A Change of Plans
We spent 7 days enjoying the sites and history of London and planned to travel to Oxford on August 9, 2013 for a few days before our scheduled flight home. Mike hadn't been feeling well for a couple of days. He would go into the city with Tenika and I but he was sluggish and needed to sit and rest often. He insisted that he didn't need to go to the doctor. On August 8, we were in the hotel lobby talking with family and business colleagues back home via Skype. Mike said he was tired and headed to bed. I stayed in the lobby for a while longer talking with the kids. Mike was already in bed when I arrived back in our hotel room. It was nearly 2 a.m. so I quickly fell asleep.
I awoke the next morning because of a funny noise in the room. I opened my eyes to see Mike sitting on the bed leaning in a strange way to one side. He was making strange noises and a water bottle was spilled all over the bed. Mike had had high blood pressure for years so I immediately asked him to stick out his tongue. It came out sideways and I knew he had had a stroke. My eyes were still coming out of sleep and adjusting as Tenika and I turned on lights in the room. I hurried to the phone to call the front desk and ask for emergency help but I couldn't read the buttons on the phone without my glasses and, in my panic, I couldn't find them. In the meantime, Mike tried to get up off the bed but fell down into the space between the two queen beds that were in the room.
Finally finding the appropriate button, I reached the front desk of the slough Marriott and told them what had happened. They immediately sent someone to our room and, seeing Mike's condition, they called an ambulance. Time became a blur as Tenika and I hurried to get dressed and gathered essentials to take with us from the hotel room. The ambulance came and paramedics were soon in our room evaluating Mike's condition. They were skilled and very helpful but struggled to find a way to get Mike out from between the beds. Mike had gained a lot of weight in the past year and weighed about 265 pounds. He could not use the right side of his body at all and also could not communicate. The Marriott hotel staff was amazing. We were scheduled to check out of the hotel that morning but they told us to just leave everything in the room and it would be fine. Tenika and I climbed into the ambulance with Mike and the paramedics knowing only that we were heading to a hospital somewhere. It was a huge blessing that only about 30 minutes away was a town called High Wycombe that had a specialty stroke unit serviced by skilled physicians some of whom came from Oxford to treat patients.
Here are pictures of the emergency room entrance and the hospital in High Wycombe.
I awoke the next morning because of a funny noise in the room. I opened my eyes to see Mike sitting on the bed leaning in a strange way to one side. He was making strange noises and a water bottle was spilled all over the bed. Mike had had high blood pressure for years so I immediately asked him to stick out his tongue. It came out sideways and I knew he had had a stroke. My eyes were still coming out of sleep and adjusting as Tenika and I turned on lights in the room. I hurried to the phone to call the front desk and ask for emergency help but I couldn't read the buttons on the phone without my glasses and, in my panic, I couldn't find them. In the meantime, Mike tried to get up off the bed but fell down into the space between the two queen beds that were in the room.
Finally finding the appropriate button, I reached the front desk of the slough Marriott and told them what had happened. They immediately sent someone to our room and, seeing Mike's condition, they called an ambulance. Time became a blur as Tenika and I hurried to get dressed and gathered essentials to take with us from the hotel room. The ambulance came and paramedics were soon in our room evaluating Mike's condition. They were skilled and very helpful but struggled to find a way to get Mike out from between the beds. Mike had gained a lot of weight in the past year and weighed about 265 pounds. He could not use the right side of his body at all and also could not communicate. The Marriott hotel staff was amazing. We were scheduled to check out of the hotel that morning but they told us to just leave everything in the room and it would be fine. Tenika and I climbed into the ambulance with Mike and the paramedics knowing only that we were heading to a hospital somewhere. It was a huge blessing that only about 30 minutes away was a town called High Wycombe that had a specialty stroke unit serviced by skilled physicians some of whom came from Oxford to treat patients.
Here are pictures of the emergency room entrance and the hospital in High Wycombe.
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