Jittery Birds - Dalgety Bay

This is the only time I've been out shooting this week. The day before I took this ( Monday ) I had an extremely frightening "mini-stroke" or TIA at 4am. Just for ten minutes I lost the use of my left side in it's entirety. I remember showing Rachel by picking my arm up with my right hand and letting it fall because I also found it really hard to make sense of it, struggling for words or understanding. Luckily, I could say "999".

I'm fine now, if still a little shaken up by it. As it happened while I was sleeping, I'm still slightly reticent about closing my eyes at night. With a 7 year old daughter to care for, it's caused me to assess myself very harshly.

So I'm taking it very easy, possibly overly so, until I go to see the specialist next week. Most frustrating is that I can't use the car.

The next day I took this shot, along with these. Photography really has a huge calming effect on my system. It's my meditation and possibly medication too.

I'd ask anyone who reads this to make sure they know the symptoms of stroke and mini stroke. The faster the action you can take in the event of it happening in front of you ( 999 ), the more chance of a happy outcome.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Stroke/Pages/Symptoms.aspx