A stroke sidelined me today

This morning we woke up to frigid negative temperatures and a 2 hour delay to school. I had a chiropractor appointment at 10, but I changed it to 10:45 so I could get the kids to school.
Rebecca's preschool gets canceled when we have a 2 hour delay, so she was my side kick for my appointment, then lunch with our friend Shannon afterwards.
We got to the chiropractor at 10:45. He was with another patient so Rebecca and I waited in the waiting room. The patient was the same man who was before me at Monday's apt. He looked to be walking with less pain. I was excited for him.
When we went back to the exam room. I told him I hadn't been feeling that good since my last adjustment on Monday. He started by stretching my neck and it felt great.  I then sat in a chair with Rebecca on my lap and he adjusted my neck and it felt pretty good. Then he had me lay back on the table to do a deep stretch on my neck. It was a very deep head turning stretch. As soon as I sat up I felt very dizzy. I told him not to worry because I always get dizzy and teary after laying down at the dentists office. I sat on the table for a few minutes holding myself up with my arms, until I started feeling worse and my right arm started feeling weak.
He helped me get into a chair. He got me some water which I downed and we talked about how sometimes the artery going up to the brain could get pinched and it could lead to some dizziness. After maybe 10 minutes sitting in the chair I started falling over to the right. The chiropractor helped me get back up onto the table to lay down. He put his hands on the base of my skull to help calm down what he thought were nerves. It helped for a few minutes, but then it stopped.
I was meeting my friend Shannon for lunch at 11:30 and I was now late. I called her but she didn't hear her phone.
I called Johann and asked him if he was free and could come get me because I wasn't feeling good and couldn't drive. I then texted Shannon at 11:38 "I'm not coming. I'm at the chiro and Johann is coming to get me. I feel awful."
Rebecca dug around in my purse and found the green beanbag that Ammon had sewed at Cub Scouts and used it to wipe my tears. She pulled a chair over to the table and gave me a gentle hug. I remember her sitting on the edge of the table and I asked her about what she had packed in her lunch box that morning. She played with the bean bag throwing it under the table. She was happy. She was calm. She was my angel.
The chiropractor was getting concerned that I was now seeing sqwiggly red & green lines on the left side and my right side was numb. He decided to take my blood pressure. It was normal. We talked for a few more minutes and he told me if I still didn't feel good in a few hours to go to the hospital.
I started feeling worse so he took my blood pressure again and suggested calling an ambulance. I freaked out and told him not yet. Within five minutes he asked again about calling an ambulance and I told him yes it was time.
The next few minutes I started shaking and couldn't stop myself. Not sure if it was nerves, coldness or a symptom of what was going on.
Johann walked in a few minutes later and Rebecca ran away from me. The chiropractor told me my husband had gotten there. Rebecca gave him a big hug. Within minutes a police officer came into the room and stood at my head and started asking me questions.
He was so calm. I wasn't.
Then the paramedics came in. They started asking me a lot of questions. They asked me if I could tighten my bottom. I could and they said that was a good sign that my spinal cord was intact. They were also so calm. They put a neck brace on, folded my arms on my chest, rolled me onto a back board then onto the stretcher. They taped my head to the board, and strapped me in. By now I was shaking uncontrollably.
In the ambulance I had to answer more questions and every single bump was excruciating. They didn't have the sirens on. Johann told me he followed the ambulance the entire way to the hospital. I had no control of my right arm and my left arm was feeling weak and I couldn't hold it up.
When we got to the hospital I had to answer more questions and do more neurological tests. I had to stay flat on my back. Looking at people while not being able to see much around you in very difficult. The faces I remember the most was a man with freckles and reddish hair, my nurse and a doctor in a black scrub top with a small gold Hawkeye embroidered on it. They would come right up to me and look down at me so I could see them better. Especially the freckled guy. He made me feel calm.
Then I was left alone. And I felt so alone. I was in the part of the ER near the psyciatric area and a lady was screaming. Not a pain scream, but more a "I don't know what is going on and I want out scream." Next door was a person from jail so there were security guards in the hallway.
I kept asking for Johann (my husband) and they said they'd get him, but they never did.
I was scared, crying, alone.
It felt like forever alone in that room.
I asked again for Johann and they said that CT was ready and we needed to go right then, and that they'd get him and have him waiting for me in the room when I got back.
At CT they had to transfer me to the CT bed. I felt like I was falling and freaked out. I'd already done that when they transferred me from the ambulance to hospital bed. It was a horribly scary feeling.
The CT lady placed an IV in my left arm so they could give me contrast.
Something in the CT machine spun around really fast, and it was noisy. Then they gave me the contrast and I instantly felt like my body was on fire and that I'd peed myself. It was like it was described to me-only hotter, and worse.
When I got back from CT, Johann & Rebecca were there. I've never been so happy to hear their voices and get a kiss from Johann. Man it felt awesome to have them with me!
The first thing I asked Johann was if he'd taken a picture of the ambulance. He told me he had other things on his mind. We laughed about that!
I was so worried about the kids. Johann reassured me they were taken care of. He texted Simeon and told him that I wasn't going to pick him up and that he needed to walk to the office, check in with Uncle Justin then head up to the dentist for his appointment.
The doctor walked in a few minutes later and said "Your neck & head look fine, but we see a small calcium spot on your brain. Since you're here we might as well do some more testing on it. You'll be going to MRI soon."
Again I was wheeled looking at ceiling tiles through the hospital to MRI. I got right into MRI. The ceiling tiles had blue sky with white puffy clouds and tree branches with green leaves on them. I was put into an extremely uncomfortable head holder, then a mask was placed over my face and snapped in. I was stuck in this loud, tight, shaking contraption for half hour.
It was painful.
My right arm went numb again.
I had to go to the bathroom.
It was like a torture chamber.
It was horrible.

