IT’S MY TEN-YEAR STROKIVERSARY!

On October 17, 2015, I woke up early, but stayed in bed, wasting time on my iPad. All of a sudden, I could not feel the entire left side of my tongue! It wasn’t tingling or numb-ish—it just wasn’t there. Over the next hour, it got worse—that side of my face was drooping, and then the feeling in my left middle fingers disappeared, as well.

I was hoping it was just Bell’s Palsy, which I’m sure is not fun, either, but, from what I understand, it’s much easier to deal with than a stroke. After an hour or so of this, Mr. X and I got dressed to go to the hospital, but then my symptoms just went away. I hate hospitals, and, in all idiotic honesty, the Mets were playing in the play-offs that day, and I did not want to miss the game, so I decided to stay home. As I said—idiotic.

So, the good news was that I lived a full week without help of any kind, (mainly life-saving meds,) before I finally received tests; the very dangerous results of them sent me right into the hospital. But, even though it was, thank goodness, only a mini-stroke, as opposed to a full one, it was a very severe one. One unkind doctor at Cedars told me, “You need to take this seriously—you have the Sword of Damocles hanging over your head!” He made me think that I was going to die at any moment!

And, in all seriousness, I actually could have. I’m still shocked by what I saw on my brain MRI. But the doctors slowly saved my life, and I’m the luckiest girl in the world to have had my care entrusted to the *best board-certified stroke neurologist in the country, Dr. Konrad Schlick, the most patient person in the world!!! He’s kept me alive for a decade! And counting, knock on wood. *[Note: That’s not just my opinion, by the way; it’s an official assessment. He doesn’t claim to be that, but I know it from other very reliable sources.]

And today is a full ten years since that fateful day. Whew. I’m happy to have just coined the word “strokiversary” for this article; Mr. X is getting quite the kick out of it. All my fellow stroke survivors are welcome to use it! Yay us!

This decade has not been a cakewalk, though, by any means. I had to revamp much of my life. I had to change many of my ways, including my carnivorous diet. There was a time in life where my main motto was, “If I don’t eat meat at least once a day, I feel like I’m going to die.” Mr. X actually wanted to have it engraved on a wall plaque for me, back when we were just friends. But after my stroke, I had to give up red meat. And all things white, such as pasta, rice, cereal, and bread. And I had to start going shopping for myself, to read every food label. And learn how to cook because I couldn’t trust restaurants. Parties were torture because I had to eschew all their fun fare.

And taking meds was the worst for a while. I was constantly bleeding. I was sitting in an audience one time, and my upper lip felt wet. I touched my face, and blood was just gushing from my nose, down onto my beautiful blue shirt! And I had to rush to the hospital the second I started slurring my speech, or if any weirdness was happening on the entire left side of my body. Still do, actually. Thank goodness I’ve always been a water drinker because I have to make sure to remember to not let myself ever get thirsty.

By the way—I’m not complaining, just explaining.

And then, at the end of that first year, it almost got worse for me. I went to the doc to get cleared to fly to New York, but instead, I found-out that I was due to have brain surgery! I was truly in shock. I left the office like a zombie. And the brain surgeon wasn’t as gentle as Dr. Schlick—he gave me all the percents of my chances to continue being alive! It was truly terrifying.

So I did something I had never done before, (nor since)—I asked my Facebook peeps for help. I asked them all to do everything they could think of in the prayers category, even going so far to suggest voodoo! And so many of them came through for me. Patty had her bible study group work on it. And Helaine was in Israel, so she put a good word in for me at the Wailing Wall. I’m sure Carol used a bunch of rosary beads. People who believe in crystals meditated over them. Everyone helped.

And it worked! After more tests, the surgeon called me himself and said, “I don’t understand it myself, but, somehow, your brain is getting the proper profusion of blood to it. So, no surgery at this time!” I’ve been trying to leave my brain to Cedars ever since. I mean it!

Of course, as with everything in life, Mr. X has been there every step of the way, doing everything for me. I think he’s been more worried for me than I’ve been for myself! He even began admitting how much he loves me, even in front of other people, which was a shock to everybody, not just me!

And just what have these extra ten years gotten me? I’ve had tons of good times, but much more importantly, I hope that I’ve made many people’s day with my constant crazy compliments to strangers. I’ve always done that, but now I do it all the time—people deserve to have their flowers. (I even ran after a girl in a supermarket to let her know she has zero cellulite in her leggings! She was shocked. And thrilled!) And I hope that I’ve helped others a lot in other ways, both on purpose and just with my presence. Best of all is that I’ve spent time making Mr. X’s life easier. And fun!

But I have sooo much more to accomplish.

So Happy Strokiversary to me! Here’s to at least a few decades more! (I’m happy to have just coined “strokiversary” for this article; all stroke survivivors are welcome to use it! Yay us!)

While Mr. X and I celebrate, please read my years-old Stroke Prevention article, so you can avoid what I went through. Here’s the link: itsnotaboutme.tv/news/health-stroke-prevention.