I start drooling. My vision grows dimmer, the periphery beginning to blur. My eyes feel like they're rolling into the back of my head. I lean to the side, am about to topple over when my knees buckle, and I collapse to the ground. When I regain consciousness five minutes later, ems workers are standing all around me.
T hus begins a series of misdiagnoses.
An hour after arriving at the hospital, I am fully recovered, my speech normal, my left arm mine again, all of which makes the doctors think I was probably dehydrated. I tell them I was drinking tons of water. They take a cat scan, find nothing, and send me home. These things happen, the doctors say. Okay, if you say so.