Rise Again Stronger

In the opening origin story “Rise Again Stronger focuses on a positive mindset , 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, gratitude, appreciation, reflecting just how lucky I am, and how fragile life can be.. How on the afternoon of July 9th, as the events unfolded in the critical response window, if one thing didn’t line up or a simple turn of a dial, a slight nudge, the outcome would have been much different and graver. July 9th was a life changer on so many levels and now here to reflect on the people who helped to get the the help I needed..and share my overwhelming emotions of 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 or a switch , 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 all alone in our house. When I fell on the upstairs floor, I heard noise coming from downstairs. I was not sure of the source of the noise , thinking the source 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 planning 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 instead

The dial, a split second change and a 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. When she was downstairs she was wearing head phones. The dial, it was only when she took them off the headphones 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 call for help. I can’t thank my son’s 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 were either to board a ferry to the Seattle side and wait or be transported via a medical response helicopter, the much faster transport method. The helicopter was not local and was in another city and at the time was grounded due to a wind advisory.

The dial, at some point, Mother Nature cooperated and the wind advisory was lifted and within minutes I heard the rotor blades and was airborne flying across the Puget Sound to Virginia Mason Seattle hospital to one of the best stroke programs and facilities in the Pacific Northwest. My family waiting to board the next ferry on the island side saw the helicopter overheard on a low high speed pass, blazing across the afternoon sky. Our middle son was already at the emergency room waiting for the helicopter to arrive. The dial, what if the high 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. The marvel of medicine, being in absolute awe of this type of procedure and the precision needed. Thank you to modern medicine and to my neurosurgeon, my life was in your skilled hands . I was so lucky the y was working that day . The procedure was described to my family beforehand it could go in a few different directions, meaning uncertainty around the outcome, I can only imagine what they were feeling. Thank you to all the doctors, nurses, the ICU nurses, the rehab doctor, the rehab nurses, the PT and OT and SLP therapists. I remember all of you so vividly and by name, thank you for your compassion, kindness and care

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

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

Like I said to myself a few days after in the ICI and kept repeating… my story is not over, I’m not done . My story is not over, I’m not done..The feeling I have now, my stroke and story is now my empowering opportunity to make a greater impact, and to serve others..I’m not done,, I’m luckiest man alive

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