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Stroke Maven

living life step-by-step. My goal is to help connect people/resources/options.

14/08/2025

Pregnancy Complications & Stroke Risk
A large Dutch study found that certain pregnancy complications can raise your risk of ischemic stroke—sometimes decades later.

This is about awareness & prevention, not fear. Many of these complications may share vascular causes with stroke.

If you’ve experienced any of these, ask your doctor about earlier cardiovascular & stroke screening—even years after pregnancy.

Your future health is worth it. 🫀

Here's a link to the study: https://www.psychiatrist.com/news/pregnancy-issues-can-double-stroke-risk-in-younger-moms/

13/08/2025

One of the hardest parts of my stroke story isn’t just what happened—
it’s what didn’t happen.

The care I never received.
The warning signs that were brushed off.
The voices that silenced mine.

I wasn’t just fighting for my life.
I was fighting to be believed.

It took everything I had to say—again and again: “This is real, my arm is moving on its own.”

I’m not sharing this to sit in the pain.
I’m sharing it because it’s still happening.

Too often.
To too many.
Especially to women.

We can’t change what we don’t name.

12/08/2025

Every survivor has someone behind the scenes.
For me, that was Maya and Rob.

They fought for me.
They showed up.
They never left.

When I couldn’t use my voice, they didn’t stop using theirs.
This isn’t just my story—it’s ours.

To every caregiver, partner, friend, or family member walking beside someone through the storm:
We see you. We honor you. We thank you.

11/08/2025

🎙 Advocate Tip:
If something feels wrong, speak up.
Even if it’s awkward. Even if they brush you off. Even if your voice shakes.

Being your own advocate can be the difference between being dismissed—and getting help.

Only you know your body and when something’s off.

Your voice is a powerful part of your care.
Use it.

10/08/2025

When I was a kid, my parents would put me on a train to Boston to spend spring break with my big brother, Alan—we were born ten years and one week apart.

We’d go to cultural festivals on the Commons, wander through the MFA, sit in on grassroots MassPIRG meetings, or just walk down Newbury Street.

Alan was the one who taught me to care—to pay attention to social and environmental issues, to think critically, to listen to music from around the world. He shaped how I see the world, and how I show up in it.

Yesterday marked eight years since his passing. He died from a glioblastoma brain tumor that was discovered after he had a stroke.

I miss him every single day.

This ride, this story, this whole journey—it's for him too.
Today, I dedicate my ride for the ones we carry with us. ❤️

09/08/2025

The morning of my stroke, we had planned to hike in Boulder to honor my brother Alan on the 3rd anniversary of his passing. Instead, I ended up in the hospital on a crazy rollercoaster.

It never occurred to me—until just a few days ago—that if we hadn’t planned that hike, I probably wouldn’t have even been awake when my stroke happened. That opened up a tsunami of what ifs..

Grief and trauma collided that day in ways I’ve just started to unpack. We're having dinner outside tonight, because nature mattered to him, and he mattered to me.

Here’s what I know for sure: His memory is in every step I take and every ounce of strength I show. ❤️

08/08/2025

August 8, 2020. The day I had a stroke—and no one knew.
Not me. Not the EMTs. Not the ER nurses. Not the ER doctor.

They told my daughter it was a panic attack. They made me walk out the front door and in that moment, everything split—
my life before… and everything that came after.

The Ring camera footage from that morning is hard to watch.
Maybe I didn’t look like someone in crisis. But I was.

I’m sharing this now—not for shock, but for truth.
Because stroke doesn’t always look the way we expect.
Because being dismissed delayed my care.
Because stories like mine are not rare—and that should scare all of us.

Awareness isn’t optional. It’s urgent.

07/08/2025

People often talk about resilience like it’s something you build from scratch, or choose in a single moment.

But I believe it’s something we already have—something that lives inside us quietly, until life gives us a reason to notice it.

Looking back, I’d been drawing on resilience for years—without even realizing it.

When my almost 10-year marriage ended.
When I became a single mom.
When my abuela died in my arms.
When a former boyfriend stole from me.
When I lost my brother.
And when I had a stroke, the day before the third anniversary of his death.

I didn’t call it resilience at the time. I just kept going.

Now, I see it more clearly:
Not something I gained, but something I uncovered.
Strength, shaped by life—and already within me.

06/08/2025

“We don’t have anything to do.” That’s what they said as they made me walk out of the house—while having a stroke.

Almost 5 years ago, I looked “okay.” I sounded “fine.” But I wasn’t. And no one caught it - because they didn't believe what I was telling them.

This is part one of my story. About what it’s like to know something’s wrong in your body—and still be dismissed. I have Ring footage from that moment. And I’m sharing it to raise awareness, not shock.

Because stories like mine happen all the time.
And that’s exactly the problem.

04/08/2025

🧠 Stroke Awareness Tip:
Not all strokes look the same—and not all symptoms fit into the FAST acronym. Here are a few others you shouldn’t ignore:
🚶‍♀️ Sudden imbalance or trouble walking
👁 Blurred or double vision in one or both eyes
🧩 Sudden confusion or difficulty understanding
🖐 Neglect (ignoring one side of the body or space)
🗣 Slurred or unusual speech—even if brief

If something feels off, act fast. Trust your instincts.
Call 911. Early treatment can save lives—and function. Raising awareness is why I'll be riding in CycleNation on September 4.

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