In December of 2007 I had a stroke. I was at work talking to a friend. She said you are having a stroke. I told her she was crazy, she asked me to smile, say a short sentence and stick my tongue out. She repeated again you are having a stroke, we have to get you to the hospital. I went to my desk and thought she was crazy. She called our Human Resources Director, she talked to me, I again denied I was having a stroke, but agreed to go to the hospital if I could drive. There was a hospital close by so I decided to go there so I could get out and go home, my friend followed me.

In the emergency room they started asking questions, I said to ask my friend I wasn't having a stroke. They kept me and sometime in the night admitted me. When I woke up the next morning, I couldn't talk, it was just gibberish.

I spent the next 3 weeks in Intensive Care. After doing numberous test they fould out what was causing the strokes, yes I had more than one, they are called TIA's (mini strokes). My left Carotid Artery was 99.9% blocked. They had to do emergency surgery, because I was having another stroke and they rushed me to the operating room.

When my surgeon came by I said it was caused from smoking right. He said smoking didn't help but it was heredity. We can only trace back one person who had a stroke and it was my Grandfather, large family and no other strokes. I still believe it was smoking. I stopped smoking the day they checked me in the hospital, and have not smoked since. The nurses kept asking me if I wanted a patch. I declined each time, this time hopefully I could do it myself.

I read later that denial is the first reaction to having a stroke, and believe me it's true. I look back now and realize something was wrong, but I did not see it then.

There is a simple test to check your Carotid Artery, so go as soon as you can especially if you smoke and have high blood pressure. My blood pressure is normal without medication now. My blood pressure shot up real high and would't go down. When I went to my doctor then, he just but me on blood pressure medicine without doing any test to find out why it went up so quick. Insist on tests being made.

I am doing much better now. Take care of yourself especially if you smoke or have high blood pressure.