Another setback

Another episode of stroke affecting me last week.  This was probably what the drs characterize as a TIA, Transient Ischemic Attack.      By definition, a TIA is a temporary experience, leaving no permanent brain injury.

Last Thursday night, I had an episode that included dizziness, everything spinning around me, diminished sense of awareness, vision compromised with encroaching gray out, and more confusion than usual.

Someone helped wheel me up to my room, but she was behind me, so I wasn't sure who.  I thought it was my friend Lilian, but she said no, she saw me weaving around the lobby, and was concerned about my drunken careening, so she got the nurse.I asked to be left alone, because I was wanting to avoid another ER fiasco.  They can't seem to do anything much about events like this except compile extravagantly expensive billing for inconclusive tests.  I went to bed felling dizzy and groggy.

The next day, I was feeling recurring weakness in my lower body, and my speech was slurred more than the previous day.  Back to the routine of trying to recover...

Miracles I: Chronicles

I must write down a record of the most amazing series of events I have ever experienced or heard about. I still cannot believe all these these things really happened to me. I have been having psychotic delusions as well, so take this testimony for what it is worth. In my defence, I will say that I am among the most scrupulously honest persons I know of as a life-long habit. I will always be truthful, even when it costs me personally or is painful.

It's going to take a lot of writing to get this story all down, so I will serialize it into short instalments and intersperse with other things that come up in the mean time.

I should like to start, I think, with a bit of background. I first had a stroke back in July last year. I remember not feeling well, so I was thinking that a bit of vigorous exercise was what I needed to make me feel better.

We had a stack of spruce tree rounds that we bought from the local sawmill. Most of them were huge -- over 40" in diameter and 100 pounds in weight. I was swinging a heavy maul to split the rounds into sections small enough to fit into the stove.

While I was swinging the maul, someone came up from behind and hit me over the head with a 4x4. Or anyway, that's what it felt like. It staggered me, and as I fell to my knees, I looked to see who had hit me.

As I recall, this was the first of a series of incidents my sister and I later decided to call "shark attacks". After the initial attack, I recovered on wobbly legs enough to stagger over to the porch of the house, where my dad was sitting in the shade. I tried to speak to him and explain that "my legs are all unhinged" but was only able to mumble some unintelligible sounds.

After a long period of recovery, we went to dinner together in Mt Pleasant. I suffered no ill effects at the time, other than continuing generally feeling poorly, but I drove to the food place and home. That night, I had the first stroke in my sleep some time, and when I woke up next morning, most of my right side was paralyzed, what the doctors call "hemiparesis".

In retrospect, I understand now that what I initially experienced, the "shark attack" was NOT a stroke or a mini-stroke, a TIA, or anything normally related to a stroke. My assumption that this was the case has led to endless confusion and miscommunication between myself and doctors, resulting in a great deal of needless misunderstanding and distrust on both our parts. I apologize for the terrible miscue. It was my mistake, I take full responsibility.

Next instalment:  Handicapped