By Steve Mallory

Unfortunately, my life without central pain was short lived! Approximately 30 days to be exact, but as I look back on it there were other symptoms to my body that were causing discomfort. I just cannot win! On one hand, there was no pain but I had mysterious itching all over my body. Now, I have about 75% of the pain back but the itching is all gone! I guess I have to take whatever I get!

This episode is probably common, in some respects, to almost all stroke survivors. It seems that my body is completely unpredictable. My health was severely impacted by my stroke and I don’t know what it will respond to. Earlier this week, my urine had a pink tinge and was dark gold. My wife and I thought I either had a urinary tract infection or a kidney stone. Today, it was normal color again. I never ran a fever or had additional pain.

Why am I telling you this in the newsletter? I’m just trying to hopefully reach the 1 or 2% of our subscribers who also have the weird health symptoms and wonder if this is normal. Normal? Welcome to life as a stroke survivor!

In organization news, I have decided that I hate America On-line! Members from AOL email me with questions and I cannot get my reply delivered. I guess it’s their spam blocker sending my email back. Anyway, I’m sick and tired of this happening so I decided to open my own AOL account. Anybody from AO Hell can now email me at ceostrokenet@aol.com. Please use this address if you are a member of The Stroke Network and America On-line. If you emailed me before at smallory@strokenetwork.org and never received a reply, now you know why!

September 23 is our Annual Golf Tournament fundraiser. Wish us luck! If you know anyone who would like to sponsor a hole in memory of someone who died from a stroke, please let me know. We will post a plaque at a golf hole in their honor. Sponsorship starts at $100. Email me at smallory@strokenetwork.org or ceostrokenet@aol.com.

 Prayers to William Moyer, aka foxnix, who lives in the south, near where the hurricane hit. He is without power but is otherwise okay. Prayers to everyone else affected by the hurricane.