Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2141:
This morning's commute was easy and warm. But let me back up to Friday, which I haven't had time to post about until now...
Friday morning I rode to a client's office as normal. It was an uneventful commute. About a half hour after I sat down at my desk I was typing when suddenly I lost all coordination in my left fingers. I remember thinking, "uh oh!" I then attempted to lift my arm and it didn't move much. I reached over with my other hand, and had very little feeling in my left arm. It was weird, because it felt like I was touching someone else's arm; my right hand could feel my left arm, but my left arm couldn't feel my right hand touching it.
One of the side effects of my mechanical heart valve is an increased risk of stroke. Knowing this, I wasn't taking this sudden development lightly. I looked around, and I was the only person on this side of the building. I decided the first thing I needed to do was get myself to a more populated area of the office so if I suddenly went horizontal there would be people around to help. I stood up and was able to walk without issue. My left arm was mostly dangling. If I really concentrated I had a little bit of movement, but it was like it was responding in slow motion. If you've never experienced this, it's a very strange feeling to know your brain is telling your limb to move, but the limb isn't responding.
I then realized that the left side of my face felt a little numb. Around the same time, I got a very pinpoint headache on the right side of my head for about two minutes, which then went away. After the headache stopped, I started to regain some feeling/mobility in my left arm. I was debating on what to do, and discussing it with some other people in the office when I realized I was slurring a few words. One of my client coworkers told me I should go get this checked out, and I agreed. I briefly considered hopping on my bike and riding to the ER, but the coworker told me that was a crazy idea so he drove me over to the ER in his car.
At the ER, once I announced my symptoms to the person behind the desk it was about two minutes until they brought me into an examination room. My symptoms indicated I had/was having a stroke of some sort. They wasted no time and already had the entire surgical team assembled there in the room ready in case I needed emergency surgery. After some initial tests and getting an IV inserted, they took me down and gave me a CT scan.
The CT scan revealed nothing that would require immediate emergency brain surgery, so the surgical team was disbanded. They then gave me an MRI to see if there was anything more subtle lurking in my head, and to check for any brain damage. By the time they were putting me in the MRI machine nearly all my symptoms had gone away.
The MRI revealed no brain damage (well, no NEW brain damage) and that there was no sign of anything nefarious hiding in my head that would cause alarm. They ran a few more blood tests, but mostly after that I sat on a gurney in the exam room for a good chunk of the day. I eventually was able to get a hold of my wife, so she came and sat with me.
A little after 3 PM, which was nearly six hours after I first arrived, I was released. The neurologist told me I had experienced a transient ischemic attack (TIA), which is basically a small stroke that my body was able to stop before any brain damage occurred. He said the usual treatment for people who have these was to get plenty of exercise, go on blood thinners and use medication to keep the blood pressure under control. As I am already doing all of these things, he said there wasn't much else I could do. This may happen again some time, or it may be a one-time event. It's unknown.
After we left the ER, my wife (under protest) dropped me back off at the client's office. I reasoned that all my stuff was still there at my desk, so I needed to retrieve it before the weekend. I decided I could still get a couple of hours of work done before I left, so I started trying to catch up on some things that I had missed while I was out. Until my phone rang. It was the head of sales of the company I work for, who then reprimanded me for returning to work instead of going home.
He told me to leave work immediately. I negotiated with him to let me stay for about 20 more minutes so I could wrap up my weekly status report I send out on Friday afternoons. It's a lot easier to write this report while everything I did during the week is still fresh on my mind. Plus, if I don't send it out I'll have people complaining on Monday morning that they haven't received it. By Monday they'll have forgotten I had a stroke. So I finished my status report and then hopped on my bike and rode home. I still logged a full commute to keep my streak intact.
I've got about 95% of my mobility/feeling back on the left side of my body. The neurologist says I should return to 100%, it just might take a few days.