RD201907-08

(avery) #1

I


stood in the bathroom doorway of our Vancouver Island
home watching my wife, Pat, prepare to go out to lunch with
friends. As I leaned against the doorjamb and took in an
eyeful of the woman I have loved for close to half a century,
I felt a bit odd. Not nauseated or faint, simply odd. Perhaps
a bit weak. Nothing that a brief lie-down wouldn’t cure.

the image of my uncooperative hand
still nagged at the back of my mind.
And I still felt odd ... perhaps a little
light-headed or dizzy.
At about 4 p.m., Pat came home.
“You’re still in bed!” she remarked.
“Yes,” I admitted.
Another hour passed, and I still felt
odd. Finally Pat insisted we head for
the hospital. At last, I thought as we
were shown into an exam room, we
can put an end to this nonsense.
The doctor asked for a detailed ac-
count of what had been happening.
Then he performed a number of tests.
He asked me to touch my nose and
then follow his finger with my eyes. He
told me to count backward by sevens.
He had me squeeze his two fingers
with each hand. He tested my reflexes.
I passed every test, so I thought
what I’d been experiencing was just a
temporary malfunction of the wiring.
“I’d like to keep you in for observa-
tion,” the doctor said.
My jaw dropped. “Didn’t I just pass
your tests?”
“You might be having what we call
a stuttering stroke,” he explained. “It
happens over several hours, perhaps
even several days. You’ve likely had

I bid my wife au revoir and drifted
to sleep. When I awoke, two hours had
passed. I made my way to my study,
sat down at my computer, and noticed
my right hand was sluggish.
This was definitely strange. I had
developed the habit of searching the
Web for the peculiar things happening
to my body as I got older, so I typed

stroke into Google. I can’t say why I
typed stroke and not flu or Lyme dis-
ease or heart attack.
I found the common symptoms:
sudden numbness or confusion,
trouble seeing or walking, dizziness or
severe headache. I also found several
tests: Can you raise your arms? Can
you smile?
I lifted my arms above my head. I
smiled. So I told myself, You’re not
having a stroke.
Still feeling tired, I went back to
bed. I had the flu, that was it, although

THE LIGHT STARTED
TO DISAPPEAR.
“I’M DYING,” I SAID.
I WAS TERRIFIED.

Reader’s Digest Health


106 july/august 2019

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