My first thought was, Theres nobody in this gym, so where did that noise come from?
The side of his mouth started to droop and he began to drool.
I thought, Dont tell me you just had a stroke.
Tara Ziemba/Getty Images
I just had a stroke!
Call an ambulance right now and tell them your husband just had a stroke.'
I was barely lucid, in and out of consciousness.
The first five days [in the ICU] were such a blur, Williams says.
And every time I went to sleep she was right there saying I love you.
And that’s really what kept me going.
The other voice he remembers was that ofDemi Lovato.
When he was stable enough to leave ICU, things were still looking grim.
Not being able to stand and go to the bathroom by myself?
I literally was afraid that I was done.
I didnt think that I was going to recover from this.
Williamss bleed occurred in a particularly risky area.
Because the compartment where the cerebellum sits is very small, bleeding here can be dangerous.
When you have an expanding blood clot, something has to giveand thats the brain.
That’s what makes that a life-threatening condition.
Its something that they call a transient event, where it can come out of nowhere, Williams adds.
In addition to those lifestyle factors, genetic factors can contribute to stroke risk.
Itsvery prevalentin African American males, Williams notes.
He also says that he may have had a blood vessel abnormality in his cerebellum.
He also did exercises to combatnystagmus, a condition in which the eyes move involuntarily.
Both eyeballs were shaking like crazy, he says.
But he noticed small improvements after a couple of days of visual focusing exercises.
You get out of rehab what you put in," he adds.
My brain is going through a healing process.
The brain is such an incredibly resilient organ.
If you work hard, your brain might give you back the things you thought you might not get.
Today, Williams is nearly back at 100 percent.
Hes worked really hard on his recovery.
People are embarrassed by some of the deficits that they are left with, he says.
Part of changing the way we talk about strokes is changing the way we look at recovery.
Sometimes [strokes] can be devastating when people lose motor and speech function, Dr. Stieg says.
Nearly fully recovered, Williams has returned to work.
I dont want to miss out on another second with her.
Williams has also scaled back on the intense two-hour workouts he used to do daily.
Its time to calm it down.
These days, he doesnt stress out about the little stuff.
Im not overreacting to things.
And hes started incorporating naps into his daily routine.
