#tw stroke

"Kennedy had been hospitalized after suffering a stroke in her sleep on Oct. 3, her family said.

“It is with our hearts full of love that we announce the passing of our amazing grandmother,” Joe Kennedy III posted on X. “She died this morning from complications related to a stroke suffered last week.”

“Along with a lifetime’s work in social justice and human rights, our mother leaves behind nine children, 34 grandchildren and 24 great-great grandchildren along with numerous nieces and nephews, all of whom love her dearly,” the family statement said."

"She founded the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights soon after husband’s death and advocated for causes including gun control and human rights."

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the stephens from the beginning

My husband spent the night in the hospital. Yesterday he called my mom and asked her to come get him from work because he felt dizzy and tingly on one side of his body and his vision was doubled, so she took him to the ER and called me. I got an Uber there and we stayed with him late. They did various tests including blood work and a CT scan and neurological tests and checked the pressure on his eyeballs and he passed every test with flying colors but his blood pressure and cholesterol were high and his eyes were rolling in different directions like plastic googly eyes and his pupils were super dilated and he couldn't focus and they couldn't figure out why so they admitted him for the night and gave him an MRI today.

Turns out he had a mild stroke in the thalamus. The neurologist said he dodged a bullet because he can walk and speak and his coordination is fine and both sides of his body are functioning the same, but his vision is still wacky because his eyes don't want to work together right now. He's gonna have to see a vision therapist and wear an eye patch but switch eyes every 4 hours while he's awake to strengthen both of his eyes. Since his depth perception is so bad right now he's going to have to practice driving in an empty parking lot before he can be on the road. He won't be going in to work tomorrow and I'm not sure when he'll be able to go back to work since he's a truck driver. He has to take an aspirin every day forever and he has a cholesterol medication to take.

I'll need to make a few adjustments to the way I cook for him and be mindful of the amount of sodium that goes into anything. I'll probably make salt free versions of the spice blends I use regularly so I can add salt as I see fit. The neurologist said other than salt and added sugars he doesn't need to really change his diet but I'm going to look up foods that can help him and ask my chiropractor for nutrition advice for him. As I've said in the past, my chiropractor is a licensed nutritionist and I've gotten really good sound nutrition advice from him before so if there are any foods that can help my husband, he will know. I did tell my husband I'll make whatever he wants for dinner this weekend and he requested chicken and dumplings so you better believe I'm gonna make him the best chicken and dumplings he's ever had. I mean my chicken and dumplings are already the best he's ever had but that's not the point.

My husband's best friend has been a saint through this whole ordeal. He's been calling and texting to check on us, asking if we need anything, he and his wife brought us dinner and got my husband's car from his work and brought it home and they'll do our grocery shopping tomorrow so I can stay home and look after him. Their young daughter even made my husband a get well card. These folks are like family to us and I'm so so thankful for their help in this trying time.

But then the next issue is going to be the hospital bill. We don't have any health insurance so we have to fill out financial assistance paperwork and hope it'll cover enough so we won't be buried under even more debt. And of course, getting by for however long he'll be out of work. Monday is a holiday so he has the day off anyway and he's got PTO days but I don't know how many. He is getting a paycheck tomorrow but idk how long it'll have to last. I'm trying to work on things for my Etsy shop because every little bit I can bring in helps. I'm also still working on my art and trying to get to a point I might feel justified offering commissions. I need to post more on my art blog and on my bluesky and try to get more of a following there so I might eventually be able to take commissions and maybe even start up a Patreon but I have to keep practicing and studying.

We are both in our early 30s, and he had a stroke at his age. It was probably caused by stress but we don't know for certain. Please please please, for the love of everything good in this world, take care of yourselves. Look after your health. Practice self care. I don't want this to happen to any of y'all. It's been so scary and we've both cried a lot today. As much as I've been crying, I have to be strong for him and support him when he breaks down. He's not used to being scared and sad, especially for himself, and he doesn't really know how to handle it.

He's home and sleeping now. I currently have a migraine, the first I've had in over a week since getting on a new medication for it and it's probably being caused by a mix of the stress of the last 2 days and I might also have some ribs out of place because the chairs beside the beds both in the ER and in the room they moved him to wrecked my back. But unless it escalates bad enough to render my psych meds ineffective and make me uncoordinated and incapacitated, I'm still going to be taking care of my husband in whatever way I can.

Good vibes are appreciated.

My gran had a second stroke. After the first one she was able to speak, although with difficulty.

Shortly before the surgery that was supposed to prevent the second stroke from happening, she slipped in the bathroom and broke her arm. Later, that day she was operated on and everything seemed fine. Except that a few hours later she had a second stroke.

So it started out with me being friends-crushes with Waterboy from Dispatch, and he was going to take part in a pageant that his grandma was hosting, and he messaged me on discord and asked if I could help him make a purse for it

Obviousy I said yes

His grandma- whose discord name was "Trustworthy" in the fancy font and whose real name was Alexis- messaged me thanking me for giving her boy a real friend

Then I was doing rp stuff I think in the garage of my home, and suddenly I got a really sharp pain behind my right eye

Naturally, being paranoid, I started checking myself for stroke symptoms

And of course since it was a dream, I was indeed having a stroke. Like the right side of my face was numb when I tried smiling, and I couldn't put both arms in front of me clearly. So there was that.

I ended up calling my mom and 911 at the same time, left my brother at home despite my mom saying "don't you dare leave your brother at home", got onto the stretcher thing with two nice but urgent paramedics, and then one of them immediately gave me anesthesia through a metal-feeling mask when I got in the ambulance

And I could feel hands on me and vaguely hear talking even while I was under, it was so weird

I stay under for what feels like 10 seconds, suddenly wake up in my hospital room. I stumble to a bathroom, make sure im okay, then go back to bed.

And apparently, my hospital room opened up to a mall sort of layout, bc there were a couple shops in front of me, including this one sweets shop where an old man who looked and sounded like Santa Claus if his beard was shorter and chopper came out, and told me that I had been out for 3 hours? Despite the window behind my head being daytime and remembering it was way deep evening when I went in the ambulance

Then Sugar Claus's other two friends came out, and apparently they were all painters. A girl who im pretty sure was emo but calm, and the most obviously bisexual twink with dark hair who, I kid you not, had nip piercing paint holders. Deadass, they looked like big barbells, but they were screw on caps with paint in them.

They apparently also had these big celebrations of emptying out dirty water from their painting stuff and replacing/soaking their brushes in clean water, which I got to them from a sink, so that was cool

Aaand then the dream ended and I woke up back at college, not having a stroke, not talking to a dude who kept paint in his nip rings

basically zac ( my best friend and roommate for 19 years ), had a stroke. they don't know what caused it. which is honestly the scariest part. he wasn't at risk and it came out of nowhere.

he's autistic and doesn't do well with change and things not being - just so. he isn't doing well mentally - because he can't do his things that makes his brain calm. i'm trying my best to help him.

i ended up crashing out last night. gonna head over but he sleeps a lot and has tests. so i'm gonna be mobile. probably gonna post a plotting call/keep me company in the hospital call.