How it all started

Friday, May 25 was a normal day. Mordy helped me get the kids ready for school. He took me to work and we chatted on the phone a few times during the day.

Around 2:30pm, he called me at work. All he could say was "come home" and moan. I asked what happened, what was wrong, and again he said "come home." I immediately got a ride home and found him on the floor. He was awake, but not able to talk very much.

I called 911 and the police and ambulances came.  At that point, Mordy was able to communicate, one word at a time, with great effort, that he had been watching TV when he sneezed.  Right after that, his head started hurting. After communicating that to me, he began to vomit.

The ambulance took him to the hospital and he still wasn't able to speak very much. In the emergency room, the doctors and nurses tried to treat him to figure out what was wrong. But if they touched him, he'd shout "ow" or push them away with his hands.  Because he was making it difficult for them to treat him, they sedated him and put a tube in his throat. They gave him every possibly test--CT scan, X-ray, spinal tap, and more. They ruled out a heart attack but didn't know what was wrong.

With test results pending, he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit to be watched and for additional tests. It wasn't until Saturday that he was diagnosed with a stroke.

Mordy can talk in complete sentences (sometimes paragraphs) and is intellectually completely there.  He remembers the stroke, calling me, and that I was crying when I found him.  He also remembers his work, the research he has been doing lately, and other complex ideas.  His mind and speech have not been affected.

The good news is that he has passed the 72-hour critical test quite well. He *was* seeing people sideways and upside down.   He still has severe dizziness, which the doctors hope will subside as soon as the swelling in his brain diminishes.  His stroke was a bloodless one, caused by a lack of oxygen in the cerebellum (the part of the brain that controls coordination and balance), that's why he gets dizzy so easily.

We still don't know what caused the stroke, but the doctors are trying to figure that out. The physicians are still guarded about the prognosis, but we're hoping for the best.

He can't receive visitors in the ICU, so please don't come to visit.  As his condition improves, I'll post info about when he'll be up for receiving visitors.