First of all I apologize for it having taken me so long to write. Summer is a busy time every year for families with young children and indeed my summer is no exception.
The boys have been enjoying the warm weather and have had a couple stints at day camps. We have also had some birthday parties to attend and have enjoyed time near the water away from the city.
But not all of the summer has been dreamy. I started this blog to keep you up to speed about the journey of a woman recovering from a massive brain hemmorrhage and surgery. My health is a work in progress. I have been able to continue to challenge myself and see people and experience more and more visual and audio stimulus. I still feel fearful and overwhelmed in busy environments and my system still responds with tears and if I am overwhelmed my mind seems to try to make me sleep.
On Sunday, July 24, I had just finished a weekend with a busy social calendar. On the Friday we had my brother and his fiancée to dinner and Saturday we drove out of town to attend our niece and nephew's birthday party (a modest family event on both occasions but still alot for me). On Sunday we drove home and that night I was on the computer and noticed that I was finding it more difficult to read.
I tried to work through it and hope that I could recover the ability to read but instead it got more difficult to read and then I was not able to type... I made eye contact with my husband across the house. After this I have no memory until I 'woke up' with about 6 uniformed men around me asking me questions and talking in hushed voices with my husband.
I am told that my husband heard a crash in the room where my 'office' is and he came in and found me slumped off my chair and having a seizure. He stayed with me until the seizure stopped and then called 911. When the emergency responders arrived I am told they asked me questions like what my name is and I answered with statements like 'I have red pajamas.'
I was taken by ambulance to the Civic Hospital where I had spent a couple months last Fall. They took me quite quickly into the Emergency Room and they did blood work and a CT scan.
What can I say? I guess my brain is not quite fixed.
This is the first seizure since the actual stroke last September so I was not expecting to live through this again. That said, I did have a TIA experience in February as well.
The Wednesday before the seizure I had had a MRI in preparation for an October appointment with my Neurologist. I believe that I had mentioned to you that the clot on the left drainage vein from my brain was still there in the March MRI. Well, the MRI on Wednesday was to check again - although my Neurologist did not expect further natural change since the clot would (should?) have already left if it was going to correct itself.
Because of my trip to the Emergency Room with my seizure, they told me about the results of my Wednesday MRI. The clot remains. Not good news but obviously I can live with it (smiles weakly).
They performed a CT scan to see if there was new bleeding in my brain as a cause for my seizure and there was not. That IS good news so hooray!
My blood work revealed that I had an extremely low level of Phosphate. They did say that it can cause seizures when it is as low as my Phosphate level was... and they asked if I had been eating because lack of food can cause the Phosphate to plummet. I had had a weekend with a very varied and fullsome diet so that was not the reason. Anyway, they put me on 4 hrs of IV Phosphate as well as requiring me to take some Rx Phosphate tablets that dissolve in water.
My husband was asked to take Monday off of work to stay with me so that I would not be left alone. He and I had both been up all night so the rest during the day on Monday was appreciated.
I had been feeling 'unwell' that weekend which I attributed to my busy schedule. What might be no big deal for most people was very tough for me. Even driving to the lake on Sat and home on Sun was alot for me because there is a lot of visual and audio stimuli on that trip.
Anyway, I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about the new development in my health. It hasn't all be bad news by the way... I have been planning and preparing for my brother's Wedding Day!!! He and his lovely fiancee are getting married - this Saturday, August 6.
I can't wait for the day to come - our family could use the reason to get together and party.
Will give you more frequent updates as time goes by this week. Thanks for your patience and warm wishes.
Be well,
Jen
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