<\/p>\n
For eight months, I kept bumping into door frames and dropping things.<\/p>\n
At first, I blamed my age.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m 80,\u201d I told myself. \u201cEverybody slows down.\u201d<\/p>\n
My children noticed too.<\/p>\n
My daughter asked why I kept knocking cups off the counter.<\/p>\n
I laughed it off.<\/p>\n
Then one Saturday, the senior center offered a free balance screening.<\/p>\n
I signed up mostly because they promised a $5 box lunch afterward.<\/p>\n
The nurse was cheerful.<\/p>\n
She asked me to stand on a foam pad and follow her finger with my eyes.<\/p>\n
I tried.<\/p>\n
But I kept leaning to the left.<\/p>\n
She frowned slightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain.\u201d<\/p>\n
I tried a second time.<\/p>\n
Still left.<\/p>\n
Then she asked me to smile.<\/p>\n
I smiled.<\/p>\n
She didn’t.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
This time, she watched my mouth carefully.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, she pulled a small light from her pocket, lifted my chin, and stared at the right side of my face.<\/p>\n
\u201cMa\u2019am\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Her voice had changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen did this start drooping?\u201d<\/p>\n
I froze.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn’t,\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n
She immediately reached for the wall phone.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon’t move.\u201d<\/p>\n
My stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat is it?\u201d<\/p>\n
She looked directly at me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you’re having a stroke.\u201d<\/p>\n
The $5 box lunch suddenly didn’t matter.<\/p>\n
Neither did my embarrassment.<\/p>\n
Neither did the fact that I had spent eight months telling myself everything was simply part of getting older.<\/p>\n
The nurse called emergency services and stayed beside me.<\/p>\n
The paramedics arrived within minutes.<\/p>\n
At the hospital, doctors rushed me through a series of tests.<\/p>\n
One doctor explained that I had experienced a stroke and that the symptoms might have been developing gradually before the emergency became obvious.<\/p>\n
I couldn’t stop thinking about the nurse.<\/p>\n
If she hadn’t noticed my smile…<\/p>\n
If she hadn’t tested my balance…<\/p>\n
If I had gone home believing I was simply getting old…<\/p>\n
I didn’t want to finish that thought.<\/p>\n
I spent several days in the hospital.<\/p>\n
Then came rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
Walking was difficult.<\/p>\n
My right hand was weak.<\/p>\n
Speaking sometimes took more effort than it should have.<\/p>\n
But I worked at it.<\/p>\n
Every morning.<\/p>\n
Every afternoon.<\/p>\n
Every frustrating session.<\/p>\n
My daughter visited almost every day.<\/p>\n
One afternoon, she brought me something wrapped in a paper bag.<\/p>\n
I opened it.<\/p>\n
A $5 box lunch.<\/p>\n
She smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never got yours that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
I laughed so hard that I started crying.<\/p>\n
The nurse who had found my symptoms later came to visit me during rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
I thanked her.<\/p>\n
She shook her head.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou came in for the screening,\u201d she said. \u201cYou did the important part.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat part?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Months later, I returned to the senior center.<\/p>\n
This time, I didn’t need a cane.<\/p>\n
I walked into the same room where the nurse had tested my balance.<\/p>\n
She smiled.<\/p>\n
I smiled back.<\/p>\n
And this time, she smiled too.<\/p>\n
I still sometimes bump into things.<\/p>\n
I still drop things occasionally.<\/p>\n
I’m still 80.<\/p>\n
But I don’t automatically blame everything on age anymore.<\/p>\n
And every time I see a senior dismissing a new change as \u201cjust getting older,\u201d I tell them my story.<\/p>\n
Because I learned something that changed how I look at aging:<\/p>\n
Getting older may explain some changes. It should never be an excuse to ignore a sudden or unusual one.<\/strong><\/p>\n And that little $5 box lunch?<\/p>\n I never did get to eat it.<\/p>\n But the screening I almost skipped may have given me something worth infinitely more.<\/p>\n More time.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cMa\u2019am\u2026 When Did This Start Drooping?\u201d For eight months, I kept bumping into door frames and dropping things. At first, I blamed my age. \u201cI\u2019m 80,\u201d I told myself. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/senglee168.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/senglee168.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/senglee168.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/senglee168.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/senglee168.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/senglee168.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23109,"href":"https:\/\/senglee168.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23108\/revisions\/23109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/senglee168.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/senglee168.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/senglee168.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}