I was wheeled back to the ER. The doctor stuck his head into the room and said "The spot on your brain is benign, but you've had a stroke. The neurology team is on their way."
I started crying.
A STROKE!!
I'm 34 years old. I have 4 kids at home.
A STROKE!!
WHAT?
HOW?
WHAT?
A STROKE?

I suddenly went from being low on the ER totem poll to suddenly becoming the most popular person.
It's not that good of a feeling.

Simeon called Johann to ask him what was going on. He was on the phone when the doctor told us about the stroke. Our 12 year old just learned that his mom had had a stroke.

The nurse came in and said I needed to do a swallow test. I passed with flying colors.
Then he handed me a whoppingly big pink pill and a medium white one. It was Plavix & aspirin. Both to thin my blood because I'D JUST HAD A STROKE. My brain was dead somewhere. Seriously was this happening?

Johann called his mom who was in Milwaukee visiting our newest niece (her grand daughter) Adalynn. He asked her to come home because I'd had a stroke. Hearing it in come out of his mouth to his mom was horrible. I cried hard.

Then we called my dad. Rebecca talked to him first, then I did. He told me "Heavenly Father has watched over our family many times before and he isn't going to stop now."

Sometime in the ER I was given Valium because I was so worked up. It instantly made me drowsy. It was so nice to relax.

Shannon came and got Rebecca who had been with Johann this whole time. She had 3 graham crackers squares and 2 apple juice cups since breakfast. She hardly complained. She was so calm. She wasn't scared. She left around 6pm. She was so amazing today.

I had Johann call Jessica because I wasn't going to be able to bake for the bake sale the next day. I had just had a stroke and I was worried about the bake sale. Seriously I needed to calm down.

Then the waiting game began. I was being transferred to the SNICU for close observation. What I didn't understand but maybe Johann did was that I was in critical condition. They only talked about the stroke, not about the vertebral artery in my neck that was torn and had caused the stroke. We didn't know how truly critical I was right then.

Our friend Ben came and he helped Johann give me a blessing of healing. It was so calm and peaceful during the blessing. I knew Heavenly Father was going to heal me and help me. I knew I was loved, watched over and known by my Heavenly Father. I knew He could help me. Not long after the blessing the vision issues cleared up and my right arm started gaining strength and feeling back. I have NO doubt that Heavenly Father was healing and blessing me. I just needed to ask Him for it and have faith in His healing power.

I was transferred to the SNICU. Johann had to wait in the waiting room. As I was wheeled in on the overhead speaker I heard "Admit. Bay 1, Bed 1." As I was wheeled into the room person after person walked in. They were all ladies. They transferred me to my new bed. I felt so much love and concern from them. It was like having 6 mothers all there to take care of me. My nurse in the ER was fabulous, but he was a he. Having theses ladies here felt so different and it brought me so much comfort.

After I got settled in and learned that I'd have hourly neurological tests and be flat on my back for 24 hours, Johann was brought in. And some reality of my situation started sinking in. I had had a stroke and I was in the ICU. Everything had changed.