I had a rough end of the summer. It was not what I expected. I expected to continue my Pilates and lose weight. That did happen. Just a lot slower. Life gets in the way, doesn’t it?
So, in the very beginning of August, I was hanging out with an acquaintance and he suggested he introduce me to virtual reality. It was fun…until it wasn’t. I chose two games that were quite tame. I couldn’t believe it. I was immersed in a video game. I was such a novice. I still am and always will be, now. The second game was nearing the close and I was ending the game by handing the robot his game back. The next thing I knew, my head made contact with the tempered glass entertainment center. I was bleeding in a few places. Not gushing, but definitely some blood. I got up and was instantly nauseated and had a horrible headache. The guy patched me up with some gauze, then said “it’s probably time to go now”. Yeah sure….I wanted to get out of there all right. I was not likely fit to drive. My head was pulsating and my heart was racing. I drove home anyway, totally forgetting my sunglasses. He bought them to my house a few minutes after I got home. He left just as quickly; that would be the last I would ever see of him.
The next day, I had to work. I made it halfway through my shift and I told a coworker about my horrible headache and blurred vision. She said, given my previous day’s adventure, that I needed to go to an emergency department. So I stopped working (fortunately, I work from home) and Ubered my way to the closest emergency department.
I got to the ED and got triaged then waited in the waiting room for about 1.5 hours. I finally got called back and given my symptoms, they xrayed my wrist (which was not broken) and got a CT ordered. I waited. And I waited. They said I probably had a concussion. Then just a little later, the PA comes in and says “Did you know you have a history of a stroke?”. “Oh a stroke? Wait. What? A stroke?”…. I was blown away and you can bet I was going to get to the bottom of this. They said it was likely an ‘old’ stroke and they couldn’t determine when it happened.
I finally left the ED that night shocked and overwhelmed. With a little bit of a residual headache. The next two to three weeks would be full of daily headaches as I soon learned. It was dreadful.
The next day I called the neurologist’s office. I had a history of headaches and migraines, so I had a specialist already.
In my next post, I will share what happened next.
Brilliant Distraction 