Sunday, March 06, 2005
Jeff's stroke practice
Well, everybody, I owe you all explanations, and the one I got's a doozy. Last Tuesday night while stirring a saucepanful on the stove, I began to lose sensation in my fingers. The numbness radiated up my forearm, stopping before it reached my elbow, and was eventually accompanied by numbness in my lips and a little bit of the area beneath my nose. No one else was home, so in my immediate sense of shock I ran to the Metro and hauled it as calmly as I could muster to the GWU medical center. Several hours later, the pronouncement was made: the physician concluded that no neurologic damage had been done and, while he'd like to call it an aggravation of early carpal tunnel syndrome coupled with CO2 build-up as my anxiety affected my breathing, a transient ischemic attack could not be ruled out. Several days later, I've still got an odd persistent sensation in my head (it isn't 'pain,' but it isn't 'pleasant') to go along with my confusion as to what I should do next. The scenario freaked me out enough to plug mortality into the forefront of my thoughts, so, cornily but understandably, I've bought a plane ticket home for spring break and am otherwise trying to ignore everything other than making it through my midterm exams. We'll see what happens. Sorry for my ignorance of late, but I plead confusion for the time being. Talk to y'all soon.
-JK
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-JK
