Anyone who knows me knows that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is practically gospel to me. Within that book, the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything is revealed to be 42...the problem being that nobody really defined the question. They tried to use "How many roads must a man walk down?" but ultimately the answer is left unquestioned, so to speak. At this point, those of you who get it, get it. For the rest of you, just trust me. Or go read the book!
This year I turn 42, and I've been given some unique opportunities to reconsider what I think is the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. In December, I had a very weird experience, which turned out to be a TIA. I had just gotten out of my car when I completely lost mobility in my right arm for about a minute. I pretty quickly regained strength and ended up going to the ER, where they found no evidence of any specific problem, but were confident that I did not have a stroke. Huzzah! They sent me for a bunch of outpatient tests, which were all coming back with no answers, and I was frankly starting to think it was just a fluky nervous system thing, or something going on in my shoulder joint.
Then, last month while I was at work, I experienced a feeling of numbness in my face, and I was also unable to form complete sentences for a short time. I found this to be a fairly big deal. Thankfully I was able to go to the ER at the VA where I work (shoutout to those folks!), who transferred me to a local hospital. I spent the night and thought I was going to be headed home, but my new MRI showed a small stroke. Just for your own edification, language like "small stroke" sounds a whole lot different when it's YOUR stroke.
Turns out, I have something called a patent foramen ovale (PFO), which is a small opening between the two upper chambers of the heart. This is something that is present for all of us prior to birth, and which seals up for the majority of folks when we're born (I've heard 75-80%, but I'm not that kind of doctor). For the rest of us, the PFO rarely causes any complications. You may have one yourself! And it's fine!! But in my case, clots were making their way from the right to the left side of my heart, bypassing the lungs that would normally help to filter them out, and making my brain do some genuinely upsetting things. Since the stroke, I've been taking aspirin and cholesterol medicine, and crossing my fingers that no new clots find their way into my brain. Gotta tell you, this is not my favorite aspect of modern medicine. Towards the end of this month, I'm going to have a "minor" surgery to implant a device in my heart that will block the PFO, and become part of my heart long-term. For those of you keeping score at home, that means I've now managed a small stroke and a minor heart surgery by 42! But the prognosis is very good, and life should return to normal very shortly.
I decided to write this out for two primary reasons. 1: It turns out that this condition is much more common than I realized, and it's one of the leading causes of strokes in younger people. Since many of my dear friends and family are also younger people, I thought it was worth taking a minute to circulate this information. I'd encourage you to familiarize yourself with the symptoms of a stroke, and recognize that you are never too young to take those symptoms seriously. (This in spite of many people telling me that I'm too young for problems like this.). I'll slap a link on the bottom to make that process easier for you. 2: I don't like to ignore the universe reminding me that life is fragile and fleeting, and that I should set about joyfully thrashing my tail and discovering all I can about the world around me (like a whale brought to life above an alien planet), for as long as I'm able.
With that in mind, I have every intention of continuing my now 5-year tradition of making birthday resolutions, trying to improve myself at every opportunity until my brain becomes mush. Even as I've kept this relatively private up until now, I've been surrounded with love and support. Poor Kate really thought she was going to get more than 3 good months out of our marriage, but she's sticking it out and trying not to let me do any more damage to myself. I'm pleased she hasn't tried to return me as defective (yet). I have the best family and friends a person could ask for, many of whom I very much did not ask for, but I'm lucky to have you anyway. I love you guys, and I'm looking forward to another trip around the sun.
Oh, and what is the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything? Could it be that we each have to come up with a question for ourselves? 42. Nope, that doesn't work at all. Doesn't even make any sense. Oh well, off to walk down yet another road...
https://www.stroke.org/en/about-stroke/stroke-symptoms
