Hello you fantastic bunch, my name is Al and I live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. As all of you, I went through something life changing one Sunday morning on March 22nd, 2020…I had just eaten breakfast and felt a bit strange afterwards…I got up from the table and went to sit in the living room…I was feeling worse now with dizziness, heart rate racing and then I heard a tear in my head, like unzipping a ripper kinda sound, and then my blood pressure plummeted and literally heard the wind blow out of my ears like a huge”swoosh” sound…I looked at my wife and could barely say anything, I then had an incredible headache with a lump on the back of my neck…constant vomiting started and my wife called for an ambulance…they arrived and took me away to one of the best hospitals in North America called CHUM in Montreal…the head of the neurology dept. took over and had already decided I could be saved from the local scans that were sent to him previously…that said, I was told when I woke up 4 days later from an induced coma that I had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke due to a “classic” ruptured Fusiform Aneurysm and that it had bled about 6-7 cm’s (2.5-3 inches) on my brain. A kind hearted Haitian nurse was encouraging me on and once I could see her since my right eye was completely smudged and couldn’t hear so good, she said hello, hello handsome, you’ve been sleeping in my face for 4 days now 
…my name is Jacynthe, what is your name?..I looked at her with no response, I had no clue…she said that’s ok, we’ll try again later and smiled…I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW MY OWN NAME and once alone for a few minutes, I broke down…I tried so hard but couldn’t remember…as the day went on, I suddenly remembered the sound of my wife’s voice calling me Al…but couldn’t place her or make the connection, man I was lost…the difference I may have with some or all of you is that this happened just as a national lockdown occurred do to this new virus going around called COVID-19 at the time and everyone was literally freaking out, here in Canada anyway…this meant that I had to go through this alone, was not allowed visitors whatsoever, parents, siblings not even my wife…as another day went on, I just magically started to remember some things, like a massive wave of memories rushing back to me…I am bilingual and French first actually but my English is for some reason, what my brain chose to identify with…my French was terrible!! 
I was completely lost in my own native language, unreal! So, I spent 2 weeks at that hospital, alone and honestly…broken! I finally came home on April 4th, 20 lbs lighter and just extremely soar from the blood in my brain making its way down my body irritating my nerves as it goes by, this feels like getting hit with a baseball bat all day for another 2 weeks…my wife was my rock. She had read up on what happened to me and what I was going to go through, this was far from over. And some things were just out of my control, like my emotions and way of thinking. I’m a confident, successful man…6’1”, 200 lbs athletic and felt like I was nothing…literally, didn’t even feel like I should be here…my time had come and wasn’t worthy…APRIL last year was terrible guys…as the year went on, I got better and better, I pushed hard, actually maybe too hard but I climbed back up that hill and by September did my first 10k or the year…I still have some “ weird “ things going on in my head meaning cracking and pressures almost like stuff moving around in the there but the doc says it’s all normal and reassured me all is good after rescans showed all healed well and he was very pleased 6 months later… I will see him again this coming September for more scans then will be followed yearly for the rest of my life and that’s just fine with me. The tile I gave this read called:”NICE TO MEET ME AGAIN” was meant this way…for months and months I just couldn’t associate my person, name, body or anything with my brain…they just didn’t match, it made no sense…and finally now, a little more than a year later, I’m no longer walking in parallel with myself but towards myself…I found ME again, about 85-90% anyway and that could be my new normal and that’s ok! I love things again, nature and music, things that make me happy and smile like hearing a favourite song gets to me now so hey:”It’s nice to meet me again”…cheers!
Btw, I’m including a picture if that’s ok of me 6 months after and 8 months ago now already from the first 10k I did. Just hoping to inspire someone going through the same thing and to show that things really do get better! [image|375x500](upload://41b5CqZ2EDM0GgWFI2M8CF2ck85
.jpeg) image|375x500 … much love to you all and never quit, never give up life is too awesome xo
and am also 52. When it rupted I was 48. So I am counting all these months like a gift, totally donated.
and I warmly suggest it to those of you who want to try singing, no need to be good at it: fun and therapeutic!)
