Welcome to "Living Healthy Chicago."
I'm Jane Clauss.
It's important to pay attention to your body,
but it can be especially important to recognize
when to reach out for some help.
And that's something
that this next woman hopes you'll take to heart,
so let's learn more about her story
and the disease she's hoping to bring some awareness to.
(logo whooshing) (soft music)
About a year and a half ago, during a workout,
Sheila Sheppard noticed something was off with her health.
- My heart rate was very high for a long time
and that was unusual for me.
And I had a little bit of weakness in my right arm.
And I checked my blood pressure,
which is normally very good,
and it was super high.
- [Jane] Sheila knew it was important
to see her doctor right away.
- He said, "We can't have you walking around
"with this of high blood pressure.
"I want you to go see the cardiologist right now."
- [Jane] Doctors began monitoring Sheila,
but her health issues became more serious.
- And by the end of the third day
is when I had my first TIA,
which was my entire right side went weak,
like my face, arm, down to my leg,
and I had some speech issues.
They did a bunch of brain scans,
and that's when they found out
that my two main arteries to my brain were very occluded.
The left one was 100% occluded and the right was 70%.
And that's when they told me I had moyamoya.
- Moyamoya disease is something
most of us are not familiar with.
So joining us today is Dr. Lopes to explain more.
Hi, Dr. Lopes, can you tell us what moyamoya diseases is?
- Somewhat of a rare condition
that the blood vessels that are going to the brain,
they start to progressively block
and this causes stroke-like symptoms,
weakness or headaches, seizures.
So the term moyamoya is basically a description
from the appearance of the blood vessels
that are a response to the progressive blockage
of the main arteries of the brain.
They start to progressively narrow
and then develop this collateral circulation
that look like a puff of smoke.
Appearance of this was first described in Japan,
and that's why the name moyamoya.
It's a Japanese word for puff of smoke.
- What's the cause of moyamoya disease?
- It's uncertain the cause of moyamoya at this point.
There's some evidence
that there could be a genetic component to it,
but there are a lotta cases
that are not related to anything we can link to.
- So how is moyamoya treated and what was done for Sheila?
- There are no medications
that can make the blood vessels return to normal.
So the only way is by creating
a bypass between normal blood vessels
and then bring those blood vessels to the brain.
So you basically go around the area of blockage.
- [Sheila] So I had an angiogram six months after
to see if the new vessels grew and they did.
I did very well on the left side.
And then I had the right side done this year in June.
- [Jane] and while this procedure is not a cure,
after some recovery time,
Sheila says she's feeling good and hopeful for the future.
- [Sheila] Now, I feel great.
I feel like, really, almost back to normal.
Anything I used to do, I feel like I can do right now.
- And we're so thankful to Sheila
for sharing her story with us,
but what do you hope that the rest of us learn
about moyamoya disease?
- Most important thing
is to recognize the symptoms of stroke.
A stroke can happen at all ages.
When you have a symptom,
and that symptom is either progressing
or it's something unusual,
you never experienced that before,
that's when I think you have to have
a little bit lower threshold to seek medical attention.
- It's so important because, like Dr. Lopes always says,
"Time is brain."
I'm happy with what I'm able to do.
Time is a gift and kinda just take advantage of every day
and make the most of it.