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A 28-year-old Oklahoma man trying to get to grips with his neck "heard a pop" – which doctors say directly to a stroke.
While he was accustomed to cracking his neck, Josh Hader said he was not trying to do that when he was working on March 14. He just rolled his neck to the right to try and some that he'd been experiencing for a couple of weeks.
"I used my hand to apply to a bit of a pop," Hader told NBC News. "Then everything on my left side started to go numb."
The father of two and the police officer from Guthrie, Oklahoma, said he "kind of had an idea that this might be a stroke" so after calling his wife, he took a look at the mirror, and was encouraged that he did not see any facial drooping.
But when he tries to get to the fridge, he says he was "walking at almost a straight 45 degree angle to the left."
"I was tripping over myself trying to walk straight," said Hader. "It was actually impressive that I could not walk straight whatsoever."
By the time his father-in-law arrived at the hospital, Hader said his symptoms had "worsened tenfold."
"Everything started spinning. I could barely walk, "said Hader. On the way to the hospital at Logan County Hospital, his father-in-law was so much to the left.
After a CT scan, it had been caused by a blood clot, which could be treated with a tissue plasminogen activator drug, or tPA.
"I remember hearing from the ER on the staff, 'we have 12 minutes to administer this,'" Hader said. "That's when everything is kind of landed home."
Hader got the drug in time, and was then transferred to Mercy Hospital in Oklahoma City. That's where he was told he had suffered an ischemic stroke, caused by "a clot or obstruction blocking the supply of blood going to your brain," according to Mercy Hospital.
Hader's clot was caused by a small tear in a vertebral artery. He says doctors told him the "direct cause" of the stroke "was by stretching my neck."
Arches, mostly after car accidents or other impacts.
But "I was the only self-manipulation case they had ever seen," Hader said. "Great way to break a record," he added.
Hader remained in the ICU for four days, and did not leave the hospital until March 29. But he kept his spirits up throughout his treatment.
"Captain's Log: Started day 2 of Therapy. Entered into the wheelchair derby 2019. Started an underground bingo club. Constant diet of jellybeans, "Hader posted on Facebook less than a week after the stroke.
The next day, he shared he had "learned that I can still walk (but not as good as my 1 year old son)."
"I'm a little bit of a jokester," said Hader, who also has a 5-year-old daughter.
"I'm trying to keep their spirits up," he said. "I do not know if it works, but I hope it does."
Hader said he is still experiencing vision caused by the stroke, but is optimistic that he will be able to go back to his job with Dell in the next couple of weeks.
Meanwhile, Mercy posted Hader's story on Facebook Thursday in an effort to warn others. "Think twice before cracking your neck!" The post said, accompanied by a reminder that May is National Stroke Awareness Month.
Hader said his wife, Rebecca, always knows it's not safe for you. "
He said the first thing he said: "I'm so sorry for cracking my neck."
Now, he said, he's kicked the habit. "Usually half way to bending my neck, I'm like, 'Nope, nope. Do not do that. '"
But it was a hard-learned lesson.
A vascular specialist recently told Hader he was "extremely lucky" the outcome was not much worse. "He held up two fingers so close together, and said 'you were about this close from going into a coma.'"
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