2 trips to the ER in 1 day...ugh!

Since things have been getting back to normal around here Macey decided to keep it exciting. After a lovely bout of puking and pooping we made a trip to the emergency vet clinic to find out that she has a urinary tract infection probably brought on by stress. The vet asked if we have any recent changes or stressful events...I laughed. She got a shot of steriods (dexamethasome just like I was on) and I have to shove pills down her throat for the next two weeks.
But...I couldn't let her steal all the attention...so last night I went to grab something off the floor and when I stood back up I smacked my head on the ledge of our fireplace pretty hard. It hurt and I felt a big goose egg swelling up so I grabbed an ice pack and called the after hours care line and explained what happened. Of course they told me I needed to go get checked out within the next 4 hours because of the blood thinners...so out the door we went at 11:30 at night. fun. Everything was fine, they even checked my INR and it was in the correct range still. Back at home by 2 a.m. only to go to sleep and be woken up at 5:30 for a tornado warning so down to the basement we headed for an hour. Poor Jake had to put in a long day at work and I got to sleep in...so did Macey. :)

The 4th of July and neurology news!

With my completion of OT and PT I'm continuing my mission of getting back to normal, especially on the job front and with fitness and exercise. Jake and I were able to go visit his parents and family over the 4th. We had a great time seeing everyone and taking in the parade, carnival and fireworks in the booming metropolis of Rich Hill, MO! :) Jake has been super busy since his promotion and this week he's on the road to NY and Boston and has more trips planned...guess he's gotten over his worries about me not being able to stay home alone! I'm back on the job hunt and have had a couple bites lately...will keep you posted when something comes through.

Now with the great news...watch out Peoria drivers I'm cleared to drive around town! I had a neurology appointment yesterday and got the ok to drive short distances...I've regained my independence!!! The plan is still to check out my brain around the year mark and see how the clot looks and if there are any other issues with veins up there...and if all is good then I'll go off the meds. The only catch is if I choose to go off the seizure med then I will have to stop driving again for a while as a precaution. Since there aren't any side effects many people choose to stay on it and avoid risk of another seizure...we'll see, it's my choice.

So life continues to be full of blessings for us! I've even had mom up to the new house to help me with some finishing touches and deep cleaning...no one better to help get some house projects done then her!

Planning a trip home soon for the arrival of a new niece or nephew from Tony and Laura...and Nikki and the Jack Attack will be in for a visit too! Can't wait!

Here's a pic of us and some of our friends from St. Louis that we got to hang out with on our way through back to Peoria.

Another kind of OT

We just got back from a great vacation to Alaska where we visited Nikki, Brian and Jack Jack. Mom and Dad were up there to so we all got to enjoy the awesome Alaskan scenery, some camping and fishing and a little bit of hiking. I definitely stayed on top of the OT workouts with the fishing, reeling in a 40 lb halibut and a 30 lb king salmon...what a workout! I also surprised myself and I think my sister by going on a mountain hike...definitely felt the burn in my calves and quads! Below are some pics of the trip!

Also, I'm in my last week of PT and actually graduated from OT today. My hand grip is finally stronger in my right hand again and all my strength test scores reached my goal levels! I also got released from my rehabilitation doctor today...so one by one I'm checking them off the list!

Movin' On!

Life just doesn't slow down for a second! We moved in to the new house this past weekend and had a slew of helpers to make it as easy as possible. It feels great to be in a place of our very own...stacks of boxes and all! See the pic below of the moving crew (minus my bro Tony and Andy, a great helper) celebrating at the Burger Barge.
As for me, the moving definitely made PT on Monday morning pretty tough. It looks like I'll "graduate" from both PT and OT at the end of June. I'm excited to be finished but also know it will be all up to me to continue with my exercises. Also still trying to regulate my blood thinner dosage. Since returning from Mayo and dipping back down to 1.3, I've slowly been moving up and got to 1.9 then went to 3.3 (totally skipping over the ideal range of 2-3)...so we'll figure it out eventually. Been battling some continued fatigue, very frustrating and I'm sure the packing, moving and unpacking of boxes isn't helping!
Anyway, we continue to focus on the many blessings in our lives. We're getting ready to head to Alaska to visit Nikki and Brian and Jumpin' Jack Flash and hopefully reel in some big salmon and halibut...and Jake just got a great promotion at work where he's in a supervisory position over the development team and in a lead role in the campaign at Bradley Univ. It's an awesome opportunity for him!
Until next time...

Two Months Out!

