Stroke Story, part 1

Hello again! I'm sorry, I know it's taken me some time to get this together. As you can imagine, for awhile I had lots of Doctor appointments and therapy appointments. While I am pretty OK physically, the gold ol' brain is still recovering and I do things a lot slower than I used to.

On January 2,2016 I had a stroke. 

Hubby and I were at his parents visiting the week after Christmas.

 It was just the two of us since none of our adult children could get the time off of work. 

On this day, the family was around the kitchen table, having a good time.
It was mom's birthday, so we were eating way too much food and playing games.

We'd decided to go to see a movie, and as the the game we were playing was wrapping up, 

I got REALLY hot, like RIGHT NOW. 

At first I thought I was having a hot flash, which was not unusual since I'd begun having 

them a few months before (oh the joys of being over 40). I left the table to head to the bathroom 

to try to cool down. By the time I reached the bathroom my head was POUNDING. I splashed water on my face and headed to the bedroom. I ran into dad in the hallway and he followed me into the bedroom, asking me what was wrong. I couldn't really formulate an answer other than 

"I don't know". I get on the bed, trying to do something, anything to lessen the pain in my head. 

Nothing is helping. Dad leaves, and I decide to head back into the bathroom and try a cold shower.

Going from the bathroom to the bedroom, I stumble and almost fall to the floor twice. 

When I reached the bathroom, I sat on the floor with my back against the wall, tears flowing

 because there was so much pressure in my head.

 I no longer had the energy to turn on the shower or get my clothes off.

Sitting on the floor in the bathroom is where my family found me.

When they rushed in, I was thinking to myself

 "holy crap I'm having a stroke. no, wait, I CAN'T be having a stroke, I'm too young!".

My husband comes running in, sits on the side of the bathtub and is asking me questions.

My sister is sitting on the toilet, trying to comfort me.

Mom, who, by the way, is a nurse, is asking me things and wanting me to smile, raise my arms, etc. 

ANY movement by now is making me vomit. A lot. Ick.

They call 911, squad comes, one of the EMTs is convinced I have food poisoning.

He actually made me really mad. Good thing for him I am a good patient! HA! 

I get to the hospital, immediately get to a CT scan, and the Dr. said he was sorry to have to tell us but yes it was a stroke. A brain hemorrhage. This is a small town hospital and they couldn't handle me there ( I'm a difficult and complicated case ha ha) so he needed to ship me off. There was a particular surgeon he had in mind, so he tracked that guy down, and less than an hour after rolling into the ER, I was in an ambulance heading to Erie, PA.

To be continued.....