In life sometimes we have to experience certain situations in order to rise to reflection many aspects that should be deepened in order to improve as a society and also in pro of our well being. Today, two months have passed from those early morning hours in my bedroom which I had rented just fifteen days before ina male boarding house.

I remember that the owners told me before renting the room, that they did not accept sick people or with health problems. I have always been a healthy young man, who gets along with no problems so that comment rather gave me a bit of pity due to the discrimination.

What happened?

After closing my eyes the night before, I only remember that I was standing up, dizzy and with a huge headache, I was in my underwear in front of the house’s owners. What do you think? That October 13th at dawn I suffered an epileptic  convulsion while I was asleep, event that I first experienced at my twenty seven years of age. The night before like any other day, I had been working in my computer until midnight and due to my job I always went to bed somewhat tired.

Coincidentally, I had given a relative’s phone number to my renters when I handed in all my documents required for the rental in case of an emergency.

What do I tell them? not even two weeks had passed by from the event. When my relative came, he calmed me down, and he was assured that they had heard loud screams in my room and after forcing their way in, they found me in a fetal position, convulsioning on the floor, that I had fallen from the bed and that I was unconscious (in time and space), aside from having my sphincter relaxed, and with a big bump in my forehead.

When my relative tells me that I was unconscious for one hour, the level of worry increased. They helped me go down the stairs since I had lost my equilibrium and when I was sitting in the car in route to a local medical center, I tried to do an exercise; touch one of my thumbs with all my other fingers, in both hands both left and right at the same time. And guess what? I could not take my fingers to my thumb, there was no coordination in my hands. I started to feel a huge fear, since knowing a little bit about the symptoms after a CVA, I was beginning to add and subtract.

The warning.

A month before it happened, I had been feeling frequent numbness in parts of my face, and nervous tics all over my body, but since I had a kind of accelerated rhythm of life, with many worries, and many work hours at the computer without giving space to other activities which could balance out my life rhythm plus the stress level that I had put on my shoulders due to many personal, social, and work circumstances were very high. The situation in Venezuela is delicate, and as amyoung professional every day we try to face the economic situation that we are going through so I thought that all those symptoms were normal due to my accelerated way of life although I did not doubt of going to a medical center.

Sure enough, I was diagnosed that I was living an anxiety frame that had a stress collapse and as a cure I was prescribed a dose of anxiolytic drugs and they recommended me to take life calmer, to reduce my working hours at the computer, to rest and sleep more, to try not to work overnight and to understand that the brain needs all of that in order to function properly.

The situation concretely.

That is how in that early morning hours they took me to an emergency medical center, I perfectly recall that I had problems speaking and that I did not have coordination on my movements. (I worried very much thinking that I had suffered a cerebral ischemia). I was thinking so much about that, it was unavoidable not to do it. When they did the tomography everything was alright “only a hematoma on my forehead due to the fall from the bed”.

The account of the people who aided me was a key to find out what had happened to me, which is why I was diagnosed with having suffered a primo convulsion. I was hospitalized for twenty four hours receiving medication to control what had happened a neurologist evaluated my coordination and speech, and everything was in order. (I only had a strong headache due to the fall).

The reason why it happened. 

 I was discharged with an order to perform an electroencephalogram (EGG), the results once done and according to the specialist was that I have an “unspecified  abnormality in the electric discharges of my brain”. In the study the convulsive manifestations and a completely irritated brain are present, but since there was nothing specific, they gave an order to have an Angiographic Cerebral Magnetic Resonance, in order to look and determine the total real state of my brain. On the other side the Dr. recommended me to go to a Cardiologist, since from birth I have a prolapsed in both mitral valves and she considered that this specialist should also evaluate me in order to discard that this pathology had something to do with the adverse situation that I had lived, matter that fortunately was not present.

There were many days of uncertainty and instability because every day I found  myself reading and listening to stories about people that had suffered cerebral  injuries and the anguish of thinking that something wrong was going on in my brain was really one of the most obscure experiences of my life. Additionally,  the difficulty to have the study done due to the delicate medical situation in  Venezuela.  I used to say “it is not possible that this is happening to me”. After getting the results from the MR, thanks God everything was in order and my brain is healthy and that is very important.

What happened then? What happened that a young, healthy, non smoker  person had escaped from a cerebral short circuit?

Up to now, no study determines it, but according to diverse researches done these past years, the psychosomatic illnesses have a lot to do with this type of situations. Although it is hard to believe but the stress, the worries, and the  problems can cause these brunts in live, because my dear friends, if the rhythm of living is too accelerated it will cause it.  Today I understand the phrase in its broaddimension: “Take life with ease”.

Conclusion

Now I am medicated for a few months in order to control and help the brain to resume its stability, additionally I have reduced my working hours in the computer, I go to sleep earlier and I am also resuming a physical activity in order to ban the sedentary life that I was living due to the many activities that I was doing since they left no time. Aside from that, I had to leave the recently rented room due to the main requisite of the owners, ¨”we do not accept people with health problems’’. Sincerely, having lived this ordeal is incredible for me, how can it be possible that at this time and age in the XXI century, such inhumane criteria are kept, being very far from a good citizen and sanitary education.

It is necessary to duplicate efforts in order to educate the inhabitants, to make them understand that a person with a temporary or permanent medical condition should be included not excluded. It is simply a condition which that person had to go through and that should be supported, because as human beings we are all subject to experimenting adverse situations, thus we are going to need other people`s support.

I want to express my deep gratitude to all of the Stroke Therapy Revolution team who were by my side, offering orientation, advice, and help in a permanent manner. I want to add now my respect and admiration for all the people who have suffered a CVA, and who live daily discrimination, just or unjust, not deserved because of the apoplexy and that without a doubt should change. “TOGETHER WE SHOULD DO SOMETHING TO CHANGE IT”. I only had a short circuit and I have had to swallow a sour shot which I never thought experimenting, but without a doubt has left many messages that will be useful in the continuation of my communicational work with more passion, creating consciousness in our followers through our social network.

This is my story.
My name is Yorman Castillo.
Community Manager of Stroke Therapy Revolution social network.

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