Did that get your attention? Ha ha ha … the thing is that getting out of your house is a good thing. Getting away from your computer, putting down your devices, and simply enjoying life is important. That’s what I did while I was in Portland, OR last summer and I was so happy.

So … I updated this post yesterday, after I realized that none of us know when bad things will happen to us. That’s why they’re called accidents. Did you know that most accidents take place in the home? At the time I had my stroke, my husband was working at his job and I worked alone at home. I was as healthy as can be. I had low blood pressure, low cholesterol, and I exercised regularly. No one would have expected me to have a stroke.

The thing is I had a hidden problem with my heart. One that couldn’t be fixed back when I was a kid, but could be fixed easily now, but I didn’t know that I needed to fix it, because they told us, “Oh, it’ll probably fix itself. Don’t worry.” And that’s why doctors are only as good as the knowledge that’s available at the time. No one’s to blame for hidden problems.

So … due to the hidden problem, I ended up having a stroke, because a blood clot formed after surgery I had to remove benign tumors that were making me so anemic that I might possibly suffer a heart attack or a stroke, if I wasn’t careful. Ha ha ha …

And if I’d had my stroke at home alone, no one would have been there to call 911, like they were at the B&N, where I met with the writers group that day. Because I didn’t even know I was having a stroke. In fact, I simply slumped to the floor and sat there in the stall, thinking about how tired I felt. When you have a stroke, minutes count. Brain cells are dying, but I didn’t know that. I thought I was just tired.

But by some miracle, a kid noticed me and alerted his/her mom that I was sitting on the floor. I guess they alerted someone or called 911 or something, because the medics came. They got there in plenty of time to give me tPA, a clot-busting drug, which has a three-hour window, and some risk of death. But they had to get my permission, which I gave, because I decided I’d rather be dead than face the horror of extreme disability. My husband had been notified and was rushing from his workplace (he’s a firefighter, BTW) to the hospital. The doctor told me later she sent up a prayer for me and administered the drug.

And it worked much faster than expected! My husband was by my side as I lifted my arm and leg! :D The whole ER was high-fiving. It was like a miracle. A complete recovery. Almost.

Thing is, once again, there’s a hidden problem in my brain. #dystonia And, once again, doctors only know what they know. And they can’t fix this problem. Yet. As I say, no one’s to blame for hidden problems. What am I going to do? Sue God? The cosmos?

Besides, no one said life would be fair. And there’s really no justice in the world. Which is just another way of saying deserve’s got nothing to do with it.

In any case, if I hadn’t been at Barnes & Noble, I probably would never have self-published my out-of-print novel or written anything else that I’ve published on Amazon. Because Amazon needs me to write the content before I can benefit from them, right? So … I’m grateful to Amazon for inventing the Kindle, but I’m even more grateful to Barnes & Noble for providing a store where my writers group could meet and I could be rescued, i.e., I think being at B&N may have saved my life.

PS: Did you know that this artwork sold for a really ungodly high price recently?

And this picture has appeared on this blog before. And here’s why it’s not worth getting into arguments about anything. #iamfoolish

UPDATE: Happy birthday, Delia Derbyshire! :)

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