Well, when last we met, virtually anyway, I was getting ready to go to my follow-up with the neurologist.

I’d gotten tired of waiting for them to call me, and was anxious to book my knee replacement, that had originally be scheduled for September 9, 2016. My brain and body had other things to focus on so that had to be pushed aside. Yeah, I know, I’m falling apart.

After waiting 10 weeks for the Stroke Clinic to call me, I called them. By now it was mid-October and I explained I was trying to re-book surgery and couldn’t until I saw the neurologist. They said they had the six week follow-up CT scan, but that I’d been in hospital so it would be a three month follow-up with the doctor. That meant it would be early November before I’d be booked for an appointment. So the six weeks noted on my discharge papers meant…absolutely nothing.

Funny how getting tired of waiting around changes things. Within an hour of my call, they called back. Suddenly I was able to get in to see her in less than two weeks. They gave me a date for the appointment, and said they’d call the next day with an exact time. They were also faxing paperwork to the lab for a blood series, and I needed to get that done before the appointment date. No problem. I was at the lab when they opened the next morning.

Eight days later and I was making my way to the hospital to see the neurologist. A definite positive was that she doesn’t keep you waiting. I was immediately taking in to review my file with the nurse, basically what led up to me going to the hospital and how things have been since I got home. She then hooked me up to the wonderful blood pressure machine. Then she said it would automatically take my blood pressure FIVE times. Hell, I hate getting it done once. The machine does it five times, then gives them an average. All I had to do was sit there quietly and let it do its thing. Damn..sitting quietly was hard because I had so many questions to ask. After my BP was done, mine was 123/79 (for those not in the know, normal BP is 120/80), I had to go back and sit in the waiting room for a few minutes. I’d say I was there fifteen minutes when the nurse came back and took me in to meet with the doctor.

So I found out I had a hemorrhagic stroke in the left cerebellar region of my brain. Fifteen percent of strokes are hemorrhagic (bleeds), but they are usually caused from blunt force trauma to the head, or a vein that was weak or deformed at birth. The doctor said they’d reviewed my file several times, and could find no reason for the stroke. So, of the 15% of strokes that are bleeds, the reason for 13% of those are never identified. Basically, out of 100 people, I’m in the group of 1.95 of them. They don’t know why it happened, if it will ever happen again, and there is absolutely nothing I can do to prevent it from ever happening again. I keep telling my family I’m unique…now I have medical proof!

I also found out that the stroke probably didn’t happen in my kitchen, 10 days after my vertigo like symptoms started, like I thought. The doctor said it probably happened right at the very start of those symptoms. This means I was walking around for two weeks, going about my daily life with work and everything else, already having had the stroke.

So, as it stands now, the nystagmus is gone (bouncing eyes), and my vision was not affected. I’m back to work full-time, after a slow return to work plan due to an awful lot of exhaustion, and I’ve returned to what I consider a normal life. I have to go back for another CT scan in January, just to see how the blood is absorbing. I guess not much of that had disappeared after six weeks and they say it does take a long time to disappear. The doctor figures they can also check again for any abnormalities.

Basically, I was told to keep doing what I’m doing. All of my numbers; sugar, cholesterol, etc., were great and I’m just to keep moving forward and be more aware. OK, so my attitude tends to be picked up by others and the doctor did say that if I have the dizziness and headache like that again, not to wait around but to get my ass to the hospital. Not like I haven’t been told that by everyone!

Well, I hope to get back to blogging weekly, and I plan on starting on a new topic. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of hearing about this one. Laters!