11

I am like so many millions of women. I am a career woman; wife; friend and I have a busy hectic life. I learned the hard way, if I am not healthy, my family doesn’t work well. On Sunday, December 22, 2013 I woke up a stroke survivor. I woke up to my alarm and thinking my fuzzy head was from being tired. My right arm was numb and I had no control of it. I thought I slept on it funny. My right leg could not support my weight and also felt numb. I googled signs of stroke it said if you have even

October

2018

09

I am sitting on a plane heading home from a glorious birthday weekend with my best friend in Virginia. It was great. I wouldn’t have changed anything! I am so thankful for the ability to travel on my my own. I remember two years ago when I tried to navigate a trip around Thanksgiving time and how absolutely overwhelming it was. Thank you Lord for how far I have come. The flight attendants are all wearing pink for breast cancer awareness month. Most people could tell you why the flight

October

2018

05

I am 21 years old and I come from Croatia. I had a pretty normal, average teenager life until January 16th. That is when I had my first stroke, when I was just 18 years old, and when I first heard of and encountered arteriovenous malformation/AVM (a tangle of abnormal blood vessels connecting arteries and veins in the brain). My AVM was the size 4 times 5 centimeters. Quite big! They couldn’t close it all at once because it was too risky, so they postponed the “closing” surgery a few months

October

2018

03

Well, before the stroke, I wasn’t eating right and I was drinking - a lot. I guess it’s safe to say that I had an alcohol problem. The stroke happened on Christmas Day 2017. We were at a drive in, my wife and two kids. I felt fine. We watched Star Wars and went to a late night restaurant, it was after eating that I started feeling weird. I started feeling dizzy and tired. I threw up on the way to the car. My wife asked if I wanted to go to the ER and I said no. By the time we got home, my head

October

2018

03

Something to note about my story is that I was an otherwise healthy 32 year old at the time. I lived in Newport News and was commuting to Norfolk for work every day. I also had traveled to 3 different states by plane and had driven to and from Northern VA. From the time I felt the pop in my neck, to the time I was told to get to the ER, it was 22 days. On that 22nd day, I was told that I had been having a series of strokes. Not one, but multiple. Not TIAs, but strokes!  I obviously had missed

October

2018