A few months before her 39th birthday, Sherry Pinkstaff challenged herself to run for at least 15 minutes every morning – and she did, often jogging along the ocean near her home and sometimes pushing a stroller carrying her two young children.
“I can’t tell you how many times I get ideas, personally and professionally, when I’m out for a run,” said Pinkstaff, a physical therapist, college professor and researcher. “Getting my body moving like that really greases the mind too.”
One morning several months later, she woke up in her Atlantic Beach, Florida, home and laid in bed thinking about the day to come. At first, nothing seemed out of sorts, but when she tried to get up, she wondered why there was a toy in the bed. The object in her way was her arm. Standing up, she felt “cloudy … not quite right.”
When Pinkstaff woke up her husband, Kevin, he noticed the right side of her face was drooping and her speech was slurred. She also had weakness in her right arm and leg. He called 911. An ambulance arrived within minutes.
“Everybody is looking at you, but you can’t talk,” Pinkstaff said. “It’s a very scary and vulnerable feeling.”
She remembers feeling the pressure in her leg and head. “It felt very strange,” she said.
“That really limits the richness of your ability to communicate,” she said. “In my job, you communicate fine details and nuance.”
“With stroke, time lost is brain lost,” she said. “We should all be responsible for learning the signs and symptoms of stroke, because we can be somebody’s hero.”
