Our very brave and amazing President took a deep breath and started telling us the story of her bumpy road to stroke diagnosis and recovery. One week before she left for a long- awaited trip to Africa, Christel told us she was in her garden wearing tall garden boots. She noticed she was tripping and blamed it on the boots. But, the next day the same thing happened. She also noticed there was a change in her handwriting but didn’t think a whole lot of it.
On May 19th, she was at the airport, reading to board for her trip to Africa when she
could not find her credit card and was feeling confused. In Africa, she wore tennis shoes
most of the time and foud herself tripping again. Two days in a row, while eating dinner,
she felt like she was choking and had trouble catching her breath. When she returned home on June 3, she still found herself tripping and her handwriting seemed to be getting worse. On July 3rd, she was diagnosed with COVID for the second time and was quite sick. After recovering from COVID, she noticed she was having trouble keeping dates straight.
On that Friday, she was preparing to come to our meeting but she started feeling hot and her speech was slurred. After talking to both Patty and husband John, who both verified that she WAS slurring her words, she decided it was time to get checked out. She contacted a Neurologist from Cedar Sinai who told her to get to the emergency room. But, in typical Christel fashion, she made John drive her to Cambria so she could give Sue the purple shirts she had ordered for the Board before he took her to the hospital in Arroyo Grande. In the ER, she was told that she had a Transient ischemic attack (TIA or mini stroke). An MRI confirmed that she did have a stroke and it was centered on her cerebellum which is why her speech, coordination and swallowing were affected. She even lost 65% of her hearing.
Strokes can be caused by a number of things, Christel told us, including high cholesterol, which she had, hormone replacement therapy, which she had been on for far too long and COVID, which she had twice. Once she returned home, she went through speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy. But, her biggest challenge was fighting the feeling of helplessness and depression. It was a long, hard road but, she said, all the cards and flowers helped her through it. “I am healing and recovering”, she said. And, she warned, if you no- tice any changes in mobility, speech, vision, get to an emergency room. If treated withing a few hours of the onset of symptoms, medications can be administered that can possibly reverse the damage.
Dr. Kate added that considering the amount of time Christel waited from the onset of symptoms, she is amazed she is doing so well. “Better to be wrong in an ER”, warned Kate. TIA’s are a precursor to a stroke so it is imperative that you get medical attention as soon as possible to avoid a full-blown stroke. Kate also recommend going to Sierra Vista if you are experiencing signs of a stroke and go to French if you feel you might be suffering from a hear attack.
We are all so glad you are back, Christel and thank you for sharing your very difficult story.