Still on the 5th Floor!

Linda is still doing well and talking fine.  She has trouble remembering certain words as quickly as she wants.  Reading is still difficult or very slow.  Something to work on if she ever gets to Rehab.  She spent some time jabbering by phone with a friend this AM for 20 mins and had some local visitors this afternoon.

She saw her FOURTH new neurologist this afternoon, a nice woman.  The same one has not seen her two days in a row.  Seems to be it would be hard to judge progress from a chart!!!  She also asked Linda to squeeze her fingers with both hands and to raise her legs and each arm.  She said, "Gooood" and then asked me if I had any questions.  When I asked if what the prognosis for the continuing right hand field vision problems, she said "Its too early to tell".  I swear to God, I could be a neurologist.  It's not that hard to have people squeeze your fingers.  Meanwhile, Linda is developing very strong fingers and I have asked the occupational therapist if work milking cows may be a future possibility for Linda?

Linda did no walking today but enjoyed her first shower and eat her dollop of gravy-covered mashed potatoes and smattering of Swiss steak very well.  We begged and they brought her three sugar-free lemon cookies as dessert. Yea!!

If she has a good night and her BP stays down with oral meds she may move to the Rehab tomorrow, I think.  I left around 9:30PM and Linda was getting tired.  She was sleepy all day.  No rest in a Hospital!!

Linda leaves the ICU !!

Linda's blood pressure was being controlled by a labetalol IV drip and she could not leave the ICU until it could be removed. LABETALOL (la BET a lole) is a beta-blocker. Beta-blockers reduce the workload on the heart and help it to beat more regularly. This medicine is used to treat high blood pressure.  They started to give her Linda her regular pills yesterday and she was finally able to be transferred from the ICU to the 5th floor (Rm 508) this morning.  Yea!!

Linda is doing much better today.  She speaks clearly, laughs easily and can better move her arm, hands, and right leg.  She fed herself again and they had her out of bed, walking out in the hallway behind a walker!!!  Yea, Linda.  They also had her try to write with her left and right hands, pretty shaky results though.

Linda's cardiologist stopped by today to "Say Hi"?  He explained that her vision or rather lack of right field vision may not recover, or only partially.  He said that, in order of importance are:
1.) Ability to swallow - nutrition
2.) Talking - communication
3.) Legs - Mobility
4.) Arms
5.) Vision was last.  Go figure

Anyway, I hope you  appreciate these efforts to increase you medical education.  Maybe you can be the next Dr. Oz?

Linda will hopefully be going next door to the Flower Rehabilitation Center tomorrow for three weeks of intensive in-patient therapy.  I don't know what their phone numbers or visiting hours are.  When I find out, I will post them.

I, on the other hand, did my first load of laundry in 40 years with phoned help from Dawn and am now trying to dry it with our gas dryer......  The work of a housewife is never done.  I really appreciated the spaghetti dinner at Sean's tonight and am looking forward to a chili feast Tuesday!

Linda called me at home and gave me some laundry advice.  She talked just fine! Yea, again.

Everybody is in the hospital

Linda was excellent in the morning.  She talked good in simple sentences, still could not remember or express the words she wanted and so was frustrated easily.  However, she used her right hand, fed herself with the left hand and could raise her right arm straight up in the air.

The neurologist (Dr. Barber now) came in for about 30 sec, had Linda squeeze her hands around his fingers and raise both legs up about 6 inches.  What a loser!

Laura on the other hand was a mess!! She woke up with a severe earache in both ears and head pain...sooo, into the ER she went for an hour and got a prescription antibiotic.  About an hour later we noticed her eye was swollen badly and "gooey".  Good grief, after another 2 hours in the ER she had another prescription for "Pink Eye"... something an 8th Grader or nursery schooler (Audrey?, Audrey?) would get and pass on.  Meanwhile, Audrey had the sniffles and Bill was recovering from a cold also.  OMG, OMG (I'm starting to learn the texting Lingo), I hope I don't get sick from these carriers.

By the evening, Linda was starting to get tired and was not as alert as earlier.  She did eat some dinner, however.

This morning Linda was a different person compared to the "Resting Day" yesterday.  She was more alert in the AM and talkative.  She still gets confused and very frustrated because she can't think of the word she wants to use quickly enough.  The neurologist said he was very pleased with her progress.  When we got there she was watching TV.  The nurse said she brushed her teeth with her left hand and fed herself a little breakfast.  She was very happy to see her Grandaughters, Mallory and Audrey.  The speech and occupational therapists worked some with her today and ACTUALLY HAD HER WALKING A LITTLE BIT!! HOORAY!!

Linda had a second CAT scan and an MRI/MRA this morning. The hospital "Stroke Coordinator"...No she doesn't schedule your stroke.... spent some time today explaining the the MRI pictures to us.  The exact location of the stroke was easily visible and thus you can determine the areas of your body/senses/emotions/etc affected.  This is also helpful to develop a therapy regimen.  I'm starting to sound like a Doctor, huh?  She wanted to watch Chan 13 (Days of Hour Lives) and knew it was on the wrong channel and was not happy.  Maybe she is getting better?!!

This evening, however, she was quieter and less talkative.  When they served dinner, she only ate a little fruit.  She seemed very tired from her busy day and we only stayed a short while.  Hopefully tomorrow she will feel more rested.

She will probably be in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) until Monday when they will move her to the Rehabilitation Center for at least three weeks of intensive in-patient rehab.  I did ask the Occupational Therapist to see what kind of "occupation" we could train her for....  hopefully one that pays big bucks!!

Day of Rest

The first 24 hours after the stroke are apparently a "Day of Rest" with no testing are activities so Thursday not much happened.  Linda still had the vision and leg and right arm weakness.  No major change.  She could not speak clearly and often spoke gibberish.  Linda had little appetite for the luscious hospital food so I ate her Brownie.

The neurologist, Dr Maitai, saw Linda about three times during the day, a nurse told us.

Laura and Bill and Audrey arrived from Iowa City early afternoon.  I was glad to see them.  And.... wonder of wonders, Bill had just completed a rotation in neurology and was up-to-date on the latest scoop.

Start of it All!!

Wednesday night around 11:30 PM we were going up to bed.  Linda was carrying our cat and when we got to the bottom of the stairs, she suddenly said, "Something's wrong, I don't feel right....  I can only see half of you". I immediately called 911 and we got her to Flower Hospital ER about 12PM. A big fire truck, lights aflashing arrived first and they called the squad. (Precious minutes lost??)  Anyway, to give a strong clot-busting medicine TPA, you have to have no other bleeding anywhere and a Blood Pressure of less than 180!!

Turns out TPA is 40% effective but people who get it within three hours of the stroke have a much better outcome after 3 months or more.  Anyway, when we got there her BP was 210. For the next three hours we tried everything to get it down.  We max dosed one medicine, tried another, and finally they gave her an intravenous drip with the medicine.  Three hours later it was still to high and we talked to the neurologist and we said "If it was us, we would risk the possible bleeding for the long term benefits of TPA". He said "Well, that's your answer."  We told the ER doctor and he pushed the TPA into Linda, so we just made it within the 3 hr time limit.

Around 5AM, they moved her to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Sean and I went home for a couple of hours of sleep.