Monday, April 1, 2013

A Different Kind of March Madness

It seems appropriate that my dad had a minor stroke during Heart and Stroke Month. The crazy thing is that he didn't know he even had one until about a week later. The five signs of stroke, as illustrated below are:
SK_STROKE-WARNING-SIGNS-SCREEN
Guess which one my dad had? Dizziness, which proved to be the least useful symptom for someone that often feels dizzy. He even drove himself to the walk in doctor a couple of days after and it went undetected then. A couple of days after that, he went to the emergency room and a CAT scan showed the stroke. Dad was up and chatting and acting very normal except for feeling a little tired. It took just about a whole month, but dad came home last week. It was so exhausting to go from devastated to optimistic in the span of five days, and it was a long trip to see him in the hospital. He needed a couple of weeks of therapy and the excellent staff at the Foothills hospital did a great job of looking after a grumpy old man :-) A side benefit is that dad couldn't smoke in the hospital, so fingers crossed that he can give up smoking for good!

2 comments:

  1. So glad your dad is ok. Must have been so scary!

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  2. I am so happy your dad is ok! I do hope he gives up his smoking! Strokes are scary and hard to detect!

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