Cross posted from foo...

What a morning... I am so going to regret missing physio and it might be a suffer fest until Monday's appointment but it was all worth it

I dropped the girls off and was on my way to physio with plenty of time to spare and saw an older gentleman at the side of the road with his bike so stopped to make sure things were okay.

He said he "was from German" and had only been here a few days and thought it was a nice day to go for a tour... he knew very little English.

Language issues aside... He was lost and I knew immediately there was a serious problem when he wasn't sure which bike was his, didn't know who his backpack belonged to, and could not give me his address, a phone number, and struggled with giving me his daughter's and son in law's name so I could call them.

He did not recognize his identification as being his either but I did get his son in law's name and made a call and reached his wife (who also spoke little to no English) who gave me their daughter's phone number.

I called the daughter and stayed with him until she came to meet him and I told her that she needed to get him to the emergency immediately as I suspect that he had a mild stroke... if I had not reached her I would have been calling 911.

She was only a few minutes away at her workplace...

He did not know how I got his daughter's name and phone number when I wrote it down for him, could not remember the address I kept giving him, and asked how I knew his wife... he also asked if I was a policeman and kept asking why I stopped.

He kept saying, "I was okay and now I am crazy..."



He was very sweet and did not seem unduly distressed but it was evident something had happened as he could not remember anything I had told him regarding where he was or how far it was to his daughters... which was about 12 km away on the south east side of the city.

I kept telling him things and there was no short term memory recall at all... he kept asking "can you help me?"

When we parted he took my hands in his (he seemed very strong physically) and thanked me for my help and said if I ever come to Germany I must come and see him.

The daughter did not quite understand the urgency of my call until she arrived to meet her dad and as she speaks fluent German she was better able to communicate with him.

I told her that if nothing was seriously wrong and it was just a language issue I would be happy to serve as a guide if her dad wanted to go touring while he was here but I think that things are much more serious... I stressed that she needed to get him to a hospital immediately.

I really hope he is going to be okay and that it wasn't a stroke... there are other things that could cause memory loss like insulin shock, medication issues, etc.

I can't feel my legs very well and will need to get that "I am not drunk t-shirt" and think that it is going to be a long haul between now and Monday at 1:00 pm when I go back for physio.

I may have to get a little stoned myself.

But that is what it is.

So... when you see a cyclist stopped at the side of the road... do stop and make sure things are okay.

The bike might be fine but the rider may not be.