Peter David Stroke

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RadConsv
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Peter David Stroke

Post by RadConsv »

I hope he gets well soon. Met him at NYCC and so glad i got to talk to him. I hope he gets well very soon! taken from his website...


As stated yesterday on his web log, Peter had a stroke. So we are at the beginning of what is going to be a long road. We have a diagnosis, which is a small stroke in the Pons section of his brain. Now we have to figure out where we go from here and how we get Peter back to what he was before the stroke. We know that a total recovery is slim because damage to the brain doesn’t go away but the brain can be trained to work around the damage and give Peter back what he has lost.

I am dealing with a lot of woulda, coulda, and shoulda issues right now. But we are where we are and we are working out a plan of recovery.

What happened was that we were in Disney Hollywood Studios having just had lunch at the Prime Time Café. We were walking to the front gate because we were off to Animal Kingdom to see a friend of ours perform in the Finding Nemo Show. Peter had been tired and also not sleeping well the past week or so. He had been taking naps in the afternoon to catch up on the sleep that was eluding him at night. He told me that he had blurry vision in his right eye. The way he described it to me sounded like an ocular migraine so we took him back to the Hotel and went onto Animal Kingdom. We got back and he was working on his next novel. We decided to go to dinner but he was still having a slight vision problem so I drove.

While at dinner I thought his speech was a bit slurred. He put it down to fatigue and his face always looked like that. That morning he couldn’t get his right leg to move correctly. He told us later that he had gotten up because he couldn’t sleep and tried to type and couldn’t get his hand to work correctly but he didn’t want to wake me up and alarm me. I called my mom with the laundry list of things. My mother said get him to a hospital NOW. We loaded him into the car and took him to Celebration Hospital at the recommendation of some friends.

Celebration Hospital did a great job of getting him in and starting treatment. His blood pressure was scary scary high so their first job was to get it back to closer to normal. They did some tests and a CAT scan to check for a stroke. The CAT scan didn’t show anything but they were going with their observations and the evidence that his blood work was not good and getting worse. The decision was made to transfer him down to Florida Hospital in downtown Orlando where they could do an MRI and some other tests Also Florida hospital has the best cardiac unit and they were worried that he had a heart attack or a cardiac episode (having told Peter that he might be having a cardiac episode, he put on his best comic guy voice and said, ”Worst Episode Ever.” So Ariel got to take “ride in an ambulance” off her bucket list as she went down to the hospital with Peter while I dealt with getting us out of our hotel room.

So I am betting that in this point of the narrative you, if you know our family, are asking where is Caroline while this is all going on. She was and is in Jacksonville with her sister and Peter’s eldest daughter, Shana. Currently we haven’t told her what is going on but that is going to change in the next couple of days. So she is having fun with big sister and her playmates in Jacksonville. Shana has been a rock in all this and a champ about taking care of her little sister while all this has been going on. I have been able to concentrate on Peter right now.

He went into the Florida Hospital in the Cardiac Care Unit as they try to ascertain what exactly happened. They did an MRI about midnight along with some other tests. They came to the conclusion that it was not a heart attack but a stroke and moved him to the neurology unit where he is now.

As he stated, he has lost most of the use of his right arm, his right leg is incredibly weak, the vision in his right eye is blurry, and the right side of his face is drooping slightly. But the brain is there with all its quips and quick retorts. He has had the nurses laughing a lot.

Today we figure out what the next step is and where it is going to happen. Tonight the New Year Begins and for us it is a very different beginning than we thought we were going to be having.

Thank you everyone for your good wishes, prayers and kind words. They do help. And BIG thank you to our Orlando buddies who have taken us into their houses and helped us deal with what is going on.

Continue to think good thoughts for Peter. This is not going to be easy for him or us but we will get through this together.

I am grateful that my husband is still alive.
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Post by JohnMayo »

Wow. That completely sucks. I've met Peter David a number of times over the years and have had dinner with him a time or two. In recent years he'd dropped a lot of weight (by bowling, I believe) and seemed to to be trying to take good care of himself.

This is the exact sort of thing that Hero Initiative is geared towards helping out with. Just the trip to the ER alone could have racked up tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills. Medical insurance would reduce that to a much lower amount but this is the sort of unexpected financial hurdle that can be difficult to recover from.

I'm glad he is okay mentally and the problems seem to mainly be more physical in nature. While that will no doubt take time to heal, he'll at least have the option of working during the recovery process.

I hope Peter has a quick recovery and this is a one time event for him.
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BobBretall
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Post by BobBretall »

I hope he recovers quickly. My brother had a similar stroke a few years back & had a full recovery, but it took a bit over a year.
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Post by ctowner1 »

Bummer. I met him a couple of times at NYCC and he was always nice. I remember I told him I'd been reading his comics "for years and years" and he replied "wow - didn't realize I was THAT old!" lol Just a nice guy. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

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Post by JohnMayo »

Peter's wife Kathleen is posting updates on Peter's condition in her blog: http://kathwp.malibulist.com/
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Trev
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Post by Trev »

JohnMayo wrote:Peter's wife Kathleen is posting updates on Peter's condition in her blog: http://kathwp.malibulist.com/
Warning that it is pretty intense. Brought me to tears.

Best to Peter and his family and strong hopes for a quick recovery.

A friend of my wife's had a stroke several years ago and has recovered well, I hope the same for Peter.
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Post by GABE! »

This news still saddens me. He is one of the few writers who has never steered me wrong on a job he wrote.

The bright-side of things seems to be the fact that he lived through the stroke with minor side effect, all things considered things could have been much worst.
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Post by BobBretall »

From Peter's wife:
Kathleen David wrote:Yesterday Peter used Dragon Dictate to get a script that needed to be done, finished. He sent it to me and I did the edit on it for formatting and screwy word usage from the dictation. I sent it back to him to review and then it will be off to the people who need the script. And that is the way things are going to be for a while. I am glad I can help him even from another state.

I want to say some serious THANK YOUs

To Marvel. They have been great during all this. I have gotten questions answered and things moved forward at a rapid pace. The insurance we have through Marvel has allowed us to focus on Peter and let him get the best care that he needs to get back to us. So a big thank you to Marvel for all you have done. We appreciate it.

To the Hero Initiative who came through for us in our time of need. That organization is top notch and they help comic book writers and artists. We are so grateful to them. I highly recommend them as a charity to donate to which really helps on the grass roots level. If you do, please tell them that you are doing it because of Peter. Once we are out of this crisis and in a position to help the Hero Initiative, we are doing so.

To my family, who have been aces through all this. They have, in so many ways, helped me deal with all kinds of things. I will never be able to thank you enough.

To the Orlando Gang, you all made it so much easier and Peter, Ariel, Caroline, and I never felt alone through this ordeal. That I had a group of people I could call at a moments notice made things so much easier. Twins, this includes you.

To all of Peter’s friends and fans. Your outpouring of love and good wishes really do help me get through the tough days.

I am so very grateful that I feel supported.
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