What does a "stroke" mean?

It doesn't make things easy...

Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash

• Now that I’ve had one, I can speak from experience: it affects—at a minimum—your speech & your movement

• I found—post stroke—both affected; & I was lucky, insofar as I suffered a TIA—a transient ischemic accident, rather than a brain-bleed, as some of my acquaintances have…

• A “transient ischemic” episode means that, while local actions—talking, moving—are at least temporarily affected, their functional abilities are not: their ability, that is, to be put to use, e.g., to be understood, for example…

• So: my stroke took place early in the morning of October 28th: I got out of bed to go the toilet & promptly fell to the floor; I didn’t realize it was a stroke immediately: I crawled the rest of the 10ft or so & promptly—again—threw up in the toilet

• I looked to see whether Jane was wakened by my retching: she was &, when I was unable to lift myself back onto the bed, called 911

• The EMTs stabilized me & transported me to the ER

• The staff there took care of me for two days, then had me moved to bed in the hospital; it was a two-bed unit, but I had only glimpses of the woman, then man, who were housed there, & no exchanges with them…

• I was attended by staff, by Jane, & by a series of friends who came to see me: literally, to see me lying down & admidst a flurry of sheets…

• I was released from there two days later & felt fine: it wasn’t until at least a day later that I realized my speech & movement were affected so profoundly…

• So: that’s a report ‘til the present: it’s now the 15th of Nov almost & I’ve been typing this as well as going back to correct errors for over half an hour… that’s how much my ability to type & proofread has been affected…

• Last night I gave a scheduled talk—really, answering questions—on doing the Haute Route Alps 11yrs ago; then I was 78 and—despite my age, the “oldest one to attempt the route”—was very much more fit than I am now…

• So I was able to answer questions about the route, the bike, the cols, & stuff last night, though I failed to have the right set of photos up for the attendees at that GABA mtg…