TAMPA, Fla. — For years, Tampa resident Ashley Nessler was always on the go, prioritizing work.
It was no different on the day her life changed forever.
“I was at my office. It was an ordinary Monday, and I was in meetings, and I went downstairs just to get a drink, and I suddenly collapsed in front of an elevator,” said Nessler.
She couldn’t speak or move.
“I could not raise my arms. I could not even vocally say I needed help. My body just shut down on me,” said Nessler.
She had no clue what had happened when she came to.
“I just all of a sudden lost my balance. I felt perfectly normal two minutes before it happened, and I just like kind of just fell to my knees because I couldn’t stand up anymore,” said Nessler.
Her coworkers helped her up, and she convinced them that she was fine.
She thought she maybe fainted because she hadn’t eaten enough that day, just wanting to get back to work because she had meetings that afternoon.
“I even went home for an hour and took a nap and took a shower and went back to the office,” said Nessler.
However, deep down, Nessler knew something felt different.
“I felt very off. I couldn’t even drive. I felt like I could sleep 12-14 hours in a night. I had to hold myself up on walls,” said Nessler.
That’s why she went to see an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor, thinking she may have vertigo or issues with her sinus.
That doctor told her she needed to get a CT scan of her brain right away.
“And I said, 'Well, can I just go tomorrow? I have a meeting tonight. I have a lot of people in town for work.’ I went the next morning and did a CT scan and was dressed for work, trying to get back to the office. They said you need to not go to your office and go check into a hospital,” said Nessler.
It wasn’t until days after she collapsed that she found out she had a stroke at only 34 years old.
“It’s just kind of unexpected. I was 34 years old, healthy, doing everything I was supposed to do, and just all of a sudden, my life just changed,” said Nessler.
Still, she was in denial.
“Definitely like looking back, you’re like, what was I doing? What was I thinking? But I think as women, we keep pushing ourselves and going to the next thing,” said Nessler.
She was hospitalized for a few days and took some time off from work.
“I returned back to work in about two weeks, and I hid it from a lot of people, not wanting them to think I was weak. I’m in an industry where I’m probably one of the only females on my team, so I hid the truth,” said Nessler.
It wasn’t until she met a woman a few months later who shared that she also recently had a stroke that Nessler started to open up about her own experience.
“I want to say that she like got me through. I was able to have someone to navigate it with me and understand what to do afterward of, you know, just managing. You’re different after that, I don’t know how to explain it. You just have different limitations,” said Nessler.
“It’s changed me. I’m a different person. I will say I was always running on the go not taking care of myself. It forced me to pause a little bit more. I have definitely more empathy for others,” she added.
Now, Nessler is committed to sharing her story to help other people and to raise awareness about stroke symptoms because she didn’t know them.
“I never knew. I never knew you having a headache or feeling dizzy or just losing sensation in your body like you honestly think you’re passing out or just haven’t eaten enough,” said Nessler.
“If I would’ve known the signs of a stroke earlier, I would’ve gotten help earlier,” she added.
Doctors want people to remember the acronym F.A.S.T.
It stands for Face drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulty, and Time to call 911.
According to the American Heart Association, other stroke symptoms include:
- numbness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body
- confusion, trouble speaking, or understanding speech
- trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination
- severe headache with no known cause
“I think it’s so important to know that it could happen to anybody, no matter the age,” said Nessler.
And she has one last message she wants to share:
“I would say it’s okay to ask for help. I hid my story for a very long time because I didn't want people to perceive me as weak, and I think it’s okay to tell your stories because you never know what people are going through. If I could just tell one other woman to know the signs of a stroke or signs of what could happen before or after, it would make me feel a lot more at peace,” said Nessler.
