Hi there. This is the first in a long series of entries detialing my journey.

To begin with, I will fill you all in on my history to this point.

At approximately 5:00pm on Friday, Novemver 19, 2004, I suffered a stroke while driving back from Toledo, OH to our home in Monroe, Mi. My wife and I were in separate cars as we had just picked up her car from the Buick Dealership in Toldeo from being serviced. We had gone to Sam's Club to fill up both cars and pick up a few items and to purchase my new HP Ipaq.

It had taken them forever to find one and I was fast approaching when I was supposed to leave for work. You see, the plant where I work was in a planned maintenance shutdown and I was working nights. I was working 12 hours per night plus 1 hour for turnover to the next shift.

Normally, my job function is to supervise and provide support to contractors perform

diagnostic testing of these items we have called motor operated valves. I have

approximately 15 years experience doing this and I have more experience with the new diagnostic equipment we had introduced than anyone else where I work.

This outage was different in that I was also to provide night shift coverage for air

operated valve diagnostic testing. I had been trained and the "succession path" set out by those in our management was to have me become the air operated valve engineer at the next planned shutdown.

Needless to say, I was under quite a bit of stress but it was not an undue amount

considering we were in a outage.

Where were we..... Oh yeah. I had already worked 65 hours that week and was on track to work 91 hours when this happened.

Now back to the stroke. I was driving back home at a little over 70 mph and suddenly, the left side of my body went numb. The affected areas included my face arm and leg. My left arm suddenly felt like it weighed 500 lbs and it was difficult to move.

Somehow I was able to drive home safely although I am not sure how I did it. I went inside and told my wife that something was very wrong with me and I needed to go to the Emergency Room. She replied that, "I had an awful feeling that something had happened to you."

We get to the emergency room at about 5:30pm and they take me back. There are wall to wall patients and I am stuck in one of the corrodors until a spot opened up. The nurse attempts to place an IV into my left hand and my hand erupts like a volcano because they botched the job. I am having a hard time walking because my balance is gone as a result of the stroke.

They did an X-Ray which was much fun considering I had to stand up for the X-Ray.

A bed finally opens up and I get out of the hallway. The doctor comes up and does the usual checks. "Grab both of my hands and squeeze them" he says. I respond as asked and he says, "You know your left side is not as strong as the right." DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, I thought. You have got to love these doctors. Don't they have a clue. More about that later.

The physician in the ER make a comment that my blood pressure seemed quite high (high 150's low 160's / mid - high 90's). Now consider this. If you are in the emergency room and something is happening to you, isn't your BP SUPPOSED to be higher???? I mean, inquiring minds do want to know!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was admitted to the hospital for more tests. They said what had happened to me could range from a "complicated migraine" to a "full blown TIA". They did so much blood work that I was wondering whether I had any left.

This gets us to Saturday. The numbness I was experiencing the previous day is subsiding. "You are having a Cat Scan sir.", I was told. "I had one of those last night.", I reply.

"This one is with contrast added." they tell me. Seems like they would have gotten that one before but one must remember that doctors PRACTICE Medicine. Yeah, they keep practicing until they get it right.

They also decided to do the MRI today as well. I have read in my research online is that an MRI is the most accurate means to determine whether a stroke has actually occurred. It would only make sense that you would used your most accurate means AS SOON AFTER THE STROKE HAD HAPPENED. The little voice is saying in my ear, "But remember that doctors PRACTICE Medicine." We talked about that earlier didn't we. They did a regular Echocardiogram today. Found I did have a heart (good thing) but found no abnormalities (also good thing).

This gets us to Sunday. I am not experiencing any of the symptoms from Friday night anymore (Yeah). I am stuck in a hospital bed (Boo). The neurologist on call comes in and says he reviewed the Cat Scans (both of them) and MRI and didn't find anything. He tells me that I was suffering from what can basically be described as a "Migraine from Hell". I was told to have a follow up appointment with my neurologist (Thank God, I have one.) More on that later.

I have definately bored you all with the adventures on a weekend not too long ago.

There will be more entries to document the rest of this journey.

Charles Ramsey