*
My good friend Jim is in the hospital. He had an ischemic (caused by a blood clot) stroke yesterday as he left his apartment. Fortunately, one of the aids was wheeling one of our wheelchair patients past his apartment when it happened. As she passed Jim fell back against his apartment door, slid to the floor and said, “My head hurts like hell” The aid told him not to move and pushed her panic button, which automatically starts a chain of emergency procedures including summoning stretcher, EMT’s and an ambulance. I understand Jim was still talking when they put him on the ambulance, though his speech was slurred.

Because I have breakfast in my apartment I was not out and about, and didn’t find out about Jim’s stroke until lunch with Peter. By way of explanation, usually Jim, Peter, sometimes Myrtle, and I have lunch and dinner together in the main PRICKLY MANOR dining room. Often we have cocktails in one or the other’s apartment before dinner, and it seems that may bode well for Jim. See the article at CNN.com, “Moderate alcohol consumption may protect against stroke”

I haven’t been able to get much out of the administrator, nurse, and aids here, so I don’t know how Jim is doing. However, they did tell me that he is able to have visitors, so I’ll go to Lancaster General and visit this afternoon.

* Leduc, Marc, “Stroke Prevention,” healingdaily.com Newsletter. http://www.healingdaily.com/conditions/stroke-prevention.htm. © 2002 (viewed 10:34 AM EDT, Wednesday, August 10, 2005.)



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