When you are a Stroke Survivor you are surrounded by many highly trained

healthcare professionals. They are prepared to give you the best care they can. 

Their responsibility is to keep you from having a second stroke and start you

on your road to recovery.

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Still, their input is usually NOT from a personal Stroke experience. Or, more to the point, not someone who could be called a Stroke Survivor.

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I would wake up each day in the hospital, wishing I could talk with someone who had faced the worries and concerns, and those of my Caregivers, that we now faced. Each of us was brand new to a world of unexpected concerns and responsibilities in my Stroke Recovery.

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I suffered a Stoke that left me with no control over my right arm and leg. I never lost consciousness, and thankfully retained my full cognitive capabilities.

 

Early on the first day in the hospital Stroke Unit, I was visited by a doctor who could tell I was full of concern, with little hope. She reviewed for me my condition and made it clear that if I was willing to "do the work" I had a very good chance of a full, or nearly full, Stroke Recovery. She made it clear that my prospects were better than average because I had arrived at the ER very quickly.

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Just the day before, I was in my home meeting with Samuel, my Window Consultant from the Home Depot. I was taking notes when all of a sudden my hand couldn't control my pen. I paused, looked at Sam, and said

 

" I'm In Trouble ! "

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I started to collapse in the chair. Sam jumped up, put his arm around my chest, and while holding me in the chair, called 911 with his free hand. Paramedics were in my kitchen in 10 minutes, and I was in the Kaiser Roseville ER, surrounded by a complete Stroke Emergency Team, being treated for my Stroke, inside 25 minutes.

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Had I been alone, I might have died. Sam was the Angel sent to save me that day. 

 

For his quick thinking, confident response, and likely saving my life, Samuel was awarded the

Home Depot's rare Angel Award.

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This website, and all that it brings to Stroke Survivors and their Caregivers, is dedicated to Samuel. Many of the pages in this website are graced with the image of an Angel's Wing. This wing represents the arm that gently held me in that chair, on the day . . . I became a Stroke Survivor !