Thought I'd share with you what I hope is my last 15 minute of fame due to this whole ordeal! May is stroke awareness month so my story was in the Peoria Joural Star and also a local TV station ran the story they came and interviewed me for at the house a couple weeks back.
Other then that I'm very excited to say that I will be taking my last dose of steroids at the end of the week! Bad thing is that going off of them will mess with my blood thickness levels which we're still trying to regulate. After being excited about finally being in the correct range on Fri., I found out at my blood draw today, I'm on the low end again. Boo.
Here is the link for the TV story http://www.hoinews.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=136263 where you can view the clip.
Below is the story from the paper...here's a link to the story where you can view it big enough to read. You have to scroll down on the left to page 12 and click the title of the article. http://adserver1.harvestadsdepot.com/peoriajstar/ss/079499/

Home Sweet Home

Made it home last night from Mayo with a lot of great feedback and confident remarks from the docs we met with. After reviewing the original films from Methodist, the Neurologists were still confident in what they'd told me regarding the reasons for the stroke, being able to get off all meds in a year, and the seizures being solely induced by the stroke. I was also shown the films for the first time and shown exactly where and how everything happened...wow. The true miracles of what your body can handle, with the grace of God, is really humbling.

We also met with a nurse specialist on Thrombophilia (clotting) and got all our questions and more answered about being on blood thinners and how they should and should not affect daily life. It was great to hear that life really won't need to be lived in a bubble...rather, my new motto should be consistency and moderation mixed with some common sense. That's in everything from eating to exercise.

The final piece to the puzzle was meeting with the Hemotologist. He was extremely straight forward and wanted to make sure I understood every aspect of the genetic mutation (Factor V) I have. The main thing he stressed was how important it is to keep my blood thickness ratio (INR) levels bw 2-3. It hasn't been there since I left the hospital and he bumped my blood thinner dosage up and insisted I get the level checked in 2 days...I'm very pleased to report that my level this afternoon was 2.1! Everyone we've consulted with says how hard it is to regulate because virtually everything can affect it's abilities...hydration, activity level, diet, medicines, weight gains and losses..etc.

All in all we're thrilled with the second opinion! Here are a couple more pics from the trip and one of my brain! I'm no doc, but the white shows blood flow and you can see where it stops when it gets to the top which is where the clot prevented blood flow to a huge part of the front of my brain.

The back of my head is on the right, you can see how the flow stops a little then comes back then completely stops...ta-da a stroke.

More of the Mayo campus...there are beautiful gardens and flowers all over.

Not sure if you can read it...but Mayo Clinic is etched above this doorway.

Reporting Live From Mayo

We made it to the great state of MN and had my initial consultation with Neurology this morning at the lovely hour of 7 am. It took a mere 3 hours to go over everything...then it was off to get some blood drawn of course! We're already feeling great about what will come from this trip. Since they've dealt with cases like mine, they speak with a lot of confidence about the factors causing the kind of stroke I had as well as treatments. They were also very supportive of what they called "the perfect treatment" I received in Peoria.

Here's the basics of what they said.(Keep in mind this is prior to their review tomorrow of my actual films from the CT scans and MRIs from my hospital stay. Then we'll meet with them again Wed. to see where we stand and if they want to run more similar tests.) As far as the bloood thinner and seizure medication being life time treatments...they don't think that's the case at all. A year is more of the timeline they're thinking! Yay! At that point, I'll need to have more testing on all of the blood clotting factors...can't have them while I'm on the meds. Also, epilepsy is not a diagnosis they are convinced of because the type of stroke I had commonly occurs with seizures. Double Yay! They are also very encouraging of my weening off the steroids, which I've already begun...thanks goodness because I'm running out of stretchy pants that are ok to wear in public! In the meantime, considering this is a blood issue, I'll be meeting with a Hemotologist as well.

One other thing I asked about was the extra fatigue I've had in the past week and what to attribute that to. They said it is not related to my blood thickness or change in that level, rather it was probably due to me getting back into the swing of higher level exercise and more regular daily activities (and mom and I getting so much of the house packed up!). Basically they said I need to remember that I'm less than 2 months out of a major head trauma that severely affected my body so I need to remember the word recovery should still be in my vocabulary as frustrating as that might be for me! I'll take that as a compliment!

We'll keep you posted!

This just doesn't do it justice! It's huge!

This is me at the bottom of the Mayo builing above.

Jake has decided a medical career wouldn't be so bad...too bad the employee entrance was an exit only for him!