This series of blogs isn’t meant to elicit sympathy but hopefully to inform and create awareness. Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

I realize I’ve made light of a very serious situation, having a stroke, but those who know me know that I’ve had a lot of difficult issues to deal with through my life and humour is a part of how I’ve made it through. To be honest, laying in that hospital bed in ER all alone, (as I mentioned in an earlier post I’d sent my partner home to get some rest), and having the doctor AND a nurse come in, I knew it wouldn’t be good news. Having the doctor say, “I wasn’t expecting to find this.” Then go on to say it may be a tumour, was scary as all hell, but I can’t, don’t and won’t dwell on the bad, I always look for the positive or the next step to make it through. I was extremely thankful when the second CT scan confirmed stroke, and not tumour, as I knew the worst was over and it was now about healing.

I ended up staying in the hospital for a total of  five days. As mentioned previously, I was extremely lucky and didn’t need any modifications to my home or aftercare once leaving the hospital. As the nurse said when I was signing the discharge papers, “If you drove yourself here, you are fine to drive yourself home.” Rest assured folks, I’ve only driven a couple of times since leaving the hospital on August 3rd and I’ve learned, and am paying attention to, my limits….as frustrating as that may be some days!

When I spoke to the doctor the morning of my discharge, I asked if I had any restrictions. He had learned my sense of humour by this time and said, “No real restrictions, just listen to your body, allow it time to heal and no contact sports.” My immediate response, “Damn, there goes my Thursday night football game!” He quickly responded with, “No roller derbies either!”

My best girlfriend had come to town the day before and we’d arranged for her to pick me out when I got my release papers. This being said, I went from laying around in a hospital bed most of the day, to laying around on my sofa most of the day. However, at least I was in my own home and starting that road to recovery.

I hope to be back on here later today, or tomorrow with some more serious information; signs to look for and a bit of helpful insight into what you can do for a friend or family member when they’ve been through this and have returned home. For now, it’s nap time!