One year ago, I had a stroke.

This is the first time I've re-posted any of my content, but this is important. I told the story not long after I joined Steemit. Please, take the time to know the symptoms. Mine were very subtle and had I not known the signs, the outcome would have been vastly different.

This info can save you or your loved one's lives.

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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.

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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:

source - map and webcams

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.

source

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.

Upvote, ReSteem,

THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT!