One-third of victims of this type of stroke die before leaving home. Another third end up in nursing homes. The last third often have difficult roads to recovery. In my case, doctors couldn’t find a cause or site of the bleed, and odds of a repeat are in the “single digits.”
So, I’m the lucky one. I’m still dealing with headaches, fatigue and wooziness. But I’m working, going out with friends, doing housework and planning a road trip.
Did I do anything to nudge my luck? Doctors can’t say for sure, but several factors can’t have hurt and probably increased my comfort.
The piercing pain was incessant for two weeks, so I focused on breathing, relaxing and distracting myself with memories of a patch of blue sky beyond the tops of tall pine trees along a waterfall trail in the Canadian Rockies.
I listened and followed instructions to the letter. I had family with me every day, overseeing my care, making me comfortable and making me smile.
I focused some of my energy on being kind to my own caregivers. Maybe that was it. I took my mind off of myself.
I guess I’ll never know. Maybe it was just dumb luck. But I like thinking I walked that path as my own hero, intentionally looking for the silver lining in those cloudy days of stroke.
Kindra Foster is an award-winning senior writer/editor who has worked many years with a broad array of businesses. She’s also an "every-person's" travel writer, usually traversing the U.S. and Canada solo, camping in the back of my Jeep, collecting memories of America's beautiful and interesting places, and introducing my readers to the hardworking people of this land.