Alex's Story 2023 #helpforAlex Part 10 Brain Damage

Update #1

Alex transitioned over to IOP today for the next 3 weeks which is good! We’re making progress. Tomorrow will be 30 days clean from self harm, it’s a marathon!

Update #2

Joe, however, is not doing ok. Self care hasn’t always been at the top of my list. The doctor told me today that I am pre-diabetic and I need to make lifestyle changes immediately or I will be diagnosed with type 2 diabetes within the year.

Let me roll back the clock a little bit. I’ve had custody of my 3 kids since summer of 2017. I got divorced in 2018. At the beginning of 2018 I started having what I thought were really bad migraines. I was losing my motor functions and they were increasingly getting worse. Then on February 18th, 2018… BOOM… I had a massive stroke. I had no idea what was happening at the time all I knew was it felt like I had been shot in the head with a bullet. The pain was so intense I immediately vomited and lost all motors functions. I couldn’t see out of my right eye and it felt like someone was drilling into my skull.

I did what anyone would do and I took Tylenol and tried to sleep it off. I had already been to the ER once and they said it was just migraines. I got up the following morning to take my kids to school and I couldn’t talk everything was slurred and I couldn’t get the words out, I could hardly walk, and I couldn’t swallow. Somehow I managed to get my kids to school and drive myself to work. I had lost all vision and feeling in the right side of my body. It wasn’t until 3 days later after multiple MRI’s that the numerologist called me at work on a Wednesday morning and said to come to the hospital immediately because both of the arteries in the back of my neck were torn.

Vertebral arterial dissection. Less than 1% of all strokes are caused by this. Basically 1 in 100,000 strokes. An artery is 1mm this and the right side of mine was blocked\torn by 90%. I now have multiple layers of permanent brain damage in my cerebellum and I don’t feel hardly any sensation on the right side of my body. I should have died, but, I didn’t.

Needless to say I ended up having to recover from this for about 3 months in a daily stroke rehabilitation center while simultaneously taking care of my kids alone and I’ve been doing that way ever since. So, yes today kind of sucked. I already have a heart condition, asthma, brain damage, so the last thing I need is diabetes. I don’t eat much, when I do it’s carbs or sugar. I don’t drink alcohol or smoke or drink soda. I just do a piss poor job of taking care of myself because I’m too busy taking care of all of those around me.

The good news is, Alex is doing better, and he’s offered to help me work on myself now. He’s a good cook and wants to be a chef one and that makes me happy. I too wanted to be a chef but ended up in the Army instead.

I feel like we could make a solid team like Batman & Robin. Oddly enough the last photo I took on February 18th was with Alex.