Strokes
Well, I haven’t mentioned it up until now because I tried not to think about it too much and rake through it all again, but I had a stroke on 19th March. Thankfully I am okay now, I am nigh on fully recovered.
It all happaned on Mothers Sunday, we were to go to H’s parent’s place to see her mum and I said we had better walk because I had a bit of a headache (their house is only 5 mins walk from ours). We got back mid-afternoon and I rushed up to the bathroom where I was violently ill and had major pains in the back of my head.
I managed to stagger t oour bedroom and collapsed half on the bed, sweating profusely and not being able to think straight due to the pain that was now a band right around my head. Sam came into the bedroom and I tried to tell him to go downstairs but I couldn’t speak, I was just slurring like an old drunk.. scary stuff!
The long and short of it is that Hayley called an ambulance which took me to Basingstoke hospital A&E where they diagnosed it as a cerebral infarction, or a stroke, and shipped me off to Southampton hospital’s Neuro unit. Apparently it was hit and miss if I would make it through the night, I didn’t quite realise at the time just how near death I was and they tried keeping me awak as much as possible so I wouldn’t deteriorate. All I remember is being unbelievaby tired and cold, so cold.
For the next few days I was watched like a hawk and monitored, I had ct scans and mri scans which were a little unpleasant but what can you do? In time I grew stronger and my speech gradually came back, it seemed I wasn’t permanently damaged. However, my walking was poor and my coordination was iffy at best which was a major worry. thankfully it came back and I am now driving, walking, playing guitar and typing as good as ever!
I returned to work last friday (11th May) and work have been great, I had as much time off as I needed to get better (loads of bed rest and chilling at home) but I got so bored being at home I wanted to come back to work (mad!).
Now life has returned pretty much to normal, it is as if nothing ever happened which is the way it should be? Sometimes I catch a thought before it gets stopped by my defenses and it all makes me really sad, really angry. Then again I am a much more calm, focused and composed person than I was before it all happened - I think being *this* close to death really hit me and I am better for it now.
I had a CT scan in Basingstoke last week and I have an appointment with my consultant (Dr Giallombardo) on 31st May to check on how I am going - I assume nothing dodgy was found on the scan else I would have heard already.
They say it was an unlucky thing, not an aneurysm or tumour - I was unlucky and one of my blood vessels in the back of my head/neck just popped and that’s all that happened. The resulting blood loss made my brain go a little funny but now it is cool.