I had a scare Tuesday before last

I woke up confused and unable to walk down the hallway without going into the walls. My speech was slurred. My roommate tried to get me to sit down on the bed and I went about three directions and I had no control over my body. He got me up on the bed and we called 911. I went to the emergency room in an ambulance, and the upshot was I may have had a TIA (transient ischemic attack) or at the very least stroke-like symptoms. Two CTs and an MRI ruled out a full-blown stroke, at least. People suffering from TIAs have a 1 in 3 chance of having a stroke within one year, so it's definitely a wakeup call. They put me on a low-dose enteric-coated aspirin and upped my Lipitor. Hopefully that will help prevent further issue. I was off for a couple of days from work. My neuroloist, when I saw him, was of the opinion that it was brought-on by stress and I should find another job. That's easier said than done.

Another risk for those of us in the South

In the ‘Stroke Belt,’ Erosion of Memory Is More Likely Too

People in a large area of the American South have long been known to have more strokes and to be more likely to die from them than people living elsewhere in the country.

Now, a large national study suggests the so-called stroke belt may have another troubling health distinction. Researchers have found that Southerners there also are more likely to experience a decline in cognitive ability over several years — specifically, problems with memory and orientation.

Underlying risk factors such as hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity may certainly be factors, but the researchers--at least two of whom are themselves Southerners--also question whether those with problems might have had an under-supply of blood to the brain or undetectable 'mini-strokes' as a result of those factors.

Kentucky was not included in the Stroke Belt states studied (they were Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee), but it has its fair share of those underlying problems. And as someone who has all but the hypertension (well, I don't have high cholesterol, but my triglycerides are off, so I'm on cholesterol medicine), I found this interesting.

Excellent blog

Mindpop. My mind disappeared. When it came back, it was not the same... by Nina Mitchell

I am a quirky young woman whose Mind went Pop. I was 26 when a stroke took away my limbs and speech.

This stroke comic book is designed to make you think. Mindpop. Strokes are hell. They have dark comedy too.

I live in Boston, in rehab, beating my stroke.

She has excellent taste in choosing images to evoke what she it talking about, discusses in short posts what it's like living after a stroke, etc., and busts stereotypes about age and strokes, as well as disability. I'm adding it to my subscriptions.

Via @leaghaire, an 'Evil atheist librarian interested in web design and technology' on Twitter from New Zealand.

Some random tidbits

1. We finished the Antarctic adventure in the game today. Yay! The toll: one of our group is dead (9 total for the expedition, plus two more for the Germans), one lost his right leg, and two have very, very low sanities. All in a good several months' work for our game master. We are all relieved the campaign is over, including the person running it. It has worn us all down. And all the player characters were very new, on their second to fourth missions. All and all I suppose it's surprising we did as well as we did. After all, most of the 'doomed Starkweather-Moore expedition' did come back.
   
2. I don't want to sound alarmist or like a hypochondriac [a common thing for me], but a little while ago I was driving along and I noticed that my right eye was numb and a little twitchy, my right hand was numb, and my right foot had pins and needles. A friend said my pupils looked okay and my grip was fine with both hands. It didn't last long. We decided to consider it a by-product of sleep deprivation (I only got two hours' sleep last night) rather than a small stroke. Hopefully, that's the case.
   
3. I have been invaded by Drosophila repleta, in the fruit fly family but attracted to not only food but drains. They are small but very annoying.
   
4. I am reading Jim Butcher's Death Masks and I was going along on my lunch break yesterday when I realised my book is missing thirty-some odd pages at a crucial juncture. Gah!
   
5. Apparently our store ran out of regular unleaded the day of the run on gas (Friday). Down the street they ran out of everything. The gas truck guy said we were the fourth store he'd been to that day without some form of gas, and I got a couple of calls from people wondering if we had any. Fortunately I didn't work on Friday, although I went in to another store and the cars were four deep; Saturday the gas truck arrived and although there were some glitches at the pumps, everything quickly became less frustrating. I know the gas did rise to $3.99, but come on people, did you really believe it would go to nearly $5 or beyond? We have a fairly aggressive attorney general who is quick to prosecute a company for price gouging. The run on gas was enormous and without warrant.