I've decided to finally write down (well, type in) my entire health story, as I keep retelling bits, and frankly, I have no clue who knows what bits. So, this is a semi-complete look at what went wrong, how my recovery was, and where I am at.

In the late summer of 2009, and I do not recall the dates well, but it was after the start of June, I lost consciousness, but not awakeness. My missus decided it was prudent to rush me to emergency medical care. I think she threw me in a cab, but I don't recall it. To St. Joe's, aka St. Joseph's Health Centre, a run-down hospital with fantastic staff, and close to home, relatively.

After an unknown amount of time and/or tests, they diagnosed meningitis, and decided they were not the best hospital to treat me, so I was moved by ambulance (with staff with me) to St. Mike's, which has close to the finest trauma centre in the world, and is in the same "network" as St. Joe's.

As per most cases of meningitis, they had to drill a hole in my skull to release the pressure, but during the down time, I had for lack of a better term, a large stroke. One of my lungs collapsed, the works. So, tracheotomy time.

They shipped me initially to the ICU, then the HDU (these are not common; they are just ICU lite, you still get watched 24/7, but it's not as dire, one on one as an ICU) and when I was nice and boring, and the hallucinations mostly gave in to vivid and dull dreams, they moved me to a regular ward.

By this point, it was very clear the stroke had done major damage. The brain damage was luckily minor, mostly an even shorter attention span and some hallucinations, but the physical damage remains.

I can't use my right side very well, my right ear is deaf (tested), my right eye is healed closed (another long story there) because facial paralysis keeps me from closing it, which wreaked hell on my cornea. The eye is fine, but it was like looking through frosted glass.

So that's the oldest stuff, with a dash of now. Next time, it will be West Park, Humber River, then West Park again. Oh, and another tracheotomy.