The Event

Wednesday, March 21
I went to work as usual at 7:00. When I left, Michael was sitting at our table eating a bowl of cereal. He was fine. About 8:00 I received a call. "I think I'm having a stroke." I told him to hang up and call 911.

I grabbed my purse and glasses and rushed to the car. And called 911 myself. The operator said she had not yet gotten a call from him. Little did I know, he was completely out of it, right after we hung up.

On my way I called our neighbors Shelley and Marty. Luckily they were home and rushed over to our house. I opened the garage door with our garage door app. (I never thought of using that for this type of emergency...but a great purchase)

You'd like to think you are in complete control and able to remain calm in a situation like this. But I guess the fact that I made it home in one piece was good enough.  I just chanted the entire 23 minute drive. "You are strong...you are alive...you will not leave me....."

While driving through Lamb Canyon, Shelley called. When she and Marty got here they couldn't open the interior garage door that leads into the house. M had collapsed right there and was blocking the door. They just pushed hard and finally was able to move him enough to enter. They laid him down, but he was non-responsive. The Paramedics soon arrived and he was beginning to be responsive. I was 5 minutes out. They were waiting for instructions of where to transport him, so I got to see him for a moment before they took him to the County in Moreno Valley which has a Stroke Assessment Team.

Once the ambulance left, Shelley and Marty remained with me to offer support, hugs, and made me a sandwich for the road. They were amazing.

County Hospital is a bustling place. They have a Stroke Team there, so that is where the paramedics chose to go. Lots of activity and people from different walks of life being treated there. We heard some colorful language, and people screaming for several hours, but our nurses and doctors were great. The gave him another CT scan- Good results. More blood work showed good results as well. He was very dizzy and nauseated. At one point I noticed his hands were clammy as they were taking him for an MRI. Then the throwing up began and didn't stop for hours. Several doses of anti-nausea meds didn't even work. This was all part of it....where the stroke hit.

The MRI showed a Ischemic Stroke in the cerebellum. When they tell you these things you really don't comprehend everything they are saying. Google helped me understand the concept of what had happened.

Will it happen again? When? Looking for the next time before the current time is even done.
The transfer from County to Kaiser Moreno Valley happened late in the evening. The transport took a very long time to arrive, but one they did it only took less than 15 minutes between loading and unloading and he was in his room at Kaiser. Once he was comfortable and I got to meet his nurses I went home and left him in the good hands of Masel and the night nurse team.

Bye 9 p.m. Thursday evening they sent him home, hoping that the worst was over. He was on some blood thinners given to him at the hospital and his new aspirin regiment he might be fine.

However at 2 pm on Friday he ended up having another attack here at the house. Jake was here with me and we called 911. The ambulance came and took him back to Moreno Valley.

Here we were again. He was having some difficulty walking, they had given him a walker and he was able to get around a little bit. He had slight speech impediment. But certainly something he could overcome. He even had visitors on Saturday and enjoyed speaking with them.


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