Larry and I went to UCSD in La Jolla to see the students of Dr. Evans. When we arrived, there was a reserved space for us. Larry took a picture of the sign, but sadly no others (the battery died). In the auditorium, Dr. Mark Kritchevsky, another doctor and teacher, had me sign a waiver that I agreed to having it podcasted (audio only).
The auditorium had seating for 200 and was about half full. There were two big projection screens up front on either side, one to display his slides and the other, a close-up of the three chairs where we sat. The students were all pretty young and in their first year of Medical school. Dr. Evans said that they wouldn't be tested on anything today, a day off, woo-hoo!
There were two patients, me and an older women with a neurological ailment. We were up front in guest chairs with arms and casters. Dr. Evans introduced me first. He's a fast talker to one who has experienced a stroke. There was only a hour to get through a lot of material. He asked me some questions like "describe what you see" and "stand up and walk around" while he described my brace and my progress. I added that the brain needed a lot of sleep in the beginning to repair. I do remember one question in particular. When he asked me what was the most difficult, I said fastening my bra from behind with my non-dominate hand. He said every 16-year-old boy has the same challenge, that got a laugh. There was time for one student question which I had a little trouble with because it was long. My brain only handles short, concise questions. I think it was how Larry and I handled being asked the same questions over and over. You gotta do what the doctor asks you and sometimes, in the early days, you have good days and bad.
I traded places (Chinese fire drill) and the Doctor told the other woman's story. That was fascinating, too. He wrapped up by saying that there was no cause for my stroke. I was healthy with no classic risk factors: High blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes. He invited students to come down for more questions. One guy who studied strokes at UCLA wanted to know symptoms leading up to the stroke. Answer: Two weeks before: Fatigued walking Josie, migraines, what I now know was a TIA two days before (he said that's consistent with a dissection). There was a psychology student sitting in on the class and she asked what doctors did to motivate me and I said it was the therapists. I only saw the physiatrist for 5 minutes just to check in, no pain. My motivation was that I wanted to get better and in the beginning I didn't know how long that would be. Being productive with my non-dominate hand (painting) helped, too.
[ This post was completed in 4 sections. I first emailed my mom, aunt, and a friend about the morning. I then pasted the email to this blog and described the setting in more detail and saved it. The next day, I added the picture from Larry's camera and more descriptions like finding out Dr. Mark's name by googling UCSD's neurology department and seeing a video of him (lucky break) and more details that I remembered. Only then did I publish it and the next day added this chronology. ]
