When Saturday Is a Wednesday

It was your typical fall Wednesday in late September 2017, except nothing about that day turned out to be ordinary.

I woke up convinced it was Saturday, and I was quite annoyed not to find my husband in the kitchen or on our porch with a cup of a coffee. Discovering our dog Wally had used the living room floor for his toilet only made my mood worse.

I was quickly on my phone interrogating my husband to find out exactly where he was on this lovely Saturday. To my dismay, I was told by Jim that he was at work because it was Wednesday. For the life of me, I could not figure out why he would play this joke on me or how he ever thought it would be funny. So not only was I angry, but now I was confused and I was hellbent on proving Jim wrong about what day it was.

Well, now I had Jim very worried because he could not figure out why I was slurring my speech so much.

He kept telling me I needed to check my blood sugar, and in my state of mind, all I felt was how he was making me angry! The scary part was that I could hear my slurred speech, but nothing in that moment was registering to me that something was wrong. Finally, my oldest son Louie walked in the door and said, “Come on, Mom, I’m going to run you over to the hospital." I wasn’t even reluctant and got in his car because I thought once we got there, everyone would see that they were all being nuts!

When we pulled up to the ER, I saw Jim running up the sidewalk, and he’s been keeping that pace ever day since... Once we were in the ER, it was a whirlwind, because if they think you are having a stroke, they don’t waste any time. You're run off to various blood tests, CT scans, and heart tests. Before you have time to even process what’s going on, you are in a room and a sweet nurse is patting your arm, and saying, “You had a major stroke, dear."

Well my life and Jim’s were about to change forever... God must have had his hand on me that day, as my speech was not permanently impaired, and neither side of my body suffered any long term paralysis... truly a miracle!

Strokes don’t only affect the victim, but they also impact their loved ones. Jim was a full-time working commercial construction superintendent who was in the middle of building a new firehouse for the city of Newnan, our hometown. It had quickly become a physically and emotionally taxing job since my stroke. He had been running the subs all day and rushing home to check on me to make sure I was taking my medication and eating healthy. He went from having one full time job to two. It has been a laborious two years, to say the least. Jim and I have decided it’s time to live our best life now.

On a summer Saturday morning, Jimmy says to me, “What do you think about selling the farm and everything we own, and buying an RV and just traveling around the country and seeing the sights together while we still can?”

I have to admit I was a bit taken aback. Jim loved our farm so that he was willing to sell it surprised me. “You would sell everything?” I asked him.

“Yes, I’m so tired of working six days a week and not getting home until after seven most days. Your stroke has shown me that time is precious and isn’t in our control.” I never realized how much my stroke impacted him.

So Wednesday wasn’t Saturday and our current three bedroom home might soon be a 600 square foot RV travel trailer going down the highways of America looking for adventure. Perhaps this is going to become my next stories as my husband and I become Townies to Tourists.