Last Wednesday, I had a stroke.
TL;DR: I’m fine. I was very lucky. Other than some mild balance issues, I’m already back to normal.
Here’s what happened, for anyone interested in the details.
On Wednesday around noon-thirty, I finished a video call with a coworker. I work remotely for a custom software development company named Taazaa, so my home is my office.
After I got off the call, I noticed I felt a little dizzy. Figuring I needed to eat something, I got up to get a bite and the dizzyness got far worse. I decided to lay down.
The dizzyness got worse, and I started feeling very hot. Something didn’t feel right, so I felt I should let someone know. I called my girlfriend, Beans. She said I sounded drunk and was coming over.
After I hung up with her, the entire left side of my body went numb. Pins and needles, like when your foot falls asleep.
Finally, I got it through my skull that this was a Serious Medical Event. I called 911.
They sent a squad, and I was taken to the local hospital. Beans followed the squad there, and took over all the talking with the medical professionals, which she is very good at. I am so thankful for that, and all of her subsequent help.
After a CT scan, they told me that I had two blood clots. One was in my brain stem. That’s very bad. Blood clots in your brain stem can paralyze you from the neck down. I was lucky, but at that point, it was still possible.
I still wasn’t feeling too worried, and then they said, “We’re going to transfer you to the neurosurgery ICU downtown, and we’re sending you there by helicopter.”
I think I said something like, “Oh. So it’s that urgent.”
Ruh roh, Shaggy.
So I was burritoed and loaded onto a helicopter (first time!) and flown down to UC Medical Center’s NS ICU. They put me on IV Heparin (a blood thinner, to melt the clots) and monitored me over the next three days. MRIs, more CT scans, blood draws on the hour to track my potassium and magnesium levels and other stuff.
I spent most of the time sleeping.
They got me up to walk and assessed my motor skills and strength. Long story short, I didn’t lose too much of all those things, so I recovered quickly and was released to go home (with 24/7 supervision) on Saturday.
I thought I was prepared for serious illness. I was (and still am) not.
Thankfully, I had friends who leapt to help me out. Beans was at the hospital every day, keeping me company, dealing with all the doctors and nurses, and collating all the data. Diego and Karen helped keep me sane and cared for my kitties. Many other friends and family visited and sent messages of encouragement. I cannot thank them enough.
I want to say again: I was very lucky. Lucky I didn’t wait too long, lucky I had good doctors and nurses, lucky to had so many good friends to support me.
I am still waiting to see if I got COVID from all this. So far, I have no symptoms. I lived and slept in masks the entire time, and most of the nurses and doctors were good about properly wearing masks. But I had to take them off to eat, to get assessed, and so on. So, keeping my fingers crossed.
Anyway, that’s all the news that’s fit to print. I’m okay. I have some recovery to do. A few followups and such. But so far, I can do everything I did before, only slower.
Why did this happen? The best guess is that I sit too much. I don’t have any of the other risk factors–smoking, drinking to excess, family history, diabetes, and so on. So I am making it a point to move more, exercise more, and not sit around for long periods of time.
I’m still here. I’d like to stay still being here. So I’ll take all the new medications and listen to my doctors and eat better and move more.
So that’s what happened. I’m happy to answer questions, but there’s not too much more to tell.
Thank you all for your support. Even if you didn’t know it happened, knowing you were out there helped. If that makes sense. It probably doesn’t, but hey, I had a stroke. Gimme a break.
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