Mr. Lucky

Having a Stroke at 44 Wasn’t Even the Worst Part of the Year

You can’t predict how your life changes in a moment

Jen and I were starting to separate, after 18 years together and a solid year of her breaking up with me. But we were attempting a moment of normality and were on our favorite annual vacation, staying at a friend’s enormous house in Park City, Utah. It was the week after Sundance and a whole mess of our friends and kids had joined us in Park City and were in a handful of bedrooms throughout the house.

It was late, around 2am, and we were in bed arguing about whatever divorcing couples argue about. But I felt weird. As she was venting I thought “what is this odd sensation?”

“What?!” she grunted when I said “Hang on for a moment, something is wrong.” She watched me disapprovingly as I grabbed a pencil and began poking myself all over. I could move my body, my arms and legs, but the sheets felt alien. I used the pencil so I could more easily differentiate between feeling from my hand and my skin, and it confirmed my fears. “I can’t feel these pokes” I said.

We stopped fighting. “What do you want to do?” she asked, trying to muster concern. I filled the tub and got in. Wanted to see if this sensation issue involved temperature, or pressure, was it in other parts of my body? Would it go away if coaxed by warmth… but by 3am I was confident that I had one giant problem: I had lost all sensation on the left side of…