My Rock
On October 27th 2005, my wife Rock, had a stroke which leaves her left side paralyzed. From that day onwards, our lives changed dramatically. I did not know about stroke although have heard of it many times. I guess somehow we do not really pay attention to something like a stroke when we are healthy and able bodied.
Upon reflection, actually Rock had a very mild stroke around June 2004! Since it was so mild, neither she nor I realized anything wrong! Well, during that time, I noticed that Rock was unusually quiet and seldom join in our conversations when friends were around. Although my wife is not by nature a talkative person but she always participate with our conversations.
Initially I thought she was angry with me over something! You know how women are when they are mad at you over some thing and the man seldom realize what happened until cold war has gone on for a few days. So after sometime I decided to clear the air and asked her. She told me nothing was bothering her or was she mad at me. She explained that she wanted to say something in our conversations but somehow the words got stuck in her head and unable to articulate it. Soon the conversation would have gone for quite a bit and she felt why bother since the topic had sort of changed.
We went to the hospital for a medical check-up and found nothing seriously wrong! Everything seemed to be within limits meaning her blood pressure, sugar level etc. Well Rock suffered from hypertension for many years and she is on daily medication to keep the blood pressure in check.
Then on that dreadful morning of 27th October 2005 while driving my wife to the bank for some errands, she felt dizzy and I noticed that she could not sit straight. She sort of slanted to her left. To this day I do not understand how I knew but I just know it was a stroke and I drove her straight to the hospital. After the doctors checked her and about an hour later, she sort of got back her strength and she acted very normal. However the doctors warded her for observation since her blood pressure was sky high! While waiting for a bed at the hospital, the stroke came. What she experienced earlier was what medically called a TIA.
From that moment, my life, initially changed into top gear and for the next 12 days, I was sort of in a dream state. Perhaps I was in shock and did not realize it. Some months later, rock told me that just a few days before the stroke, she sort of black-out in the garden but just momentarily and she regained consciousnesses.
So folks, please treat each and every minor sudden changes in you with care and do not just brush it off. Sometimes I just wondered what if she had told me about that incident in the garden but what if she did for all we know we may just brush it off as nothing. I wonder at times which is more painful, someone born disabled or disabled later in life? Through the past one year, I discovered that having compassion for the handicapped is easy but understanding is not so easy! How can an able bodied person break away from his or her mindset and understand handicapped people on their own terms?
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