I had my "mini" stroke 2 1/2 years ago. More specifically  it was July 3, 2010. I was 27. Even during my stroke, I knew what my symptoms were and what they were suggesting, however I thought it was crazy. I had a toothache the day before and it didn't occur to me there might be a problem. The day of I was getting ready for work and just put orajel in my mouth where the tooth hurt. I came out into the living room and started to feel weird. It was sort of like being dizzy and light headed but not. This was the start of my stroke. I got my stuff together and went to the car.  I tried to get into the car. I have a remote for the car but was trying to use a key. I still don't know which key I actually used. I could not hold the key and kept dropping it. At this point,  my mind could not associate the feeling (or lack there of) with numb. My husband didn't realize what was going on and used the remote to unlock the car for me. My head was really "foggy" and dizzy/light headed. I got in the car, got the key in the ignition and started, and got the car into gear. I drove around the corner to the landlord's office and dropped off the rent check. At this point I knew I could not go to work.

When I got back to the house, my husband came out to find out what was going on. I couldn't talk to him. Even before I opened my mouth I knew I couldn't talk. These are surreal moments that just didn't make sense to me now that I look back. My husband thought I used too my orajel so he was laughing at me. Then I somehow get out that my right side is numb. As time sensitive as the situation was, he remained calm. He put me in his car and drove straight to the hospital. We look back and laugh about it now but the whole way I kept insisting he just take me to work. To him, I sounded drunk. To me, I sounded like a person who has a hearing issues.

I missed a key element in all of this. I had a baby girl who was 7 months old during all of this. We have amazing friends who came to the ER to take care of her while they were checking me out. The process for them to get me into the back still makes me laugh. We get to the ER and it was EMPTY.  We handed Baby off to our friends and proceeded up to the counter/booth. Then the usual, name, date of birth, why are you here. With my strange speech, I told them  I had numbness in my right side and I felt really weird. The first person continued to take my information and get my stuff done ( medical armband, vital signs, etc.) the other person picked up the phone and called the back. At this point, I was laughing like I was actually drunk. The conversation on the phone went something like this. "I have 27 yo female with numbness on her right side" The whole time she was looking at me and trying to smile. It reminded me of when your parents are talking about a really sick relative and don't want to scare a young child.

At this point, the first person comes out of the booth/desk area and tells me to sit in the wheelchair. He ran me to the back. After people coming in and checking vital signs and repeating over and over what my symptoms were. My CAT scan came back clear. The doctor consulted with others and then decided to admit me. Her reasoning was I needed an MRI but since it was a holiday weekend I couldn't get one until Tuesday and it was currently Saturday. So upstairs we went for the night. At 8am, they came to do an ECHO of my heart and at 9am I went down for my MRI. MRI's are terrible but useful. I am not generally claustrophobic but this machine will do that to a person. As they wheeled me out of the room, my doctor was waiting for me to give me the final news that it was for sure a stroke.

This was some really heavy news.