Rise Again Stronger

In the opening origin story “Rise Again Stronger focuses on a positive mindset , Resiliency and becoming stronger from the other side of a stroke..

This chapter Gratitude and Fate on a dial is about my personal feelings of awe, angels, immense gratitude, appreciation and reflecting on just how lucky I am, and how fragile life can be.. How as the July 9th afternoon events unfolded in the response window, if one thing or aspect didn’t line up right, the outcome would have been much different . Not to over dwell on the events of July 9th but more so to reflect on the people who helped get the help I needed..and my overwhelming sense of thanks, gratitude and appreciation to all

When I woke up from the stroke in the hospital and in the ICU, I kept thinking my fate and survival was like on a control knob, one small turn here or tweak there to the left or right could have changed the course of everything.

Immense Gratitude to all

On the afternoon of July 9th, the day of the stroke,,I thought I was alone in my house. When I fell and was on the upstairs floor I heard some noise coming from downstairs. At the time I felt my only hope and chance to be found. It was my son’s girlfriend downstairs who was in the house coming back from work..As she was leaving work she was going to go shopping, that was the intended plan which meant she wouldn’t have come home for hours ..As she was leaving work and going through a roundabout she made a split second decision to forego shopping and come back to our house. The dial,, a split second change and the move of the steering wheel. What if she decided to go shopping I would have been on the floor for hours when every minute counted. Also when she was downstairs she was wearing head phones. It was only when she took them off for a second did she hear my faint call for help, If she kept the head phones on and moved to the other to the other side of the house she would have never heard my faint call for help. I can’t thank my sons girlfriend enough for being there

After 911 was called, the local fire department came quickly and assessed I was having a stroke. Living on an island the transport options to a hospital are either board a ferry to the Seattle mainland or be transported via a medical helicopter,, the faster transport method. The helicopter was not local and was in another city and at the time was grounded due to a wind advisory. At some point, the wind advisory was lifted and within minutes I was on my to Virginia Mason Seattle hospital and to one of the best stroke programs and facilities in the Pacific Northwest.What if the winds continued and the helicopter never received clearance to fly. Thank you to the responsive local fire department for getting to our house so quickly and to the helicopter medical pilot and to mother nature for the changing weather and winds

Thank you to the highly skilled neurosurgeon at Virginia Mason who masterfully removed a very large clot in the right side of my brain. The procedure is called a mechanical thrombectomy, where they thread a catheter through an artery in the groin up to the blocked artery in the brain. The stent opens and grabs the clot. Special suction tubes may also remove the clot. I’m in absolute awe for this type of procedure, thanks to modern medicine and to my neurosurgeon, my life was in your skilled hands . The procedure was described to my family beforehand at the time, that it could go in a few different directions, . What if the neurosurgeon was not on schedule that night? Thank you to all the doctors, nurses, the ICU nurses, the rehab doctor, the rehab nurses and PT and OT and SLP therapists. I remember you all vividly and thank you for you compassion kindness and care

To my family, my thanks and deep love and being there and with me every minute and rushing to the hospital,, I felt your presence being there and always

The above are my angels,,i think a few more angels were involved

Humor and thinking back,, that’s one way to experience a helicopter ride over beautiful Puget Sound

Like I said to myself a few days after in the ICU… my story is not over, I’m not done . My story is not over, I’m not done..The feeling is my stroke and story is now my empowering opportunity to make a greater impact, and to serve others, that’s how I feel now..

Stay tuned for the next chapter 2 – a fulfilled life enter Eddie , Sean, Charles and Into the Wild