Postcard from the Hospital
Some personal news
My personal news is that I had a stroke. I’ll be able to send out newsletters only irregularly while I recover. In the meantime, I hope you’ll bear with me.
Two weeks ago, while I was working on a piece about how the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade would affect the November midterms, I had a stroke.
I actually appear to have had two separate strokes in short succession, one in my cerebellum and one my medulla. Because my strokes were in the lower regions of my brain, I didn’t have all the classic symptoms of strokes—facial drooping, arm weakness, slurred speech—and neither I nor the first doctors to examine me initially recognized my strokes. If I had used one of the newer diagnostic mnemonics like BE-FAST, which include balance and eye issues among the warning signs of a stroke, I might have realized what was happening earlier. If you think you might be having a stroke, assume you are having a stroke until doctors can rule it out.
After the doctors had finally stabilized me, I was unable to walk or focus my eyes. The strokes didn’t seem to have affected my ability to think or speak, but I had near constant, debilitating vertigo, and had lost my ability to sense temperature on one side of my body. I’ve made great progress since then and am now able to walk unassisted, but I still have double vision and get severe vertigo if I do too much. I was unlucky to have had strokes at a relatively young age, but I’m very lucky the strokes I had weren’t worse. They could have left me paralyzed or even killed me. In any case, if you’re wondering why I haven’t written since I went on vacation—when there has been so much important news to write about—the answer is that I’ve been in the hospital for the last two weeks.
I should be discharged next week. I hope to be able to return to work and finish my piece on the midterms soon, but I may not be able to write as frequently or as regularly as I’d like for a little while. I hope you’ll bear with me—please don’t unsubscribe!—while I work on recovering. Your support means a lot to me.
Somehow I managed to go over 400 subscribers while I was away on vacation. That’s largely thanks to my friends at the PastPresentFuture, Hindsight 20/20, Fortnightly Forecasts, Too Long to Tweet, and Dot Macro newsletters, all of which I recommend you read. While I recover, I also recommend you check out the new Swift Centre, spearheaded by my friend and superforecaster Michael Story. The Swift Centre’s team of first-rate forecasters has already produced forecasts on the war in Ukraine, the spread of monkeypox, and the supply of Russian gas to Germany.
Hi Robert, I’m relieved to know that you haven’t lost your cognitive abilities. I wish you continued progress in your recovery. At least the view from the hospital isn’t bad.
Get well!