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My daughter had surgery yesterday. My husband has been busy at work so I scheduled the procedure, pre-op appointments, phone calls, etc. I put everything on our shared calendar so that we’d have access to the same information (and admittedly because I need help remembering). I also put the locations in the calendar so that all we’d have to do is click on it and our GPS would take us where we’re supposed to be.  We left an extra 15 minutes early for the procedure to make sure that we would make

March

2018

30

My name is Darren. I am a father of two beautiful princesses. I did not think I could ever have a stroke. It was November 28th, 2017 and it began like every other day of my life but little did I know that things were about to drastically change for me. Three storms in the last year have changed my life drastically. I was already going through storm number one. This was going to be the second storm coming into my life. I was not even aware of the first storm just yet but it had already come and

March

2018

29

January 14, 2015 at 2:13pm changed my life.   As I sit in the ambulance and the paramedics talked to my husband (who rushed to my side at my work) and my boss,  I’m looking around trying to figure out what was happening to me. The paramedic jumps in and says to me, ”Angela you’re going to hear a lot of bells and whistle cause we are coding you as a stroke.” I remember looking up at him with tears in my eyes - I am 40 years old, this can’t be!   I had an ischemic stroke in the thalamus part of my

March

2018

28

You never think it will happen to you… you see the stats, you’ve been taught the warning signs but even then, not you, NOT EVER! I’ve always had a love for the outdoors and for hiking. I found my soulmate who loved all these very same things and so like usual, we were headed to hike. We had settled into our hotel for the evening and were lying in bed just talking. I remember going to talk and my mouth wouldn’t make a sound, just nothing came out. Mark thought I was playing a joke but then

March

2018

27

“You are stronger than your strongest excuse,” is one of my favorite quotes. Hello, I’m Raven Way.  I’m 31, an identical twin, single with 2 amazing dogs, a geek, & a paramedic field training officer.  I’m also a brain stem stroke survivor. I suffered my stroke on January 13th, 2017 (yep, Friday the 13th).  It’s a long story on what caused it.  Anyway, it was an arterial clot (ischemic) stroke. I was barely 30.  Between 28 to 30 I worked incredibly hard to become healthy.  I lost a lot of

March

2018