Well members I just want to say tomorrow 15 January 2013 is the beginning of nine years to the day that I became a stroke survivor at 11am that morning. I shall never forget and here I'm praying it never happens again and so far so good. You never can prepare for any stroke and it's like an accident with so many ways it can occur. I remember so well there was no warning that I knew about while sitting at the computer my fingers on the left hand stopped working and went numb. While I was wondering what's going on my elbow went numb so I stood up and fell.

At that point I quickly figured I had mad cow disease because we ate hamburgers for supper and the news was reporting so many mad cow incidents I just assumed I had it when I couldn't stand up the second time I tried. I fell away from the computer desk and telephone and I couldn't get up again.

Unbeknown to me I crawled to the stairwell to go down but passed out, wet my pants and there I lay until my wife came home at 3:30 from her dental appointment to call 911. It was now about 4 hours since the stroke and another few hours before I arrived at the hospital. I learned the doctors said I got there just in time or I would have died.

I knew nothing at all about strokes and to my knowledge I'm the only one in the family to have one. Many of my mother's 18 children had high blood pressure I found out later from my older sister. The doctors stated to my wife the cause was HBP and high cholesterol. That put me into ICU for a few days then five months in the hospital on the rehab floor before I came home unable to walk.

Here I am in a WC operated by my wife loading/unloading it and pushing me around to appointments and out patient therapy until I learned to walk with a quad cane as my balance was not good at all. Now my wife was able to return to her job at the bank which she had quit to be home and care for me. I know the value of a care giver for sure as she visited me every day or night for five months straight and still made choir and praise dance practices on separate nights at church 25 miles from home.

After I started walking I also started driving again as a happy survivor after taking the drivers test and road test in the same car I still got now. Then I went to work at Walmart as a people greeter using my scooter and that was a blast. I met people that could not believe I had a stroke and now working. I made up (so to speak) some of the money my wife lost while caring for me, I felt obligated and she never complained one time.

So 15 January each year will be special to me as a survivor so long as I live when I think about I got to the hospital with minutes to live. Oh yea, the Army hospital didn't take me they said Scott & White hospital was where I had to go because they were equipped to handle cases like mine so I was life flighted there.

Now I have been a member here since 2005 that's when I was able to get back on the computer without being a little scared after a friend told me about this site while I was attending a local group stroke meeting the hospital had organized but I didn't learn much there as I have being here and I'm very proud of that fact.

Well now you got my survival story and I'm still glad to be here and a survivor. I wasn't attending church as I should have by bowling every week end and being on the Pro Tour with the southwest bowlers and the senior all star bowling association which held tournaments on weekends since most bowlers were working during the week. I owned a bowling pro shop in a bowling center and stayed busy during the week too.

Now since that time I attend church just about every Sunday and my life has really changed since I serve my God faithfully in every way with my loving wife still by my side. I really feel so blessed and thank you for reading my survivor story today. I do pray for all of you daily to keep on recovering and giving care to your loved ones. May you continue to be blessed in your own way and beliefs!