Stroke is the the 5th leading cause of death in the United States, but it is in first place, in regards to the devastating disability and long term impairment that most people suffer. Many patients do not get to the ER in a timely manner. My salvation came from a clot-busting medication, tPA, given via IV in the ER. If a patient arrives within 3-4 hours of the first signs of a stroke, the medication can be given. After 4 hours, the drug cannot be used. Since I was admitted to the ER in under 1 hour, from the time my stroke had occurred, I had only a 6% risk of complications from tPA. Knowing that my impairment and disability would be extreme without this drug, my family accepted the risk for me. Within ~ 10 minutes of receiving the tPA-IV, I was able start moving my right arm and leg. The ER nurse that was at my side the whole time was checking to see if I could speak, but no words were able come out. The left hemisphere was still damaged due to the blood loss from the clot. Everyone was in amazement at how fast I regained the movements on the right side of my body.
I was back and became somewhat conscious of my surroundings, at least six different medical employees were hustling around my stretcher. I could feel them moving around me but I couldn’t see them exactly. The ER nurse at my side kept asking me my name and/or my birthdate. I could see my wife, my son and a friend was in the ER room with me. I kept trying to talk to the nurse, but no intelligible sound would come out, it sounded more like a moaning sound. I did understand what the nurse and doctors were saying to me, but I could only point to the body parts, no speech yet. I was starting to realize what had happened to me and it was pretty scary. I mean as a therapist, I knew all my anatomy and I had worked with all levels of Stroke patients in my career. And here I was trying to figure out if I am going to be functional, am I going to be able to walk…..but I knew I was moving my arms and legs, so maybe I wouldn’t wind up in a Nursing home, having someone have to take care of me.. I just could not believe that I had a stroke!! My brain was so jumbled and they kept asking me my name and I couldn’t answer them, just a moaning sound was all that would come out of my mouth. I could only nod my head or point to things. They took me down for another CT scan to see how the medication had worked on my brain.
It was like being in a dream, maybe rather a nightmare, that I had a stroke. I mean I was only 49 years old. At the time I didn’t know how big the clot was that attacked my brain, I did not realize how bad the damage to my right side had been prior to them giving me, that miraculous, clot busting drug. I did not remember what had happened earlier, how did this stroke occur? I had no warning. I barely remembered being taken to the ER in the ambulance, they kept checking my pupils. Then it was just black, as I was unconscious. After the CT scan and when I was stable they transported me up to the Intensive Care Unit.
Surrogate Writer, PMD
Name of GOD is made up of four Hebrew letters, the yud, the heh, the vav, and the heh: YHVH. It’s the most sacred of names, so sacred some refuse to say it. Yet you say it all the time.”“When you feel happy, you say, ‘I am happy.’ And when you’re not, you say I am sad.”“YHVH means ‘I Am.’ It’s the Name of the Eternal, the Name of God. His Name is I Am.
“Then we all say His Name.”
“ It is woven into the fabric of existence that when you speak of yourself, you must say His Name.”“Your existence comes from His existence. He is the I Am of all existence . . . the I Am of all I ams. Your I am only exists because of His I Am. And as you exist from Him, so it is only from Him that you can find the reason and purpose of your existence. Therefore, when you say your name, you must always speak His Name. And you must always speak His Name first.”“Because His existence is first and your existence flows forth from His. That’s the flow of existence. Therefore, you must put Him first and then let everything flow from that. Let everything begin with Him and flow forth from Him. That’s the secret of life.“To not only live for Him, but to live your life from Him, to live from His living, to move from His moving, to act from His actions, to feel from His heart, to be from His being, and to become who you are from who He is . . . I am”
Exodus 3; Acts 17
Cahn, Jonathan. “The Book of Mysteries.” Charisma Media, 2016
