I was sitting in the living room after dinner on Friday, June 7, 2024, when my left arm went numb and fell off the arm rest of my chair. When I tried to move it, it was totally dead. I had to reach across and grasp it with my right hand to lift it back onto the arm rest. It was dead weight. I mentioned it to Lynne, and she immediately said “Get in the car. I’m taking you to the hospital.”

By the time we arrived at the Noble Hospital ER feeling was returning to my left arm. By the time the triage nurse called me in I was able to do okay on the stroke protocol. I was sent back to the busy waiting room until an examination room opened. After a couple hours of waiting I was sent for a CAT scan and then an MRI which confirmed a right hemispheric ischemic stroke. My right carotid artery was 80% blocked. Saturday morning I was transported to Baystate Springfield where a carotid endarterectomy would be performed. While the procedure was successful in clearing my right carotid, a post-op scan revealed a hematoma that remained. I (unbeknownst to me) had to wait for another OR to open up, be re-anesthetized, and opened up again to clear the hematoma. This resulted in trauma to my right hypoglossal nerve which controlled the right side of my tongue. I was put on a pureed diet (yum), and met with a speech-language pathologist (SLP) who reassured me that my speaking and swallowing issues were a result of my surgery and not my stroke. I could expect full recovery in 2 to 4 months with exercise. I’m pleased to report that she was correct. I have recovered my tongue function and am able to eat pretty much what I want taking into consideration salt and cholesterol restrictions.

Fortunately (or not, depending on your perspective), speech and language are left hemispheric functions. My receptive and expressive language seem to be okay except when I am fatigued. Fatigue seems to happen sooner and more frequently than pre-stroke. After all, my brain is working hard to compensate for the loss of neural pathways.