My Unusual Stroke Story

As I lay in the emergency room, I reflected on my life and had the urge to talk with someone. I called my sister Catherine, even though I was not supposed to use my cell phone, and tried to explain to her where I was and that I had suffered a stroke that morning. For some reason she kept asking me what I’d just said. In my head it sounded good, I was speaking perfect English. Why didn’t she understand? I repeated myself so many times, I was getting frustrated. Apparently when she could not understand what I was saying, she realized I’d had a stroke and started to cry. That made me cry also, but why was she crying? Maybe it was worse than I thought. I looked at my husband, puzzled. He took the phone away from me and spoke with Catherine, explaining what had happened and giving her a progress report. The conversation was brief because he did not want to upset me. Still he had not told me that my speech was affected so badly, it was difficult for anyone to understand me. Around nine that night the nurses came to take me for another CT scan. I did not know why I had to have another one. After the scan I was told that there was an available room on the fifth floor. It was after nine thirty when I was taken to a room with the heparin drip in my arm. When I got upstairs, Maria Newell, the nursing assistant assigned to my room, got me settled into bed. She was very thorough and got me all tucked in before she left. That night was really rough for me. The drip in my arm was painful, I was unable move, and I needed to go to the bathroom regularly, so all night I kept ringing the bell. I felt sorry for putting anyone through that. I do not like to be a problem to others, but it was unavoidable, Thank God the person who came regularly was Maria. She was very patient and kind to me, especially when she had to roll me from side to side. I kept apologizing because I felt guilty for bothering her all night. Early the next morning the phlebotomist came for another eleven vials of blood. I asked her what they were doing with all that blood, although I knew they had to do various tests. I also told her, should anything accidentally slip out of my mouth, not to take it personally, because I was bad with needles. Then I just relaxed as best as I could and let her get on with it. Soon after that Maria came in to make sure I was comfortable and clean before she left to go home. I was very grateful.