My Stroke Story by Rod Tobin

My stroke story begins on a nice fall day, Wednesday October 3, 2018.  My normal routine on a Wednesday was to get up early and go to the Hamburg Chamber breakfast meeting at 730am at a cafe in Hamburg.  After an enjoyable social, I left at 930am and began to drive towards home.  As I was driving, I noticed my mind and my thoughts begin to slow.  I was slowly losing strength in my right hand, arm, and leg. I made a decision to drive over to the VA hospital. My driving began to slow down and get slower as I went along. I realized I was getting worse.  A lady pulled up to the left of my vehicle and called to me to pull over because I was driving too slow. I pulled my car off Harlem Rd. to a side street and parked. The lady called 911 and an ambulance came and took me to the GVI at Buffalo General Hospital.  I was diagnosed with a left hemorrhagic stroke and was taken to surgery to have the blood removed.  The surgeon was pleasantly surprised to see that I was able to speak at all and understand most of what he said to me! After one week, I was moved to the rehab unit in the hospital for two weeks. I began speech therapy at the VA hospital twice a week in November to learn my words again.