You're sitting at your kitchen table, drinking a cup of tea and reading the morning newspaper when suddenly, everything changes. You lose your grip on your tea and it falls to the floor and shatters. You start to get up, thinking you need to take care of the mess, but your body jerks to the side. Your head is seized with a pounding pain.

The room around you is fuzzy and starts to spin. You feel a pulling sensation in the left side of your face and it travels down the neck, shoulders, sides, and legs. Now you can't feel anything on that side at all. You're horrified. You open your mouth to yell out to your wife, but all that comes out is a strangled string of nonsensical words. What is happening? Why isn't your wife coming? Wait. Why are you in the kitchen? Weren't you just sweeping the walk? The pain in your head....

You are having a stroke and unless you rush to the hospital right away, you may not survive it. You may live, but without immediate medical attention, you may not be able to recover and be your same old self. Right now, you don't know what is happening. You know there is something seriously wrong. You keep trying to call out...

Did you know that 75 to 80% of people who suffer a stroke don't seek help? You can have a stroke or a "mini-stroke" and go on thinking that it was some kind of "episode". In the meantime, that clot is just waiting to bring you back there again. Without the proper medication within 3 hours, you might die, or set yourself up for another one.

Know the signs. Recognizing them could save your life or the life of a loved one.