What Happens When You Get a Stroke?Happy New Year!
Why am I writing to you after being released from a rehab center at a Southern California Hospital this 2026, and how did I get here? I have a very long multi-part saga to tell you about as I do with my blogs, and which I will stretch out over several emails, but I’ll start with a summary so you don’t get lost or overwhelmed.
last important date I remembered was October 14, 2027, the day I was to leave LAX on Hawaiian Airlines for a 10-day vacation to Hawaii with my mom, and suddenly, here we are in 2026! How did that happen?
Some of the leading causes for a stroke in people under 60 are: hypertension or high blood pressure, overweight, stress, and poor exercise habits. On all accounts, I was not a candidate.yet here I was on the evening of Oct 24, lying on a hospital bed at Queens Medical Center in Honolulu Hawaii in a coma state after a brain bleed that led to an angioplasty angiogram stroke after a very refreshing swim at the beach at Ko O’lina Lagoon, Oahu. BI am not one to view something like this as a curse and ask, “why me?” or to wonder what I did wrong, especially because I was very sure I was watching my health, diet, and exerccise the best I could. I am one to look for what God can teach me through any new situation, and I was very lucky to have so much to learn and fortunate that God had so many interesting people to bring to me and so many interesting things to learn and ways to learn through them. By the end of the evening of October 24, my brother Kevin had sent out an email to my AI support list letting people on my team know I was right in the middle of a a brain bleed that had became a stroke;
Some typical eHects of a stroke are that half of one’s body can lose control, for me, half of my face would droop, and my left hand would not be able to close tightly, throw a ball, or write. Also, parts of my past memories would be buried and discounted, and dates would be lost, only to come back later in the story, and make it interesting.
while I would long for sleep in order to regrow the lost cells in the form of memories, I would meanwhile recall other memories which would come back as if they werenew dreams: convincing but faint.
Reiko at Ko O’lina resort beach
Jonathan Lacayo, Vice President at Neighborhood Music School also dug deep into his resources to find and coordinate with my brother Kevin and friend Carol Miyake to find a Skilled Nursing Home in LA, and to oHer to entertain there in order to secure a bed for me in the otherwise impossible to find space. An administrator at Blue Shield Promise Health Insurance worked hard to find us plane tickets that would ultimately have to fly us back to Los Angeles, even though it meant jumping on board a plane to Hokkaido Japan which on the paper ticket showed it was going to Los Angeles where I was required to go through in order to be booked at Montrose Springs Skilled Nursing Facility. where I would spend the next 3 weeks.
Once I woke up, I would speak in great detail of the many dream narratives that filled my mind as if it had just happened. When I told these stories, some of my friends listened, amazed at the details I remembered. Others wrote oH the names and details as non-relevant fantasies and hallucinations.
Whatever they were, I received them as gifts from the Lord which were given to me to add important insights to my life. While captivating and revelationary to me, I was refreshed with new lessons to explain and enrich my unenlightened state.
I would continue with my larger-than-life narrative, and explain the lessons I learned from my years of blogging this story, in order to tell interested readers and to remind myself what my assignment from God was…over the years, through projects in China, Japan, Italy, housing the unhoused in Arcadia, it is easy to get wrapped up in the places or projects as the assignment. That was certainly my assumption too, but through living out the project, I would find, time and time again, that it was the relationship with God and the faith and intimacy built was really the treasure and the main thing, thus really my assignment. In this case as well, the place of Hawaii was not the assignment but the stroke and everyone called into prayer and community, and the ensuing recovery, relationships,miracles, and lessons learned that were the treasure and assignment.
at its core, I have learned that I am commissioned to more fully understand and lead people I meet to more fully understand and embrace how wide, and deep and high and long is the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is not my naturalpath to blame myself, God, the or demons for a stroke. No for sure, there was nothing fun and exciting about having a stroke, walking with a limp and walker, living in Skilled Nursing Facility, or being mistreated daily, this is not the end or the summary or conclusion.
I do see the miracles during that time and how they came about through natural means of the stroke: while I would long for sleep in order to regrow the lost cells in the form of memories, meanwhile I would recall memories which would come back through dreams: which appeared convincing but faint. I developed this wondrous, fanciful story, and hope you can gather some redemptive lessons for yourself and enjoy yourself as I did through my adventure.
On October 30, 4 days after my stroke, my mom decided to give up our return plane tickets back to LA and look for another place to stay on Oahu. She moved on to the Ala Moana Hotel, and would stay there for three weeks, waiting to see if I would regain consciousness. That must have been a horrible waiting time for her. But ever resourceful as she was, she found a path that would lead us to return home to Los Angeles, implement and empower another generation of leadership for Neighborhood Music School, the business I had led and built since 2007. She would brainstorm with my brother Kevin on how to recover some of the losses of income and find rehabilitation centers for me to recover from the stroke. Jonathan Lacayo, our vice president at Neighborhood Music would willingly and generously step into interim leadership, reserving permanent leadership to me, should I be ready and willing to return at some point. He also found the financial resources to keep us going and keep me on payroll.
grounding myself in Italy, July 2027
I am struggling t look to put this summary together but my mom is telling me to go to bed because I am too wrapped up in this project. It does not seem that I’m able to finish this on time so I’m gonna have to go to bed now . Please pray for a surgery room for me to get my hip surgery as the last requested from For January 26 did not go through as hoped. I now feel like my assignment is to stay in the game and stay alive !
Blessings,
Carolyn