Member-only story
Learn From My Stroke-
A Stroke of Luck
Don’t gamble with your life
I had a stroke in December and I was very lucky. I did not have permanent paralysis of one side, inability to talk or swallow. But I had a stroke on the right side of my brain …I know — I saw the MRI scan and there it was, this big grayish blob right where some neurons should be, well, actually, where a bunch of neurons should be. So on December 12, 2018 in the evening, I got myself to the local ER.
That’s not any easy decision for a retired RN to make. I know what ER’s are like. I’d had my husband there several time in the 7 years we’d been married. But I saw my drooping mouth and my wobbly gate as the warning signs they were and swallowed my pride. After the normal ER wait and tests — CAT scan, blood work, electrocardiogram — I was taken the stoke unit with an irascible charge nurse, one this cranky old RN needed.
One of the first things she said to me was, “You had a stroke. You’ll be alright but things have changed.”
Things Have Changed
Boy! Was that right.
I’ve lived a fairly active life — worked full time until my retirement and second marriage in 2012. I wrote in my spare time (which, as a single mother was sometimes limited and started at 5 AM), I was frequently published in the local…
