The sirens were off.
I felt disconnected from what was happening to me.
The distance to the nearest hospital was about 15 minutes. It felt more like an hour went by before we arrived at the emergency entrance. I watched ceiling lights go by in a blur as they rolled me in. Then I was surrounded on all sides by nurses. They were telling me I would be o.k., because I was so young.
They stripped off my clothing, put a gown on me and gave me a catheter. I was so tired. I wanted to go to sleep, but they wouldn’t let me. They would ask who I was, what the date was, where I was, why I was there, and when my birthday was. Over and over again. The right side of my tongue felt like a foreign object. The left side of my tongue, felt like it was attached to a dead weight. My lips felt the same way. I would try to respond and it wasn’t pretty. The words that I struggled to make come out of my mouth didn’t make any sense. Still, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get body to listen to me.
There wasn’t much of a wait until they took me for a CAT scan. Then I was back in the emergency room, with more questions. Two doctors came in to see me. They had reviewed my results, conferred with other neurologists and said they weren’t equipped to handle my stroke. They were transferring me to another hospital with an excellent Stroke Unit.
