Six years ago, Venita, 53, packed her bag for a trip to Atlanta to visit her daughter. For several days, the self-employed makeup artist and event planner from Syracuse, N.Y., had been feeling exhausted. In fact, her fatigue was so extreme she could barely lift her suitcase.

Once in Atlanta, Venita had to tell her daughter that their plans for a day of shopping and manicures would have to wait because she was just too tired.

The next morning, Venita developed a terrible headache. A long-time migraine sufferer, she assumed this was more of the same. But it was worse than anything she’d experienced before, and after a nap, she woke up feeling strange—“like my torso was in one place and my legs in another,” she says. She tried to get up to get some aspirin but found that she couldn’t walk. Her vision was disturbed and she had no feeling on her right side.

Not just for old folks
Venita had become one of the 700,000 Americans each year who experience a stroke, which is caused by a blockage or rupture in a blood vessel that supplies oxygen to the brain. Stroke is the third eading cause of death in the U.S.—after eart disease and cancer—and a major cause of disability. Every 45 seconds, someone in the U.S. has a stroke. “It never dawned on me that that’s what I was having,” says Venita. “I thought strokes were something only old people got.”

Unfortunately, Venita paid a price for this misconception, because it led her to delay seeking emergency medical treatment for several hours. Doctors can treat most strokes—and often reverse much of the damage they cause—by administering a clot-busting drug known as tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA. But tPA must be given within three hours of the onset of symptoms, and Venita waited longer than that before she finally went to the hospital with her daughter.

Recovering from her stroke hasn’t been easy. Venita battled vision problems and a loss of short-term memory, and she still struggles with occasional memory difficulties and fatigue. But after months of physical therapy, she was finally able to walk and, later, to drive.

A lifestyle makeover
Like other stroke survivors, Venita has to worry that having one stroke makes it more likely that she’ll have another.The good news is there’s plenty she can do to prevent that from happening.

Before her stroke, Venita was a workaholic. She was so busy with her responsibilities at home and at work that she didn’t take time to exercise or eat right. As a result she became quite overweight.

After Venita’s stroke, her doctor recommended that she lose weight, eat a more healthful diet, and exercise regularly to lower her blood pressure, which worsened after the stroke. If these lifestyle changes didn’t lower her blood pressure, medications could help.

Venita consulted a nutritionist and began eating more fruits and vegetables. She joined a gym, and does water aerobics and yoga. She also started taking daily aspirin to prevent blood clots that could cause another stroke. Her dedication paid off: She lost 70 pounds and, so far, has remained stroke-free.

These days, Venita is secure in the knowledge that in addition to looking and feeling better, she’s doing all she can to prevent a second stroke.