Life Last Week 2015-39

It's only going to take one item to sum up last week.

After thirty-eight weeks of Life Last Week, I am especially happy to put this post up today. I had a small stroke on Tuesday/Wednesday (not sure exactly when) and after a stay in hospital and the love and care of my family and friends, I am feeling fine and very thankful.

On Tuesday afternoon, I walked over to another building at work to pick up two packages of paper. Nothing really heavy, think of two packs of printer paper. It was a bit warm outside and when I got back to my office, I was hot and my arm ached a bit from the way I had been holding the paper. I picked up the phone to call one of my co-workers and when I asked for her, I noticed that my words were a bit garbled. I thought perhaps because of the heat, my lip was stuck to my teeth. She wasn't available so I rang off and got on with my work. I rode the bus home after work and can't really recall anything out of the ordinary other than noticing that my handwriting was a bit off when I went to address an envelope to Sophia. Vic had duty so I was alone. I watched a bit of TV, had some dinner, and went to bed. The next morning, I was putting on my makeup and noticed that my mouth was drooping a bit on the right-hand side. How do you self-diagnose a problem with your mouth? Why, talk to yourself while looking in the mirror! This is when I noticed that there was really something wrong with my speech.

I figured I'd better make an appointment to see my doctor but when I called, there were no appointments available that morning. The appointment clerk put me through to the nurse line (because sometimes they can squeeze you in to a spot not available through the appointment line). When I told her what was wrong, she told me to hang up immediately and call the emergency services. I said I would just call Vic and have him come home to take me to the emergency room but she was insistent that there be no delay. So I call 911 and the fire truck and ambulance rolled up to the house within minutes and started to triage me. My blood pressure was shockingly high but all the neurological tests came out fine other than the appearance of my mouth and my speech so they put me in the ambulance and took me to the hospital. This was 6:00am on Wednesday morning.

I spent all day Wednesday and half of Thursday in hospital. I had a CT scan, an MRI, an Echo cardiogram, a carotid ultrasound, a heart ultrasound, and they took more vials of blood that I thought I could possibly give. The outcome was that I had had a small stroke. I passed all of the physical, speech, and occupational therapists' tests and so am very thankful that there appear to be no lasting effects. I am on two medications - one for life as with one stroke there is usually the danger of another, but I may be able to stop the other medication after my follow-up visit with my doctor in two weeks.

Vic met us at hospital on Wednesday and was there with me through all of this. My sister, Barbara, came up from Oregon on Thursday morning and Sophia came home for the weekend from school. My Navy Wives sisters put together enough meals for a few days and the outpouring of messages on Facebook, through texts and e-mails was so wonderful. I was truly blessed to be surrounded by so much love.

No idea what may have caused the stroke. I think I've mentioned here before that I am adopted so I have no family medical history to reference. I know that my lifestyle needs some changes - focus on healthy eating, getting regular exercise, and trying to stress less. I'm working on all three.

I cancelled my plans to attend the Navy Wives Clubs of America National Convention. My doctor just didn't advise flying at this time and gave me a letter to forward to the airlines to get a refund. My sister took care of the arrangements but it appears that United is going to be less than accommodating in a situation like this so a letter is being dispatched and I will keep you up to date with that one. American Airlines, on the other hand, was most helpful.

And that, dear friends, was Life Last Week.