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| Still here... Middlesex Centre, ON August 2026 This photo originally shared on Instagram |
On my way home from a fast, hot loop through the countryside, I came across road construction. As I threw my head over my shoulder to make a u-turn on the usually busy regional highway, I accidentally tore my left carotid artery.
A few hours later, after I had somehow made it home, the injury site sent clots into my brain and caused an ischemic stroke. My right side was paralyzed, and I could not speak.
I recovered because my wife and kids knew the signs and immediately called 911. I recovered because I live 10 minutes away from a world-leading research hospital filled with miracle workers who knew exactly what to do the moment I rolled through the doors. I recovered because I got the help I needed within the magic window that every stroke victim knows is key to their very survival. I recovered because I live in a country that has decided that health care is still something of a priority. I am insanely lucky.
I should have taken the hint from the universe that cycling was trying to kill me. Over the years, I had been doored, assaulted by a road-raging motorist, t-boned on a bike path, and hauled over by the cops.
I carry scars from them all, signs of a journey that hasn’t always been charmed, imperfections that remind me things don’t always follow a set plan.
Despite it all, a key milestone for my recovery was getting back on the bike again. I knew it would make me feel whole again.
Lying in a deliberately dark and quiet house for weeks afterward, I imagined that first pedal push, that feeling of the bike gathering momentum with each turn of the pedals. I played the movie countless times in my scrambled brain, hoping it would eventually be more than my imagination.
Soon enough I took that ride. And today, 13 years on, I stand at the very same crossroads where my life took an unplanned turn.
Not everyone gets to continue the journey. That weight will stay with me as I leave this intersection behind and push once more toward the horizon.
#strokeawareness #family #health #everything
Related:
START HERE: So, about that stroke - August 2014
#2: When even "thank you" seems lame - August 2014
#3: More stroke stuff... - August 2014
Stroke survivor shares his story, London Free Press, Aug 14, 2014
Coming up on Canada AM - Lookahead to February 2015 interview
Winding down the day that was - February 2015 - incl link to Canada AM/Heart/Stroke Month segment
Life at the crossroads - April 2015
Two years on... - August 2015
Three bonus years - August 2016
Four years later - August 2017
Five years on - August 2018
Luke Perry could have been me - or any of us - March 2019
The day everything changed - August 2019
Seven years on, August 2020
Eight years on, August 2021
#StrokeAwarenessMonth, the video, June 2022
Nine years on... August 2022
Ten years on... August 2023
Stroke Month, FAST, me, and maybe even you, June 2024
11 years on... August 2024
12 years on... August 2025
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