stroke, but I didn’t have the leſt-side facial droop I always heard about. I looked on- line, and some, but not all, of the stroke symptoms seemed to apply. I got ready for work and drove about 20 miles to get to the hospital where I worked. I felt very odd while driving, but I got to work safely. Aſter walking to my work station — on the other end of the hospital from where I park — I told coworkers that I felt a bit odd. They suggested I walk to Emergency to get checked out. Working at a hospi- tal can be very helpful when you have health issues. I underwent numerous tests and scans. Aſter a few hours, they told me that they found signs of a stroke on the leſt side of my brain and asked if I had any spe- cific issues on the right side of my body (it would be two to three days before I actually felt anything). I was admitted, and before the end of the day, I could no longer walk unassisted and had slurred speech. I felt total body fatigue, was ex- tremely weak and very off balance. I spent two weeks in the hospital. I am right handed, but after a few days I noticed my right side was much weaker than my left, which is unusual for me. After the first week, I was switched to a room on the rehab floor and started daily physical, speech and occupational therapy. The first few days I walked awkwardly with a walker. When they switched me to a cane on the third day, it took so much concentration to coor- dinate what foot moved along with the cane that I asked to walk unassisted instead. It was less than perfect, but I felt better. After a few days, they let me walk up and down stairs. I was making good progress. Aſter a few more days, a therapist asked if I wanted to walk around the hospi- tal. Because my job takes me to virtually every corner of the hospital, I knew so many people, and it boosted my spirits WWW.ALOA.ORG “Among the good features of the PowerPlex is that it is field serviceable and can be handed left or right quickly and easily.” to visit with them. By the end of the sec- ond week, I was walking sufficiently to be discharged. I spent the next two and a half months doing outpatient therapy. I had initially been told that it would be three to six months for recovery. I couldn’t see how I could ever get back to normal with the way I was feeling, and this scared me. So, I put it out of my head and decided to believe their recovery timetable. I fig- ured that they had more experience with strokes than I did, and it would only be more depressing if I didn’t expect to re- cover. I hoped it would be closer to three months than six. Aſter three and a half months, I was cleared to go back to work without re- strictions. As I’m writing this, I have been back to work for nearly a month. I am not 100 percent recovered, but darn close. I feel more tired at the end of each day, but that could potentially be blamed on returning to work with more than 80 work orders waiting for me. I’m running around like a mad man trying to catch up. This was a life-changing experience, and it makes you look at life a little differ- ently. I expect to be writing for Keynotes quite regularly now. A New Perspective on the PowerPlex I finished my writing at The Nation- al Locksmith in the middle of a multi- part article on the PowerPlex lock from KABA. It is an electronic push-button lock that requires no batteries and has a built-in power generator. I’m restarting the article series here because if I started where I leſt off, the only people who would know what was happening would be those who also pre- viously subscribed to The National Lock- smith. For those who read the earlier in- stallments, there will be a certain amount of overlap. There will, however, be a dif- ferent perspective and many additional details that weren’t originally covered. Let me backtrack. When I started my original article series, I explained my ex- periences over about a year and a half installing and maintaining the Power- Plex lock. At that point, I described a lock that seemed nearly flawless. I had still been waiting for signs of potential problems with the lock. Well, since then, those flaws and problems have revealed themselves. I’m not saying that what ap- peared to be a nearly perfect lock is now garbage. I’m just saying that this very good lock has some flaws that you should be aware of. I will follow a similar se- quence starting with sub-assembly and installation, followed by programming. The final issue of The National Locksmith had a teaser at the end of my article say- ing that programming of the lock would be covered next, but that of course never happened. I will resolve that situation with an installment on programming later in this article series. The first few articles on installation will cover more depth to the lock installation, including some variations, references to other versions of the PowerPlex lock and some of the problems you might encoun- ter with certain door preps. OCTOBER 2018 KEYNOTES 33
