I think we got to the bottom of what was going on in my last post. That was on Friday, Aug 7, about my left shoulder. Three weeks later, on Tuesday the 28th, I felt like I was having a stroke while driving home. My left arm felt weak, numb, and lacking control. I had Pattie take me to Queen’s ER. They quickly ruled out a stroke, did a CT scan and an MRI. Doc asked if I had any recent head trauma. I told her about my crash. She said the MRI revealed bilateral subdural hematomas, and that I qualified for bed. Yay!
Surgery was on Thursday. All good. The next hurdle was a follow-on procedure where they block some arteries to reduce the chance of additional bleeding. The same surgeon does all of the pulmonary stints and had patients in worse shape than me stacked up four or five deep. I had to wait until Monday, then one more overnight and finally released Tuesday afternoon.
My neurosurgeon, Dr. Ramos was kind enough to share a before and after of the MRI. Before on the left, after on the right, viewed as if looking at my face. The white area is bone. The dark section marked in purple is the hematoma, squeezed between the skull and the brain. On the right, the dark area is gone and the brain is starting to move back.
The right blob is larger than the left, and because left and right get reversed between the head and spine I felt the effects on my left arm. Why did it take so long to feel like a stroke? Because that Tuesday, the 28th, was the first time I attempted a hard effort on the indoor trainer. It was my return to full-on Ironman training, and for me, Tuesdays are HIIT days.
No Century Ride for me. I hope to do the marathon. My GP said he is, and I should, too.