Last week for date night, we saw Shutter Island – not much to say about that; it was disappointing. We then went out to eat, and my husband mentioned that his fingers were tingling. At the same time, I noticed that he was slurring his words – uh,oh. Although he is only in his mid-30’s, I was sure that he had had a stroke; I know those are two of the warning signs. He did not want to go to the hospital, so I agreed that we would drive home, pick up the kids, and I would look up these symptoms on the internet to see if he should indeed get to the hospital. When I looked it up, the info was scarier than I originally thought. It said yes, these are indeed symptoms of a stroke, and a person needs only to exhibit ONE of them, not all. It also said that people who have strokes often refuse to get medical treatment, and their loved ones must INSIST that they seek medical treatment – so I made Hubby go to the ER while I put the kids to bed. Well, before you panic, let me say that the stroke tests all came back negative. Turns out that his arm had gone numb during the movie because it was a long movie and he was giving me backrubs (AWW!), and his “lazy tongue” was a result of his visit to the dentist in the morning – he doesn’t like novacaine, so when the dentist re-did one of his fillings, he sprayed some kind of numbing spray which got into my husband’s bloodstream and caused him to feel it 9 hours later. PHEW!!! It was a wasted night at the ER, but I’m so glad that he went because otherwise I would STILL be wondering and panicking that he had had a stroke. And besides, it made for a really funny story to tell later… people really seem to like the irony of the directions on the internet: “Expect the person to protest — denial is common. Don’t take “no” for an answer. Insist on taking prompt action.” Well, insist I did, and as a result, poor Hubby spent the end of date night in the ER!
Sorry that your date night ended so but from past experience with strokes, I’m so glad that you forced him to go! Definitely nothing to take lightly until you can safely say so.
Better safe than sorry. Next time, just make him go before you spend time looking at the internet.
@Phyllis Beyer – I suppose we should have gone immediately to the hospital, although it was getting late, and we were an hour away from home and across state lines, so we wanted to get the kids home for bed. Plus we weren’t sure about health insurance in another state… better safe than sorry, like you say, but in this case, it was nothing, and I think Chris’ instincts told him as much.
Yes, thankfully it was just a scare. Those symptoms scare me a lot. I’m always looking out for things like that with me. Living by myself, I have to be able to call someone before it gets too far.
I guess I shouldn’t have read this, now I’m scaring myself…. 🙁
Ditto ditto on the “Thankfully it was just a scare.” However, I think I know an alternative reason for the tingling….it’s called “LACK OF BLOGGING!!!”
Please pass this along to your hubby…. 😉
P.S. It was nice seeing all of you Friday night….however short the visit was. 🙂
No, strokes are definitely not something to mess around with. I’m glad it turned out to be something more benign.
@justj – don’t scare yourself or let me scare you. One of the nagging factors whenever we have a health scare like this is the fact that we have no idea about Hubby’s genetic family history due to his adoption. You might say that you have history of certain health problems in your family history, but you also know what to look for. And you take good care of yourself, and have lots of family and friends who love you – don’t worry, we would notice if you went MIA. Would you like one of those Life Alert thingys for Christmas next year? Joking…