Personal Health Update

[Frank Hagan]

On April 3rd, 2025 while visiting my daughter in Wichita, KS, I suffered a hemorrhagic stroke (brain bleed). I spent 5 days in the ICU and then an additional 10 days in a rehab hospital. I was cleared to fly home on Apr. 22 and have been recovering at home since then. I've been retired for 3 years so I didn't have work to contend with.

 

Physically, I've regained all my regular functions, I can walk, do all my regular personal things like dressing myself, etc. I still have some "mental fog" (like a bad hangover) and some tremendous headaches. Speech is OK, but the left side of my face is numb, like when you have dental work. The doc gave me some stronger stuff for the headaches, but so far Tylenol works fine. I don't seem to have any memory deficits, but can get overwhelmed  with complex decision making. And my ability to talk on the phone has crashed; it's very hard for me to follow conversations on the phone. I also have a ton of fatigue that sets in with any activity which they tell me is common and should improve over time.

 

In the ICU I had to remember to not joke around. They ask you stupid questions to test your mental acuity. What year is it, what city I am in, who is President, etc. I took these very seriously and ultra-literally, because if you screw it up you never get out of there. One day the nurse showed me drawings of several common household things and pointed to a chair.

 

Nurse: "Can you identify this?"

Me: "Yes."

Nurse, after a short pause: "Well what is it?"

Me: "Its a drawing." (I'm thinking this is a trick question testing my ability to tell drawings from real items or something)

Nurse: "What is a drawing of?"

Me: "A chair."

 

I successfully identified drawings of plants, light bulbs and a cat on that page.

 

Transferring to the rehab hospital, I ran into another mental acuity test that I failed with my mega-literal brain:

 

Doctor: "Can you count down from 20 to zero by threes?"

Me: "No, you cannot"

Doctor: "Well, try anyway."

Me: "No. It's impossible. 20 isn't divisible by 3, so you would go 20, 17, 14, 11, 8, 5, 2 and then skip right over zero to -1. It is impossible".

Doctor, quietly: "OK, you can do it."

Me, quietly: "It's still impossible."

 

So other than being stupidly-literal, which my wife assures me predates the stroke, I'm doing well. Fatigue and headaches seem to be my "parting gifts" from the stoke. I share this just to explain my absence here for the last few weeks. I'm able now to log in and use the computer as I did before.

 

[Captain Tim]

Very happy to hear you are on the mend.

[Frank Hagan]

Thanks! The last lingering effects I can manage OK.

[Jonathan M. Cohn]

Frank, I hope you continue to see improvement. I know hard it can be having health challenges. Often accepting the new normal is the most difficult part. Good luck. Messing-about is a great site for small boat enthusiasts and I hope you will plan for her to continue in the future. If I can do anything or you need a sounding board, please let me know. 

 

Jonathan

[Frank Hagan]

Thanks, Jonathan. I continue to do better day by day, so I'm really lucky.