Stroke Survivor of the Month - December 2003

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Catherine Roegge
Whately, Massachusetts

At some point in the afternoon a woman and her young daughter, who had been bitten by a dog, were given a bed in the same room. This woman, who I never actually really saw, helped me to find a phone near the room's entrance. I was able to call a friend to come and stay with me, and later was able to call my parents so that my mother could come from an hour away to be with me. She arrived around midnight, at which time I was finally officially admitted to a room and taken upstairs. All day and night all I could think or feel was that my head hurt, and bad, and no one was willing to help me with that.

During my week-long stay I had a repeat cat scan, MRI, spinal tap, EKG and various other tests, but was discharged without restrictions at the end of the week, despite the fact that I couldn't yet stand and walk on my own without holding on to something.

While recuperating at home, it became clear that I needed more medical attention. While I had no lasting physical ailments, I had a very difficult time using words, forming sentences and completing thoughts. Just about everything seemed very confusing to me. My reading comprehension was very low.

I scheduled an appointment with a neurologist who had brought some med students to my room to review my symptoms, a sort of "guess my diagnosis" game. He was very surprised to find that I hadn't received any diagnosis at all, let alone that I hadn't been told I had a stroke. I went immediately under his care, began taken one aspirin daily and stopped taking the birth control pill. I couldn't quite comprehend what this doctor was telling me; I was just about the healthiest person I knew. And I was 24, virtually indestructible. And how did I manage to have all of those tests done and still not get a diagnosis at the hospital? My whole life I had held the belief that the medical field was a science and that doctors were therefore omnipotent and infallible - how could a doctor have missed something that so drastically hurt me? My world was turned upside down.