It seems my brain has revolted against me. I hope the following post makes sense – I’m not entirely sure I’m over it.

It started last night while I was driving to a coffee shop, to work on a short story I plan to submit to a new anthology. I began getting blank spots in my vision–the “s” was missing at the end of the word “McDonald’s,” for instance–which I know is an indication that a migraine is coming. Migraines like this, for me, usually come without pain, so I figured I’d be fine to continue on my way as long as I picked up some Advil. I stopped at the dollar store and walked around for a bit to see if the blind spots would clear, but they only got worse. Yet by the time I found the Advil and got to the checkout, it had completely cleared up. So off I went.

I got something to drink, took my Advil, and sat down to work. I began to get a mild headache, so I held off on writing for a while. Once I felt fine, I got out my notebook, put the pen to the paper, and couldn’t remember what I was going to write. Hmmm… I thought about it for a few seconds and then remembered the word I wanted was “snooze.” I got the S-N-O-O on the page and couldn’t for the life of me envision what the next letter was supposed to be. I was relieved about ten seconds later when I got it. Off to the next sentence.

I vaguely recalled I wanted to write, “I’ve never been much of a dreamer.” It took me a few tries, but I finally got the sentence written on the page. I thought it was a bit weird that I wasn’t able to concentrate, but I wasn’t too concerned. Yet. Seems my letter of the day yesterday was “v.” It was all I really managed. This is what I wrote:

Snoove

“I give have been a dreamer.”

I realized this when I reread it about ten minutes later. I also realized I had to get to the hospital.

Fast forward to 3:10am: I walked home (thank goodness I only live 15 minutes from the hospital–I’m not allowed to drive) with a diagnosis that it may have actually been a migraine, but it could also have been a mini-stroke. The doctor at the emergency said that though I didn’t have any other symptoms, I should treat it like a stroke as a precaution. I’m going for a CT scan and an ultrasound this afternoon (don’t believe what they tell you about wait times that kill people in Canada!) and after I get a blood test, I have to go to a stroke specialist to get an all clear.

Now I’m going to try to get some sleep. Three hours and twenty minutes with 31 minutes awake/restless in between (thanks, Fitbit) wasn’t enough.

This dramatic post is brought to you by Just Jot it January, and in particular, prompted by the word “revolt,” provided by Sandra! Thank you so much, Sandra! She hasn’t written a JusJoJan post yet, but I’ll link her blog again here. Please go and say hi! To participate in the prompt, please visit this post, where you’ll find the rules and you can leave your link in the comments.