When I last posted about my medical condition, I was at home recovering from a successful surgery to clean out my left carotid artery, a stenosis (blockage) in which was the cause of my (mildish) stroke back on November 12.

For the first 24-28 hours after discharge, the patient is not left alone except for brief periods, just in case there are any belated after affects, which in my case there were.

Around 1 AM my blood pressure was u, so I took a pill to lower it, and tried to go back to sleep, with little success.   About an hour later, when it was still too high (which could have been from anxiety), I took a second.   That was within the parameters of my discharge instructions.  I slept for a bit, got up at arounded 2:30 AM and checked again — it was still too high.   I read through the discharge instructions carefully and followed the directions to call the 24 hour line in the surgical recovery ward where I had returned after the operation.  As I was talking with the duty nurse, my wife noted that I had a droop on one side of my mouth and I realized that my tongue felt thick.  I was immediately instructed to have her bring me to the emergency room, which is about 2 blocks away.  We were worried.