Chapter 2

The time was 5:30 PM on Sunday Night. I had my #21 LT jersey and was awaiting the start of the San Diego Chargers vs New England Patriots football game at The Pizza Port in Solana Beach. My brother and I had not been to The PP in a very long so the idea of digging into a pepperoni pizza felt quite exciting. Not to mention, our SD Chargers was about to kick off on Sunday Night Football on NBC.


As I was about to drink my glass of Coke, my left arm goes numb. I thought nothing of it until I tried to get up and my entire left side goes numb. That was odd. I thought nothing of it again until my vision started to give way and my right eye felt like someone had stabbed it with a knife. I stated to my brother, that I had no feeling on my left side and my vision was giving way. Being a doctor himself, he knew there was something clearly wrong. As I held onto him for dear life, we went back to his car to drive me home. My rationale was, I thought I could just sleep it off. How wrong was I....

When I spoke to my mom a little later, she noticed my voice was slurring greatly and that was when I knew it was time to go to the Emergency Room at the UCSD Medical Center. I couldn't drive myself so my mom had arranged for my brother to pick me up. We checked in and the next thing I knew, I had every tube sticking into every orifice of my body. I felt motionless and lifeless as I laid in the ER bed. The ER docs felt I needed to stay overnight so they arranged for my room in the Stroke Center.

My parents flew in from SJ the next morning and supported me while I was taking every available CT Scan and MRI of my body. Not to mention, my arms looked like a heroin addict as they extracted blood almost 20+ times during my stay. It was that afternoon the doctors stated that I had suffered a stroke. Yes, a stroke. A 30+ year old male, healthy, non drinker/smoker/drug user, had suffered a stroke out of the blue. What had the doctors even more baffled was my parents were the healthiest people on planet earth and there was no genetics involved.

The 6 nurses assigned to me all say that I was fortunate to have improved greatly without any prolonged permanent damage nor death. The doctors on the other hand have no reasonings for what had happened except that I faced "bad luck".

After staying in the hospital for 4 nights and being discharged on Wednesday night, the 6 neurologists assigned to me couldn't come with a conclusion except that "it could" be this or "it could" be that. To support that conclusion, they wanted me to be on blood thinners and steroids. No thanks (as I'm aware of the side effects for both).

I flew to San Jose the next day to meet with my family doctor. I was also recommended an Acupuncturist specializing in strokes. After more testing and a session in acupuncture (think 10 needles on my head), I've started to improve. With the progress in my health, I am hoping to return to San Diego later this week.

I am truly grateful for the miracles, prayers, and support during this transitional event into Chapter 2.