Kerry & Kathy
Member #007
Last night was a bit of a wake-up.
Around 6:35 yesterday evening I was on the desktop replying to email when I experienced a TIA or Transient Ischemic Attack. (Mini-stroke).
I began typing words that were misspelled and in the wrong order. My though process slowed as if I was drunk and when I tried to lift my arms from the desk they felt like they weighed 100 lbs each.
When I tried to stand, I barely could and when I tried to walk to the the living room where Kathy was sitting she said I looked like a 90 YO Frankenstein...bent over and shuffling my feet.
Fortunately we are only 5 min from the Farmington Regional Hospital so I downed two aspirin and tried to walk to the car, weaving back and forth with very poor balance and lousy motor skills.
It was a very strange and scary sensation from start to finish.
Kathy drove me to the ER and within 30 mins the symptoms had subsided but they still loaded me on a Bell Ranger headed to Barnes Hospital in St. Louis.
They ran tests this morning from 6:45 until 2pm including heart CT and brain CT, with ultrasound imaging of my neck and heart.
They told me I had a TIA...but it was apparently not my first. The neurosurgeon indicated that my brain CT showed old scarring from a much older undiagnosed stroke and a second more recent undiagnosed stroke. So instead of last nights mini-stroke being my first...it was apparently my third.
All seems to be 100% now and I was released from the hospital late this afternoon and am back home catching up on all the messages of the last two days.
It's hard to accept when you reach your mid 60's that you never were 10' tall and bullet proof after all...
Your mind still remembers what you used to be able to do physically when you were 20...but the body can't keep pace anymore.
So it starts sending you clues...that you immediately ignore... Until the body finally says... " I'll show your a$$"
It was a needed reality check over the past 24 hrs...
Kerry & Kathy
Around 6:35 yesterday evening I was on the desktop replying to email when I experienced a TIA or Transient Ischemic Attack. (Mini-stroke).
I began typing words that were misspelled and in the wrong order. My though process slowed as if I was drunk and when I tried to lift my arms from the desk they felt like they weighed 100 lbs each.
When I tried to stand, I barely could and when I tried to walk to the the living room where Kathy was sitting she said I looked like a 90 YO Frankenstein...bent over and shuffling my feet.
Fortunately we are only 5 min from the Farmington Regional Hospital so I downed two aspirin and tried to walk to the car, weaving back and forth with very poor balance and lousy motor skills.
It was a very strange and scary sensation from start to finish.
Kathy drove me to the ER and within 30 mins the symptoms had subsided but they still loaded me on a Bell Ranger headed to Barnes Hospital in St. Louis.
They ran tests this morning from 6:45 until 2pm including heart CT and brain CT, with ultrasound imaging of my neck and heart.
They told me I had a TIA...but it was apparently not my first. The neurosurgeon indicated that my brain CT showed old scarring from a much older undiagnosed stroke and a second more recent undiagnosed stroke. So instead of last nights mini-stroke being my first...it was apparently my third.
All seems to be 100% now and I was released from the hospital late this afternoon and am back home catching up on all the messages of the last two days.
It's hard to accept when you reach your mid 60's that you never were 10' tall and bullet proof after all...
Your mind still remembers what you used to be able to do physically when you were 20...but the body can't keep pace anymore.
So it starts sending you clues...that you immediately ignore... Until the body finally says... " I'll show your a$$"
It was a needed reality check over the past 24 hrs...
Kerry & Kathy
