“A stroke? No joke” – Part II
In Part I – I gave the timeline of the morning of my stroke. I was the classic stroke patient. I showed all the signs and had the wherewithal to realize my symptoms before it was too late. Had I waited even five more minutes, I think I would have been completely screwed.
See, by the time, the ambulance showed up – I was fairly disoriented. Hours later when I “came to” in the hospital, I found a banana in my computer bag. Odd.
The only thing I can think is that as I was desperately trying to maneuver my way through the hotel lobby to get to the ambulance, I must have grabbed a banana at the reception desk. Well, it WAS 9am … and even though my brain wasn’t working, my stomach obviously was.
“Brain, this is Stomach. I know you’ve got some sort of issue up there, but we’re hungry. And hospital food is gonna suck, so grab that banana for later, bud. We’re both gonna need it.”
It took about three hours for the fog to lift. It was like being in a really boring trance … that smelled not unlike Pine-Sol.
All in all, it was about eight hours before I got my right side working again. (Uh, I’m not sure at what point I wolfed down the banana.) 36 hours after being admitted to the hospital, I was bounced out with a clean bill of health. This was after the doctors had run every test on me known to man. Some of them twice.
When I finally had manual dexterity again, I started to write. And write. And write. I penned some of my best stuff over that three or four day span. (Type “stroke” in to the search portion of this blog – and see for yourself.) Of course, it could have been the drugs that lead me to believe I was the next Hemmingway.
About a week later, I made a unique promise to myself. I said, “Self – cheers to you for surviving your stroke. For the next 365 days – you’re not going to say no to one damn thing.” And that is how I’ve been living my life … with no regrets. And we nary so much as a “n” syllable in my vocabulary.
I went skydiving. I visited a dude ranch in Texas. I flew to Berlin for a weekend on a whim — TWICE. I entered two categories in the Emmys I’ve never entered before – and WON both. And I’ve gone out of my way to remind myself that life is to be lived – to the extreme and to the fullest.
Now that my year anniversary has come and gone, am I going to do things differently? Heck no. I’m only getting started. I celebrated yesterday with a toast in Germany … drinking a classic Italian aperitif Aperol. And I patted myself on the back for another year on this earth. This stroke was an eye-opener and a game changer. I now realize the importance of being alive. Plus, Lord knows you’re dead a LOT longer than you’re alive.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Tweet