Hear Phat’s Story
Written by Phat Cao, Reconnect Alumni. Project led by Andrew Davie
It was June 21st, 2021 when I was rushed to the ER for stroke symptoms. I had vertigo, vision problems, and was throwing up. None of us knew what was happening since I was only 36, had no preexisting conditions or family history of a stroke, and was perfectly healthy. As soon as I got to the hospital, the doctors immediately knew I was having a hemorrhagic stroke (caused by bleeding), which is less common but carries a higher mortality rate, and I was rushed into surgery.
It all started on a Sunday evening when I finished a light workout at the gym. I felt soreness in the neck area and decided to do some stretching. As I began to stretch, I suddenly felt a pop, and my heart dropped. An overwhelming dizziness took over, and I lost feeling on my left side for a moment. Thoughts began to flood my mind. One of the first thoughts I had was, “Am I really going to have them call 911 and get taken out of the gym on a stretcher?” I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down and decided to wait to see if I would feel better. After about 10 minutes, I felt comfortable enough to drive home. During that time, there was a lot going on, which included closing on my first house, and I did not want to delay anything. I proceeded to finish my Sunday evening, and surprisingly, things went back to normal.
On Monday morning when I got to work, I immediately approached my coworker. He was always working out at the gym and hoped he would give me more clarity. Could it be a stroke? Strokes only happen to older people, so that couldn’t have been the case, or so we thought. Other than a little headache that went away after an aspirin, I decided to ignore what had happened and focus on moving into my first house on Friday. The week wasn't any different than any other week, but little did I know there was a slow bleed happening.
It was the official first night at the new house, and my girlfriend, Anna, and I ordered food from one of our favorite restaurants. I am not clear how the symptoms started, but I remember waking up with nausea and suddenly having to throw up. We thought it was food poisoning, and usually rest would make it better. As the night went on, I could not keep anything down, and the symptoms got worse. It got to the point where I could not walk and was crawling on the ground, but I kept it to myself. Even though I told Anna not to mention anything, I am grateful she went with her gut feeling and called the ambulance. Once they determined I was having a stroke, they immediately took me straight to the Emergency Room.
If having a hemorrhagic stroke and waiting so long wasn’t bad enough, there were complications after the surgery. My brain began to swell up, and there was internal bleeding. The doctors and my family had to make a sudden decision to do a second surgery to remove part of my brain and allow room for the swelling. It added more risks, as well as disabilities, but it would increase my chances of surviving. Fortunately, it was successful, but upon waking up, I was partially paralyzed, could not talk, eat, walk, etc. No one thought I would be able to recover, and I could see the disappointment in their eyes. Also, statistics were not promising.
After about 2 months of inpatient and outpatient rehab, I was finally released from the hospital to go home. It was an exciting time, but little did I know that was only the start of my recovery journey.
