigo come over me in a moments notice while at work one day

could not even stand up or open my eyes with out being sick, had to leave work and be driven home. Made an appt., with an ear doctor, who fixed me up with a great ear cleaning, I had ear wax so deep it was pushing on my ear drums, once that was cleaned up it went away.

I have felt stingers as they are called under my pectoral muscle on the left, thinking they are just muscle spasms, just a couple weeks ago, now I am scheduled for a stress test and heart work, seems it can be a precursor for heart trouble in some instances, I have no history in my family of heart trouble so, not to worried about it.

On another thought though, have heard of people with blood clots to large to pass giving them the same symptoms you have shown, so it is just best to see the doctors and let them do some work and find out what's going on !

have a fellow trapper, that has vertigo so bad he can't hardly get off the couch, he's been to a lot of doctors, and they keep saying something different each time, this happens about 3 months ago, still not able to work, he is forever falling or grabbing ahold of something

maybe a TIA?

Blood sugar issues maybe been there done that they didn’t find a thing MRI and all.

Yes TIA I think is same as a pin stroke, or similar. I can live with where my vision is now but the balance and stumbling are debilitating.

Thank you for the replies.

I’ve had them I was fortunate that things returned to normal, numbers were my biggest problem.

I'm taking so many pills that they seem to fight each other to see who's the leader! I take a pill to pass water thru my plumbing, a pill to make it flow, a pill to make it thru my prostate, a pill to empty the bladder, and then I get dizzy from dehydration! So I have to sip water all day, so the pills have something to do!!!!! Grrr

something is messing up blood supply to a part of your brain, not necessarily a TIA as such. It can be an aneurism, a tumor, or a relatively minor vessel spasm/permeability issue which may only show on an angiogram/MRI with contrast (or not show at all), etc etc. A simple MRI will show if there's a tumor, pooled blood (hemorrhagic stroke) or a piece with bad blood supply that's beginning to die off (ischemic stroke) but there can be many other reasons. You did not say if you had an MRI. You need to see a good neurologist urgently so that you understand clearly what's going on.


If it was indeed a TIA, you need daily movement and exercises aimed at improving balance. Physical exercises are critically important to regain lost balance and vision functions. Even very simple ones such as standing on one leg, or standing on your heels and then on toes.
Regardless of what caused the mini stroke, the more you sit around the worse it gets. You need to get the brain busy with balance and vision tasks so it can rewire itself accordingly, if you don't, it won't.


It works for other causes of vestibular problems. I have a hole in my inner ear bone and my vestibular system "runs on manual", meaning other parts of the brain compensate for the weak signal from the vestibular apparatus. I depend on exercise not to feel dizzy.

Thank you for the very detailed post Tatiana. If I can find someone to go with me I’ll try to get out some and maybe cat trap a bit in Feb. I’ll take to heart your daily exercise advice as well and start trying to do more. Thank you for the reply.

Ky, with the symptoms you described you could have something as minor as an inner ear infection or this could be something very serious. If I were in your position I would start with family physician, ear/nose/throat dr. Either of these two would probably refer to a cardiologist or a vascular doctor for any serious condition they may suspect. Now is the time to concentrate on your health first.

In our medical system, GP physicians and ENT's usually cling to modern protocols a bit mindlessly and their perspective is skewed towards their field and the most common ailments (= assorted colds essentially). Unless the neurological symptoms are VERY obvious, they tend to ascribe all dizziness to inner ear infections (Minor's syndrome etc), which often means lost time because they won't order more tests/scans before force-feeding you a course of augmentin. When I was trying to find out what was wrong with me (my issue is very rare) and was bounced between various specialists, I read a lot about it and it seems to be a global problem. It also seems that overall, neurologists are a bit less likely to dismiss the combination of vestibular AND visual issues, so if you have an option of seeing a neurologist directly, that is what I would do.

It is also true that ultimately the root of the problem could be somewhere else (for instance, uneven heart rhythm and inflamed or plaqued vessels can cause tiny clots, which in turn cause TIA's).

Bottom line is, try to speed things up, these symptoms need addressing ASAP.

Thank you sir.

My Father had something similar going on, and as Tatiana described the doctors were initially focused on the inner ear. But it ended up being "AFIB" which was corrected with a ablation and medications.

Hope you get lined out soon.

I was having TIA's up until I had the big one. Not something to play with.