Well Good Morning World! What have y’all been up to this week? Hopefully something good. I went to two doctor appointments, allergy and rheum. I’ve been warned to start my allergy meds, all of them before the pollen starts, she’ll do another breathing test in 6 months. I got pretty sick last winter and the Radiologist diagnosed me with COPD. It took four rounds of antibiotics to get me a bit right. The second CT showed fluid in both lower lobes again with a finding of COPD, no recommendations. Happened to have an appointment with PCP she said she couldn’t do anything more, but I could see a pulmonologist, and should quit smoking and that was that. I left feeling a bit frustrated. Happen to have an appointment with the Allergist who did a breathing test a few weeks later but I was more on the mend and could walk from the tractor shed up without having to stop a few times. Allergist thinks it was flu or pneumonia as I passed the first breathing test with a 90% O2 reading. She said the diagnosis takes a breathing test. BH does see a pulmonologist and he said the diagnosis was hog wash, I needed a breathing test. But of course I’m stuck with the label. I despise labels, it seems when we get one it puts blinder on our specialists or PCP and they can have difficulty seeing past it. Assumptions can really cause us problems, presumptions not so much.
The same issue with assumptions comes from any human being, no matter their trade. We really shouldn’t go so far as to assume. I’m back on the band wagon of doing our research. Friends and family members need to do the same. We don’t become magically better once we’ve had a brain procedure, we have to have time and lots of it to recover. We have to use our brains to the best of our abilities and take the time to do proper research. We don’t need to have others tell us what or how to think. Each and every member here is quite old enough to look up facts themselves, question what you hear or read. When anyone makes a blanket statement check the facts out for yourself. If it includes statistics, check to make sure they’re getting real numbers from real research. I’ve got another well check coming up and you know I will be telling her about my radiology findings. Ok so the last one was a few months ago. She’s put me on a yearly check up, if the next one is clear and I think it will be because I’m doing really well, I’m not having one every flipping year. I’m always concerned about getting exposed to more radiation, not a doctor, but I think I’ve had enough already.
On to better things, maybe…Nina woke me up at 0600, despite Sunday is now my day to sleep in. BH got up with her about an hour earlier. She wants me to go outside and of course keeps barking through my morning rituals. Come outside with her at a balmy 23 dF and she wants me in the yard. I take my hot cup of tea with me down to a tree by the tractor shed. Nina and Ohana and treed a young cat the evening before, right around dusk. We thought there was a puppy in the woods crying and had walked down to the bigger tree line. We had wind gusts around 40mph. We can’t see anything and the sound stopped when we started to walk down. We are not allowed to bring stray animals in the house, it’s one of my many rules from our beloved Veterinarian. I was able to make a plan quickly if we found it and became very excited. We have a kennel we can put it in if we can’t find the owner right away. BH says maybe…BH turns around to head back up to the house since it is a bit windy and cold. Tells me not to go into the woods because it could be dangerous with the wind. We’ve heard some limbs come down, maybe a tree. So of course BH is right (again). Ohana has been jumping up against this one tree the whole time. BH looks up and this poor young, long haired black cat is on the first limb about 12 feet up, huddled against the tree staring at us with big green eyes that look reflective. Its fur is sticking out in all directions which looks both funny like a cartoon character but the eyes make it look like something out of a horror movie. It’s the fading sun hitting something shiny and then it’s eyes I think. I did ponder on getting the extension ladder out, remember my rule of not being on one and tell the thing “You’re on your own. You got up there, you can get yourself down”. It’s the same thing I told our last cat before I ruptured. She was an inside outside cat. We did give it a better chance by putting the dogs inside which they were not happy about. But since they came on command, they did earn a treat. Old dogs are sometimes like young puppies and these ones definitely are so it’s back to training basic commands.
Anyhow, Nina took me to the tree with my hot cuppa. She stares up the tree. I said “You’re right old girl, the kitten made it down the tree. I sure hope it’s got a home so it can get inside out of this cold.” She must have been happy and we went back up to the back porch where she wanted her morning brushing.
