My Adventure: I have had a complete wonderful life and at at the same time found I missed the simple things in life. I am a native Long Islander from Queens New York and later grew up in the hamptons. I was one of the "po" folks not a richie rich. I served my time in the army and was honorably discharged as a sergeant(Military Police). From there my career ended as a detective captain in the homicide division of the civilian police department. I then became a water superintendant in a medium sized city in Virginia. To me I was going places, I was career oriented and on a mission. I had police, rescue, fire , all of the basic job knowledge to shoot for City Manager. I had just returned from lunch and was seated at my desk.

My eyes started to burn badly, I got dizzy and I jumped up in a panic. I then fell over across my desk and onto the floor. I could not move my left side. I crawled to the phone on the wall and got help. I was taken to the hospital where they said I had a migrane and sent me home. Funny thing, I had no headache. Three days later, I was called in for an electrical problem at work. This time I fell off a pipe and sounded like I was drunk.

Well, they discovered I had two strokes on each side of my brainstem. My arteries are clean as teflon in the front and heart. It seems I was born with smaller than average vertbral arteries in the back of the head and I guess cheese fries got to me.

I lost basically my left side and depth perception. 3 weeks in hospital and 6 months at rehab with the same drive and desire I had in the beginnning. But it took time for me to realize I could not do executive functions any more. My brain and I were different.

I love life more now, blades of grass, birds, leaves squirrels are a beauty to behold. I am not financially as bad off as others since I now get social security disability and a state pension. I have gone from 6 figures to the lower(very lower) five, but I feel I am a better person. I am alive....strange...but alive

Email Chris