Good Morning World! Oh my gosh what a wonderful morning it is! A little brisk, not cold and the wind is coming up through the vale from the river and over the neighbors pond up to our back patio. The songbirds are already busy as they are apt to get with the sun coming up. Grass is growing although in our case, mostly weeds. The weather has been crazy with a bit of Winter, Spring and today it’s supposed to be 89dF! I’m pretty sure Alaska could use some of that heat. Too bad I can’t send them some of it.
The roses are loving it, the bulbs, not so much as they didn’t hang around very long with their blooms. When we first bought the place and finally were ready to move in, it was near the end of season for planting crocuses. BH loves them and I was able to get a lot on sale. Planted over 100 in one wee little raised bed. There was a rose in that bed and a natural gas fed light. We replaced the light with an electric one as the front yard needs to have a lot of work done and I didn’t want to hit the gas line. It also didn’t light up the pathway and isn’t that the purpose of lights? Good thing because it wasn’t as deep as it should’ve been. The rose had to come out because it had overgrown into the walkway. It was also in the area we wanted to move the light to illuminate the walkway. But that rose is a survivor and despite getting cut up and pulled out, it has come up and has loved the weather!
That rose is my constant reminder how strong we can be after something disastrous occurs in our life. It is staying. I will just have to keep it trimmed to a smaller size. This is the song I sing or hum every time I go by it https://youtu.be/6dYWe1c3OyU?si=zoMv3GSuoJQFEWEz It’s good song for us as well, in my opinion. I have lots of opinions.
I figure the squirrels enjoyed the majority of crocuses or it could have been the young man’s brother who was spraying weed killer in the beds. I’m not opposed to using an herbacide but I try very hard to use it judiciously. Have to be careful due to the dogs. Same with pesticides. We had fire ants everywhere when we bought the place. Unfortunately we didn’t immediately hire someone to come kill them before we moved in. The guy we hired who has his pesticide license by the way said it didn’t need to be watered in. I called the company because it didn’t set right with me. The woman in customer service advised me that any granular pesticide or herbicide needs no more than ½” of water to activate and then has to dry before children or pets go out in it. Please remember that as you don’t want to cause health issues like neurological, or organ damage to yourself or others that like the feel of grass under feet or paws. Always read direction, right? I think I’ll have to put up the dog kennel and some livestock fencing to combat the fire ants that have moved back in if I want to have that guy come back.
Seems life is always a constant conundrum but we always have choices. Lists are good for making choices. Simple positive vs negative, harm or help? Cerebral aneurysms are like that, right? Some of us have to figure out if they want a surgeon to repair the artery that an aneurysm(s) has been found and some of us didn’t even know we had one until it decided to pop and change our lives. Some of us get mixed up information on what a surgeon thinks should be done - watch and wait, craniotomy, coils, coils and stent. It can be very hard and very scary when we get conflicting suggestions on treatment, I would think. With those of us who rupture, we then have to make choices on how hard we will overcome the obstacles it has caused. Couple that with how much brain damage we have incurred, choices can be difficult at best.
The one thing that I strongly feel that’s helped me in my new life is being positive. When we come across a hurdle are we stopping and just laying down letting all control go to someone else? Do we figure out how to go over the life hurdle or just go around it? Life is full of hurdles even without an aneurysm. Most of us have learned to crawl, then walk and then run. These are hurdles for those little ones. They smile, laugh sometimes fall down and will cry with these hurdles. Then there’s learning to socialize, this happens in the family first, school, organizations. For some, these can be traumatic, scary and others embrace everything. After that we have to chose to finish high school, maybe go to university or perhaps look into a career. All life changes. Our lives are always changing, aneurysms just bring to us a different change. One that others can’t see, or understand what we are going through. If you’re reading this, you do understand. You’re looking for others who also understand. You have found us!
