Adventures in Pet Sitting - Weirdness
I'm sure you've all heard or seen a PSA -
a Public Service Announcement.
Mostly, we ignore them. Now and then, maybe a catchy jingle or a clever turn of phrase grabs our attention for a nano-second. We chuckle, roll our eyes, or scoff at how lame it is and then we go on about the daily business of living.
If I may, I'd like to impose on you a tad and ask you to listen to them, at least once, when they pop up. Somewhere along the way, the following one got filed away in my memory and then forgotten until I needed it.
It's entirely possible it saved my life.
On June 23rd I was driving home from a late visit with Norman, Teddy, Barney, and Bubba. It was about 8 pm when I jumped on THIS to make the trip quick:
I was about halfway home when I noticed I felt 'weird'. Not a good thing at 60 mph. I sort of ran through a mental checklist of, first, exactly WHAT was weird, and then, HOW to deal with whatever the WHAT was. It finally dawned on me that my speech was 'not there'... weirdness again because I was alone, no one to talk to. I was navigating traffic okay, except for a slight inability to fully turn my head to the right to check for merging cars. I was relying on my side & rear view mirrors. It was about then that the FAST PSA came to mind. I knew loss of speech was mostly like a stroke. I didn't have any of the more obvious signs, although this was pretty convincing.
Hmmm, what to do... Well, I made it home with no problem. Walk in the door, waiting for hubby to stop talking and, at the same time, trying to figure out how to tell him I think I'm having a stroke - without being able to speak - and not have him flip out. (This is NOT weirdness. I just know my hubby. LOL!) So, I decide to write a note. (THIS is weirdness, no speech, but I still have the words.)
First note: I can't talk.
Hubby interprets this as 'I'm mad at you' and gives me space to get to where I can talk.
Sigh.... I didn't know this at the time, so I'm waiting for him to ask why. Nope. He goes back to watching TV.
Second note: I feel weird.
Ahhhh, shift in focus by him and me still trying to find an 'easy way' to inform him of my conclusion. Me stalling, then,
Third note: Stroke?!?
Hubby flips out. I roll my eyes. Hubby is in rescue / action mode, while I'm trying to convey info for the visits I had for the next day. That info was at home, so I had to gather it before I went to the emergency room. (More weirdness - there's no pain. Not even a slight headache. I always thought something like this would hurt.)
Typing this out makes it look like all this took a long time. In actuality, I was being checked into the emergency room in under an hour after the onset of my symptoms. I qualified medically to receive a tPA treatment, which takes about an hour to administer. Halfway into the treatment, I noticed improvement. By the time it was finished, I could string two or three words together. I was released from the hospital five days later, speech still difficult, but getting better daily.
I was lucky. This was a mild stroke and my speech was the only thing affected. Had I not been familiar with the warning signs, I'm sure the outcome wouldn't have been this positive.
So because of an annoying PSA, I now get to annoyingly pester y'all for questions for Ask Aunt Deb and, hopefully, get you to tune in to the next PSA.
SUBMIT YOUR QUESTIONS IN THE COMMENTS .
THE TWO QUESTIONS WITH THE MOST UPVOTES WILL BE NEXT WEEK'S TOPICS.
I think your husband and mine are two peas in a pod. My hubby can remain calm after falling into a deep fryer (not his whole body, but his hand) - but if something is wrong with me, he totally wigs out. LOL
THANK YOU FOR THE REMINDER!
I know about the drooping face and slurred speech but forgot about arm weakness. Isn't there something about taking an aspirin too? I can't remember.
I am certainly glad you are recuperating and still around to tell us your harrowing tale!
LOL. We would all be lost without you lol. BTW it is saying AGAIN on here I am not following you!!!
You're welcome! I'm glad I'm still here, too. And your memory about the aspirin is correct. After the stroke, they put me on a daily low-dose of aspirin as a blood thinner. It's supposed to prevent the formation of anymore cholesterol 'clumps' that cause blockages. I don't think they recommend it for folks who've had a bleed in the brain, but I could be wrong.
It sounds like we indeed have fellas wired similarly. My doof fell & broke his hip three days before our last vacation a couple years ago. He was trying to figure out how we could still make it. Ended up with a total hip replacement. No crying, lotsa of cussing. Sigh....
I"m glad you came through that OK. It's amazing what's been learned about strokes over the past couple decades. PSAs are part of that. Here's to health!
Thanks, @haphazard-hstead! I'm glad it was more of a 'warning shot' instead of 'lay me out with daisies' episode. I have had to change of few things, of course, but the incentive makes those changes easier.
Thing odd thing about PSA's is I generally thought of them to bring awareness so we could help out other folks who 'got hit' with something like this. It had never dawned on me that it could apply to me, too! (That's the arrogance or cluelessness of the never-been-sick, I think.) Lesson learned.
Well that was hardly scary!! And you kept driving?? I am so glad you are okay!
A few years ago I was watching tv with my husband and I turned to ask him a question. (He had just come in from the cold and sat down to join me. He complained about a pain in his jaw. ) His face looked like it was melting on one side. Ding ding ding. The alarm bells went off in my head. I didn't want to scare him. His speech was kind of weird. I asked him to smile....only half his face engaged. Off to the hospital. Why didn't I call an ambulance? Don't know. What we do sometimes in an emergency floors me. Long story short....they were convinced he had a stroke - turns out it was Bells Palsy.
It was surreal. I was almost clinical about it. Curiosity instead of concern. Very hard to explain.
Oh, and the ambulance... it was quicker for us to just drive, than to wait for transport and then the trip to the ER. Our hospital is a straight shot, 2 miles from the house. Probably similar reasoning in your case, too, I'll bet. I hope your hubby recovered. Stuff like this is just overwhelming at first.
I'm very clinical about it too....so much so that I actually caused his blood pressure to go up even higher than it was....sigh. I'm a medical nerd I think - I love information about our bodies and how they work right down to the individual cells. I usually am more curious than worried when people get sick....
Some folks are just wired that way. I think it was more conditioning with me. Sis's issues started when she was 6. (I was 8.) The pattern I got used to seeing was deal with the issue in front of you, then you can fall apart later if you need to. In any case, it's a good 'skill' to have in a crunch!
Well said, it is hard to remain calm for some people in some of these situations. I am glad you are dealing with things so well. Oh and unrelated--- it is saying AGAIN on here I am not following you!!! grrr
wow, so glad you took note and got to the hospital so quickly! sounds like that saved your speech in so many ways. glad you are OK!! love the ask aunt deb question series by the way... do you do that any more? 'd be cool to do that again ;) <3
Thanks! Circumstances certainly worked in my favor that day. Hubby says he barely notices any differences, but he can tell when I'm tired. I trip over sounds that are hard to physically say - like 'reverse'. Seems simple, but it's a complicated coordination of muscle movements to perform. (Now you'll be trying it out all day. LOL!) I did discover tongue-twisters are great therapy, tho. ;~D
I haven't done the 'Ask Aunt Deb' for ages. Might have to give it another go now that there are more folks around. The place was an echo chamber back then.
The other series that I did was an audio or video story slam ala Moth Radio Hour. Might have to give that another look, too, now that we have DTube.
Woah that would be super cool!! Crazy how much it has changed. an echo chamber - lol!
Really interesting about reverse and other words. Great job for sticking with it and gettin back to basically normal. That's a huge feat. <3 Would love to See an Ask Aunt Deb :D
I'll see what I can do to maybe revive those features now that there are more folks here. Thanks for the inspiration to re-look at them. Thanks, also, for the kinds words of support. They are much appreciated!