Having a Stroke as a College Freshman

At 18 I was just starting school at Parsons School of Design (as it was called at the time) and was living in Brooklyn. Everyday I took a subway to class, usually in the morning, I remember I was using the Nevins Street station at the time and getting off at Union Square, which is where I noticed the first symptoms of what turned out to be a stroke. As I briskly walked up the stairs I kept tripping, stumbling as my feet seemed to almost 'catch' on the stairs as I walked up them to get out of the subway station.

Class or...?

I went to class, don't remember even considering the thought of doing anything else. My class was an almost 3 hour foundational drawing class. I could tell I was walking a bit funny and I remember telling the security guard who I had become friends with over the summer about the strange events so far just in case 'anything happened' and I went up to class.

I made it to my class and then the next extremely bizarre sign showed itself, I was able to get onto the 'horse' as I called the bench we straddled and propped our paper up on to draw, but when it was time for break an hour into it...I could not lift my leg to get off. I was only able to get up from where I was sitting by standing up with both legs and backing up off of the bench/horse, and once I did that I still kept bumping into the walls.

Lunch, er, Clinic Time!

Once class was over, this was just before noon I had enough signs that I was headed straight to the onsite clinic for the school, about 3-4 long blocks away as I remember, and I was able to see a doctor pretty soon. Some of my classmates had taken my stuff, they were concerned and said they would bring it to the next class for me. Once I saw the doctor, and explained what I did not see as a pattern he asked me to walk to him from the other side of the hallway we were in. I felt like I could see the blood draining from the mans head as he rushed to his little office and started flipping through the pages almost frantically. He told me to wait, that I would be going to see a neurologist but he had to figure out which one.

He found one soon and gave me the address and told me to take a cab, I shrugged and said "but the 4/5 trains go right there don't they?" and he said something about not having time, get in a cab so I can get there asap. I definitely knew it was serious at this point.

Neurology Appointment #1

I'd like to see the doctor I saw this day again but he unfortunately is no longer alive. Looking back this appointment was the first time I heard the words "Multiple Sclerosis", that is another story though. This doctor made a few calls, one to my parents and one to the NYU ER telling them I'd be there soon. This time I did walk, it was just a few blocks, to the ER and they got me in FAST, I guess if a doctor calls ahead of time it really helps expedite these kinds of things!

Emergency Room

I saw another doctor there who was a partner of the first doctor I saw and I remember going to get my first Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) done. While waiting in that little area by the downstairs MRI I remember realizing it was my cousin's son's birthday, and questioning if I'd be around for another one, and calling to leave a happy birthday message on their phone. I think that was when I started crying, was either as or after I left that message. At some point after this I was informed that I had suffered an Ischemic Stroke which meant that I had a clot in my brain. It took a year for them to decide on any kind of cause but birth control ended up being a key variable in 'how' this happened.

Friends

One of the most valuable lessons about friends I learned during this week I spent at the hospital. I remember a dear friend "O" who came straight to the hospital and sat with me a while when I was waiting to go into the ER and also some of the time I was with a doctor. If he hadn't been there I'd have been alone. Another friend "R" who came to visit a few times during the week and even brought me some sushi at some point (my favorite!) and here's the hard part of the lesson was a third friend who came once, and who I had previously thought I was close to who was so uncomfortable he wouldn't stay using a 'parking fee' excuse to get out as fast as possible, and he was the richest person I knew at the time which is how I knew it was pure discomfort rather than a financial burden. Nothing like a medical tragedy to find out who will really be around to be a supportive friend.

Hospital Stay

I stayed in the hospital for about a week after this, most of this was really a blur of physical therapy, medical tests, blood tests and my walking and ability to move my left arm deteriorating. By the time I left I was not walking at all, my father had gotten into town towards the end of my stay and took me to my apartment in a cab. My state at this point was almost completely paralyzed on my left side, walking and almost any other kind of movement was a new challenge as far as my body was concerned. I think there is one picture that I have seen somewhere that I can see my shoulder slouching, it was disturbing and I'm sure that's why I 'lost' it somewhere.

"Home"

My apartment/dorm which was a student housing building with students from different schools staying there consisted of a very high loft bed that did not work obviously at this point, the night I got home we moved my mattress onto the floor so I could sleep there. I recall being almost unable to get up from there though, and something like going to the bathroom took quite a few minutes, if you can imagine I remember sometimes pulling my left leg up almost like a puppet by grabbing parts of my pants, it was a trip.

Back to School?

I do not recall how long I waited to go back to school after my week long hospital stay but I believe I went back either right away or maybe a week later. My mother was back in town by this point and helped me to carry my giant canvas bag on the subway when she was there. To get around I had a paraplegic cane (the kind with four points on the bottom for stability) and that was being used by my 'good' arm making carrying things on the other side quite a challenge.

Follow-up Care

I was going back to the hospital at this point multiple times a week for physical & occupational therapy as well as 3x a week to get my Pro-Times (PT) tests done. PT tests are how they measure how fast blood is clotting, so in this case I would go to the hospital, they would withdraw some blood and later I'd hear from my doctor about how much more or less of the medicines I was taking to take which were coumadin and what they call 'baby aspirin' which is a very low dose aspirin you can probably find in your grandparents medicine cabinet. Physical therapy fortunately only lasted a few months, I was able to recover almost fully and in fact only needed the cane for about a week or two. However my list of doctors just seemed to grow, I was seeing my neurologist, a hemotologist, a cardiologist, and there was more, I don't even remember them all.

Pulling Out of School?

At one point after I was back and they felt like they could talk to me, I remember being called into the office, or maybe I was there to talk about my medical needs being why I was out so much but I remember they recommended pulling out.