Sisters woman saved by TIA

On Monday, September 19, 46-year-old Sisters resident Rhonda Funk suddenly began stumbling over her words during a lunch meeting with a client. She found herself putting the back of the words to the front of the words, saying things out of order, and had words coming out that she didn't even want to say.

Frustrated, she stopped and look at her client and asked, "Am I even making sense?"

Little did she know, Funk was suffering a transient ischemic attack (TIA), which according to the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association is often labeled "mini-stroke," more accurately characterized as a "warning stroke" - a warning you should take very seriously.

"Don't overlook the signals your body sends," says Funk, "and don't fall into ... thinking you are too young or too healthy."

Fortunately, her client, Bend resident Nita Belles (human trafficking expert and founder of In Our Backyard), the mother of Resident Volunteer Andy Belles at the Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District, was pretty savvy about the nature of the events taking place.

"She immediately opened up her computer and searched tests you can perform to see if someone might be having a stroke," said Funk. "She had me put my arms above my head, roll my tongue, say certain words, and to be honest, I thought she was crazy! I even laughed and said that I was passing all her stupid tests and insisted there was no way I was having a stroke!"

For a good 30 minutes, Funk continued to mix up her words. However, still frustrated that she felt fine and clearly knew what was going on around her, Funk declined the urgings of Belles to call 911.

"I am pretty strong-willed. But, after about an hour and a half, even I began to wonder what was happening," Funk explained. "As I walked to my car I called my husband Willie, still struggling to get my words out correctly. He immediately left work, and I went home to lay down realizing that a dull headache was forming across the back of my head."

Funk then made a post on Facebook to her friends canceling a live health-coaching event she was going to be having the next hour, explaining to her friends that she had a 'little episode' at lunch which affected her speech. It was then that dozens more people urged her to get the emergency room immediately. That urging pushed her to call her doctor's office who asked her to get to the Fire Department, Urgent Care, or the ER.

"It's sad when you start to make your decisions by how much each one will cost," says Funk, whose family has been uninsured for several months due to the shift of providers available to Deschutes County and Oregon residents, along with the grossly increased costs to pay for premiums. "I literally was trying to decide where to go for care according to what would impact our finances the least. I had a feeling I should go straight to the ER, but we choose Urgent Care" - where they didn't even ask her name after hearing of her symptoms, instead pointing her straight to the emergency room.

Once there, the doctor told Funk that she could be having a migraine event, however, he was not willing to risk her future on it-and urged Funk to get an MRI. Within the hour, the images revealed a 33mm mass lodged deep in the left side of her brain that was nearly 10-times larger than the average aneurysm, (normally 3-7 mm, roughly the size of a pea, Funk's aneurysm was about an inch wide).

Doctor's believed at first this could have been something Funk was born with, until they learned of a large infection she had suffered in 2010 from a simple razor nick under her arm that formed overnight into a massive staph infection.

"A baseball-sized infection had formed under my arm which was a super scary and painful infection," explains Funk. "It is that infection doctors now believe sent staph raging through my system, which likes to hide in the valves of your heart. The most-likely cause of my aneurysm is that a piece of that infection broke off from my heart, lodged into a vein in my head, and abscessed. It has been growing and forming for over six years.

"I have been a ticking time bomb and didn't even know it until two weeks ago. I can't imagine what would have happened if I hadn't gone to the emergency room that day. I am praising God for the warning sign."

On Tuesday, September 27, on their 19th wedding anniversary, the Funks showed up at the hospital where her neurosurgeon was able to perform the least-evasive option-an angio-type surgery where platinum coils were place in a vein in her head just in front of the aneurysm to stop blood flow to the area.

Funk said, "Either surgery option had many risks. But God protected me and kept the aneurysm from rupturing, and kept me from another large stroke, both of which were huge risk factors for the least-invasive surgery."

Funk said, "I am so overwhelmed by it all, by the what-ifs-but I am not dwelling on those.

I have been given new life.

Now two weeks out, I may be suffering from some headaches, stutter a little every now and then when I get tired, but I am alive! And, I am suddenly an advocate for something I knew nothing about...and that's TIAs.

Because of my experience, I want to urge you to not overlook subtle symptoms, or even big ones for that matter.

Listen to your body, and be reasonable when those around you have serious concern for you.

It is so easy to ignore things when we think we are 'fine'.

Sometimes big health issues have small symptoms.

It never hurts to ask your doctor when you are unsure.

I'm one of the lucky ones.

I mean, I wasn't going anywhere before the Cubs win the World Series!"

To learn more about TIAs visit www.strokeassociation.org.

If you would like to help the Funks cover their medical costs, a Rhonda Funk donation account has been set up at US Bank or you may donate online at GoFundMe gofund.me/2qazqdtw.