Aphasia Awareness Month by Keith

I had a stroke on November 22, 2005. I started working in my office writing letters. I had to finish ten letters; I just wrote three letters by ten o’clock. My head hurt and I thought I was developing a cold. I took two aspirins. I went to my office and I shut my door. I fell to the floor. 

The office manager, Nat, told me to sit up on the floor but I could not. She called an ambulance for me. I remember a dream that I had the beginnings of my stroke. I dreamt that I was tied down on the right side of my body. The left side was free. I looked down to my right side and saw many branches and roots all over my right side. I wanted to be free. But, the more I tried be set myself free, the more the branches and the roots grew. I wanted to tell my wife, Marta. But, I can not begin to tell her. I had a stroke; right side, speech, reading were all gone. 

I was taken to the hospital closest to my office. After few hours, I was put on a helicopter to INOVA Fairfax Hospital. I spent eight days at INOVA and then I was admitted to Mount Vernon Hospital. I stayed in that hospital for a little less then a month. I came home on December 24, 2005.    

The doctors told my wife they I had a massive stroke. At first, I had only limited speech, and little reading and no writing capabilities. My walking improved quickly, but I used a cane for a while. My wife and I were determined to show the doctors wrong. 

My speech is getting more like the speech from my past. The writing is improving. The reading is almost like in my past. I walk a lot now.