Green Party Leader Elizabeth May is under doctor’s orders to continue resting and not to fly as pooled blood from a mild stroke remains in her brain.
“My MRI wasn’t as positive as I had been hoping, so I’m recovering well but I’m not allowed to fly anywhere, so it does restrict how much I can do,” said May, 69.
May said she has a “blood blob” (hematoma) in her brain after she experienced a hemorrhagic stroke while representing the party at a high school graduation on June 29.
The stroke was not diagnosed until July 5, after which she spent three days in Saanich Peninsula Hospital.
“[The hematoma] is not a threat of death or anything, it just has to go away,” said May. If left alone the hematoma can be re-absorbed by the brain in a few weeks or more post stroke.
A hemorrhagic stroke is caused when an artery in the brain breaks open. High blood pressure weakens arteries over time and is a major cause of hemorrhagic stroke. At the time, May did not know her blood pressure was elevated and is now on medication for that.
May had hoped to be cleared this week to fly back to Ottawa, but she has been advised not to fly for another six to eight weeks until another MRI can be performed.
The fall sitting of Parliament in Ottawa is scheduled to start up Sept. 18.
May’s press secretary said she will have to take her recovery on a day-to-day basis but the current plan is that May will participate virtually, online, until she is cleared to fly.
When May can again fly to Ottawa to sit in the Commons, she has said she will work more reasonable hours, noting that colleagues from all parties have told her they, too, view 19-hour days typical in May and June sittings to be excessive and unhealthy.
In the meantime, May plans on riding a train with husband John Kidder to Ottawa for what she views as immediate business. May wants to get her top-secret security clearance to continue work on David Johnston’s report on foreign interference.
The Green MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands is also planning to be at the Saanich Fair on Labour Day weekend, Sept. 2-4. Each year, local politicians of all stripes set up booths at the fall fair which showcases and judges everything from best pies and jams to giant pumpkins and farm animals.
May generally attends the fair for the full three days. “That will be her first physical appearance since her stroke,” said her press secretary. May attended Canada Day celebrations in Sidney, but at that time, even though she felt unwell following the onset of a severe headache days earlier, her stroke had not been diagnosed.
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