It feels good to have someone in our lives who get it. I’ve never been to a meeting where I can sit down with others, no support group in my semi rural area. I can’t drive in big cities anymore. So even if Charlotte had one, it’s not accessible. But I have you and everyone here. I couldn’t imagine my life not having your support. I’m challenging each of you to bring to mind 3 positives every morning. Please try everyday for 3 months. I’m into 3’s. It takes awhile to change our mindset and look at positives if it’s not something we practice daily. It’s important.
It’s important to have a positive mindset when we have important decisions to make. Having a positive attitude is extremely important when we go into a procedure as scary as they can be. Mindfulness can help us, have you tried it? Are you doing your relaxation breathing all the time to help control your BP, anxiety, stress. If so, you’ve made a positive choice. If not, well in my opinion, you’re giving up some control. We sometimes don’t have control, I get it. But relaxation breathing is definitely giving some control back to us that do practice it.
Before I start the welcomes, have you seen this? Stress Reduction: Library of breathing videos/resources - #2 by Moltroub A big shout out to @FinWhaleFan for getting it all in one place, you rock! Now, go practice it, no excuses, please and thank you!
@SBKSQ1 is over in Colorado. Suzannah is a patient, had angioplasty due to Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (SAH) on April 16, 2025. Glad you found us Suzannah, please start a new topic under General and tell us more about yourself and how we can help.
@RandaMama hails from Arkansas. LaRanda had clipping for a ruptured aneurysm. On the morning of the staff Christmas party, LaRanda collapsed while signing into the meeting. LaRanda was airlifted to the city. After 12 hours the medical team determined she may survive and took her in for her craniotomy. She’s now 15 months post-op. LaRanda says she may have had a miraculous recovery but is still not 100%. She also shares she’s been married for almost 34 years, has one child who is about to be married. LaRanda also loves to camp and fish. How awesome is that?! Please come talk to us under General, I’m keen to know more!
@Mochi is up in New Jersey. Mochi had a flow diverter used for a 23mm terminus Internal Carotid Artery (ICA) fusiform aneurysm. Seems we are getting a good number of this rare type of aneurysm. You can read about fusiform here Fusiform and dolichoectatic aneurysms | MedLink Neurology. Mochi also shares she’s a new mom! Congratulations on the new life! Hope you’re doing well as is the baby! Come talk to us please, under the General tab is where we do most of our chatting.
@Gaylagirl12 is down in Louisiana and a caregiver for her husband. On March 4, Gayla came home to find her husband had fallen and didn’t remember how it happened. His face was cut up and his head was hurting bad. It took Gayla four days to talk him into going to hospital. (Can we say stubborn?). They arrived at the first hospital, then taken to a second hospital in town. He was then med flighted to a big city that’s 2 hours away. He was taken into surgery immediately where they used coiling (endovascular procedure) He stayed in ICU for 10 days, received medication to stop vasospasms which he has continued to take at home. Gayla shares her husband’s emotions are all over the place. She understands the roller coaster of emotions as she experienced an ischemic stroke 5 years ago. Unfortunately, they were told there is no help from his employer for income except holding his job, if he can return to work. Ms. Gayla, sounds like a bit of stress has entered y’all’s life. Please come talk to us and see if we can help you! If nothing else, we are good listeners when someone needs to vent. Caregivers are very important to us, we can’t heal without help.
@Dejah is over across the pond in England. Shiann had a rupture. Shiann, it can be hard navigating life after we experience a rupture. I’m interested in your story and hope you share more with us over in the General tab.
@AnneH ends the welcomes for this week! Anne resides up in the North Eastern part of the USA and was just diagnosed with a 5mm aneurysm on the right MCA trifurcation. Anne still needs to see a specialist. Come talk to us Anne, I bet you’ve got some questions. Just ask away under the General tab.
Have a great week y’all! Remember your homework you’ve been assigned 3 positives each morning and relaxation breathing. Be careful what you read and keeping negative news, drama, chaos and horror movies at a minimum in your life as we don’t want negativity to breed negativity.
Big hugs to everyone who is supporting others here, you’re my heroes! Now go sing a song that brings a smile to your face! Until next week, then…