Our Vet and her husband, also a Vet but a large animal Vet came by to check on us after the big snow. Yes, they were going down the road to check on Mr. Haufner who will be 90 this year and still rehabs old tractors with a younger man in his 60’s. It’s really nice to have friends who care about you and very odd Aunt Dr. Kim didn’t make Dr. Tye call first, it’s one of his rules she made up LOL. BH is redoing the cabinets organization so stuff is all over the place. I’m embarrassed at the state of our house. I couldn’t find anything previously but it looks like I’ll be able to find stuff and more importantly be able to reach most things without the need of the work platform. Yay BH!
What else? Oh I finished PT this week. I did improve a little bit so it’s up to me to keep on doing my exercises. I like to do them in the morning. PT Thomas had to do my measurements, but PTA Ms. Becky did the workout with me. She is funny as heck and I really enjoy working with her. Ms. Becky gets done and goes and gets Mr. Thomas who makes me stretch my arm out to my side and pushes down. I’m supposed to be able to stop him and keep my arm at the 45 d. I didn’t do so well, but better than when I started 6 weeks ago. I got a 4 out of 5. Saying my goodbyes, I said I hoped I didn’t have to see them the rest of the year. Ms. Becky says “that long?” I replied “I sure hope so”. Mr. Thomas doesn’t think I’ll make it that long, says I’m too active and I’ll probably back around the end of Summer. We all laugh and I thank him again for the word “ache” which Ms. Becky is reminding me. It’s when I’m supposed to stop doing whatever it is I’m doing and rest a good bit or take some medication. They used to use words like pain and hurt, I always overdid things because of the way my brain registers brain is different than most, always has been. Ache works for me. So that’s pretty much my week, besides us seeing all the Canadian geese and robins. We’ve had a plethora of robins and other song birds visiting the yard as soon as the snow melted enough to see the grass. Now for our new members to welcome!
@manjuj starts us off this week. MJ is up in Pennsylvania and recently had a flow diverter stent placed for a 7mm cerebral aneurysm.
@Cat55 is across the pond in the UK. Catriona just found out in October from a CT scan that there’s a 9mm cerebral aneurysm and total blockage of the right main artery which I think would be the Internal Carotid but could just be the carotid artery.
@Maddie22 is down in Peru. Maddie shares they found their father on the floor and got him to the ER where he was diagnosed with a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. That hospital did not have the ability to help him so they had to wait for him to be transferred. Once transferred they had to wait 4 days for an operation room. Seems the family did some work to get their dad operated on and the surgeon clipped the aneurysm, so a craniotomy was done. This is now 6 days after he went to the ER! The day after the craniotomy, the father started vasospasms. The doctors told the family that their father had some brain damage and he had to be intubated, slept for almost 15 days, stopping medication so he could wake up (perhaps a medically induced coma?). Father woke up a few days later, didn’t seem he recognized his family. Eventually he became stable enough to leave Intensive Care Unit to a step down unit for three days and then transferred to a regular hospital. The same day, the doctor wrote the order for him to leave the hospital. (Yikes!)
When their father was released, he was unable to sit up by himself and still on a feeding tube. The hospital warned that it could be worse for him to stay at the hospital then to go home.
The family is trying their best to help him recover. He does receive PT three days a week for an hour. He can walk with a bit of hep, his left leg is difficult for him to move. He has a lot of pain on his left arm because of the fall and is not able to move it completely.
Maddie shares that they have a feeling there is something else that the family can be doing but theres no information and the family members are exhausted. Maddie also shares that her career as a biologist specializing in ecology has been put on hold in order to help with their father. Maddie is thinking of applying for an admission into a Master’s program in Neuroscience in order to help her father and her sister. Hoping to be able to return to work soon as well.
@Vagu is in the USA and received a craniotomy three months ago Valerie will have to under go another in September
That’s our newest members who I hope will all come to either General or Support tab and start a new topic introducing themselves and how we can help them out. We are really all about supporting each other in positive ways but we can’t support you if you don’t ask. Most of our topics are started under the General tab hitting the Create topic button and filling everything in. We look forward to reading more about you!
Thanks for all the members helping each other out this week, I’m really proud of you and the time you take to do so! Happy dancing on that one for sure! Stay safe this weekend, find a positive every day, drink your water aka stay hydrated, eat your protein, rest as needed. Oh and don’t forget to practice your relaxation breathing every day, multiple times a day please and thank you!
Your most of the time friendly Moderator,
Moltroub