Looks like it's going to be a long winter...

While I was in the hospital, I was so drugged up on painkillers that I can't really remember most of what went on. I was only in the hospital for a few days before they decided to move me to the stroke unit in Calgary, just in case... I was fortunate that they moved me when they did, because I really ended up in the right place at the right time!

It was Dec. 9 when I went into the Medicine Hat hospital. Dec. 11 very, very late at night when we hopped into a little 2-engine plane for the ride to Calgary. At the hospital there they got me up into the stroke ward the morning of the 12th, took me off my heparine drip to do a test a night or two later, ane by that time I was coherent enough to know a little of what was going on. Thank goodness J was with me though! He was so worried, but I told him that I trusted what was happening, and what better place could I be at than right where we were? On the elevator ride down to the MRI room I really 'decorated' the wall and floor of the elevator. Still wasn't keeping food down by that point. I went into the MRI room, got strapped in, and fell asleep and don't remember anything until I woke up a few hours later in my hospital bed upstairs again.

Now, at this point I felt a little strange. Not sure what was different, but something was wrong. I stood up to make my way to the bathroom and realized my heparine drip was plugged into the wall. I tried to pull it out so I could get to the toilet on time, and my right arm was not working right and I fell onto the floor. A nurse heard me and came to see what was going on. I told her, I needed to get to the bathroom, but she wanted to get me back into the bed. She was trying to tell me to stand back up, but my entire right side was not functioning, and the end result was that I made a mess on the floor and never made it to the bathroom after all! It never crossed my mind that I had had a stroke.

After getting cleaned up I fell right back asleep until J came to see me in the morning. After having it confirmed that I had had an acute stroke the night before, I had no idea what to expect from the days and weeks to come. Not to mention: finding out why this happened to a fit, healthy 22-year-old? This kind of thing you only read about happening to other people, right?