Wake Up Call!

For all those who are in the dark about the latest goings on at the Memmott household. A few weeks ago, Mike was feeling kind of sick at work and his co-workers noticed that he was slurring his words, missing words and brought it to his attention. He didn't think he was, he thought they were mis-hearing. Finally one convinced him that he wasn't talking right and called the Dr. that he happened to have an appointment with later that day. After describing his behavior, the Dr. told him not to wait for his appt. and to go straight to the ER. After several hours and several tests, there was still no diagnosis. The ER said he needed to make an appointment with a neorologist and he was sent home. This was on a Wednesday, and I (his wife) was kept in the dark about these details. Thursday we were supposed to be headed to our annual Jackson Hole, Snake River Rafting trip with the Rowley family. Mike said he would need to come up after work and I should go ahead of him with the boys. He had filled me in on a few details by now and I didn't think it was a good idea for him to be driving alone for about 5 hours. I went to his office to give him 3 options. 1. I would wait and drive up with him after work, 2. He would find someone to come up with him. or 3. He would have to skip the trip this year. But before I even got to the options, he said he didn't think he would be able to come. The neurologist had called and wanted him to get a MRI right away. He convinced me to go ahead and take the boys on the trip and he would keep me posted. Well to make a long story short, the trip just wasn't as fun as usual. I was worried about what was going on with Mike and the weather wasn't very cooperative. After 4 MRIs and several other tests they determined that he had had a stroke. AHHHHHH. Also after seeing a stroke specialist, they think it was caused by a tear in an artery in the back of his neck, which was probably caused by lifting too much weight. With the artery tear, it is from the inside out, so the platelets in his blood were catching and causing blood clots that would then break off and travel through his brain. It was determined that he has had about 6-9 of these with 2 or 3 with noticable damage. So needless to say we now have a bathroom cabinet that looks like it belongs to an 70 year old.
After all this we do feel very blessed that it wasn't worse. We know that many times after a stroke the patient is left partially paralized or many functions such as speech or mobility lost.
Lessons learned: Don't take your health for granted and take care of your bodies.