Hemiplegic [Adventure]

[Adventure 227]

I've heard "it's not a stroke" more times in the past few years than any forty-something year old should hear. Now, not having a stroke when you have all the presenting symptoms of a stroke is good news, but for the longest time no one had an explanation for the stroke-like symptoms. I finally ended up with a diagnosis of hemiplegic migraine, which explains so much. 

My particular hemiplegic migraines include slurred speech/loss of the ability to speak, left side hemiplegia (loss of strength), confusion, and disorientation, among other symptoms. The left side weakness continues for days or weeks after the migraine is over...and I get hemiplegic migraines around once a week, so I never fully recover. Luckily, the result is hemiparesis (mild or partial loss of strength), not full hemiplegia once the migraine is gone. 

Hemiparesis makes life interesting. My left hand forgets it's holding something and I end up throwing or dropping things accidentally. My left hand also lags behind my right hand while I type. When it's particularly bad, if I'm not paying attention to what I'm typing, the text gets quite interesting as many of the letters are transposed.

I tcna mkae a simple snetnace dififcult to understand and reuqires a lot of backspacing and correcting.

I trip over things on the floor. Things like a towel or a rug or a piece of paper. I trip over my own toes, as the ball of my foot and toes don't like leaving the ground and my mind assumes they've achieved liftoff when they haven't. 

Dealing with an entire side of my body that doesn't work as well as the other half ... which frankly doesn't work all that well ... can be frustrating, but I choose to try to have a sense of humor about this particular adventure.