Yeah, it’s not ideal for my profession to be PT either, but I certainly can take on the role of being assigned tasks vs. lead designer or project manager. I am also on medical leave and would return to the same office and team – sounds like you started somewhere new, which could have its advantages. Funny that you “practiced” going to work at the library – I participated in an online art critique for an hour that I stumbled upon through National Gallery of Art Learn and while it was fun and engaging, I was exhausted after all that interaction, so I definitely need to “practice” some more.
The neuropsych testing was actually precipitated by the LTD folks who noted that they did not “see” in my records that I was getting the level of “continuous” care that I need for someone in my condition… hence my follow up with a neurologist who was not my neurosurgeon/IR, who then recommended the testing. Either way, I do want to know where I am cognitively ever since my first doc said that the LICA affects high executive function.
So from what I understand (or maybe they were trying to not panic me), the ER said I had a “small bleed.” I was just reading up about hemorrhages and learned that (I suppose if small enough) the blood will clot much like if you cut your skin and creates a little soft scab, until you poke on it again and the scab opens up again. This makes sense to me since I had my “bleed” on Friday, walked around Paris on Acetaminophen on Saturday, jumped on a plane back to DC on Sunday and then on Monday morning, finally get a CT scan that revealed the “small bleed.” Apparently, the risk of re-bleed (and really bad outcomes in the “other” percent) is almost certain after about day four, so that whole, “we are going to airlift you to the other hospital because there are no ambulances available” was complete BS – I was a ticking time bomb. I suppose their job is to also keep you fairly calm. All that to say, I don’t think my visualization/spatial awareness was affected since I feel like I can still draw and paint, etc. – generally helpful in my line of work Oh – to add to the handwriting part, he advised, even better would be to read a physical book (you know, the ones with print on paper ), stop after a paragraph or page or so and summarize in your own words what you just read – essentially going back to high school level English Lit I suppose. Have I done this? No. I’ve been trying to do a sketch a day and already missed two days - lol.
Yeah, I think I may have to just schedule the hubby for a friendly therapist session… when I was at the hospital and the most “stressful” time, our neurologist friend was super helpful in explaining to him what was going on when my doc was busy with me, and I feel like he knew too much, which was good… but like BH, had to hear a lot.
Well, I can’t take credit for my "practice’ ideas…my wonderful speech therapist is the one who put me onto those ideas!
I think the National Gallery of Art program exacty fits the bill, as you were doing cogitive work. (Insert standard disclaimer that I speak from a patient perspectve, and not as one with actual medical knowledge! ) Once I could show I could do it for 1 hour, could I do it for 2 hours, 3 hours, etc.? While I was “working,” do the Pomodoro method - work in 20-30 minute blocks - stop, take a break, assess how you feel - do you need to do some stretches? Drink water? Have protein? Mediate? Call it quits? Etc.
My homework also consisted of commuting. Could I handle navigating public transportation (living in big city metro areas it is a given)? What does that due to your stamina? How do you recharge your batteries with all the stimulus?
Of course, your team will come up with some more appropriate ideas customized for you! This is just what my experience was.
I had a Fischer Level III bleed so greater than 1 mm of blood and my corpus callosum took a blow. I remember one of my Neurosurgeon’s Residents kept saying “there’s too much blood, too much blood” the other wouldn’t discuss with me when I kept telling him BH had my POAs, organ donor, etc. He actually said “We are not discussing this now.” Which confused me a lot. BH told me that I told all the Residents to take a nice slow breath to release some of the stress they were passing to me. For some reason I couldn’t “block” it, a very important tool in my line of work. From what I recall they had to get me stable for the procedure and one of the Residents made mention that I was given too many drugs. Whether that was at the first hospital or included the extra meds the life flight gave me when I kept waking up, I’ll never know. I also thought the ER room was quite big and spacious except for all the machines. I had occasion to revisit that same ER and boy was I wrong! They really need bigger exam rooms because a Resident kept bumping me with his backside while working on a patient who’d been in a vehicular accident. He also chided me several times for comments I made and they moved me up to a very quiet dark room to wait for my MRA.
I think I have a laundry of list of things I should be doing during the day and it’s so long now that I overwhelm myself … then do one thing for a bit and then, look, it’s lunchtime, and then nap time! I need to start making an agenda for the day and scheduling myself like I used to do with work meetings in blocks of time, like you say with the Pomodoro method.
Yeah, I haven’t gone on the Metro train in DC since 2023 - ha! I am still hesitant as it requires a decent amount of walking to and from the train/to and from office, which is fine, if I just get to lay down after… so yeah, will need practice commuting for sure… Or spend an arm and a leg for parking.
I’m cheering for you @FinWhaleFan! Slow and steady - you got this!
@Moltroub you seem to have pretty thorough reports – I have no idea what level of bleed mine was categorized as – you had me checking all my reports from that first hospital visit… nothing. I was pretty coherent for my entire ER visit when I first walked in - by the time the paramedic walked into the patient room to take me on his little helicopter ride, he stopped, looked at me, looked at his chart, and said he didn’t expect me to be alert/awake. He plugged me up to all his machines and as we were in the hallway, the ER doc ran up and said no, we need to give her medication for her high BP. The paramedic looked at him and kept walking right out the door. As we bumped through the vestibule and rumble strips(!) walk-off mat, I started saying to the paramedic, yeah the architects who specified this clearly have never had trauma… Then it dawned on me that I had never been on a helicopter before and I started trying to get my phone to take a picture of the city , but alas, I was strapped up like Hannibal Lecter! As we were mid-air, seems like my BP was crazy high and the paramedic administered some meds – but not to put me to sleep like you. My hubby was awaiting me at the other hospital and once the neuro team told us that they didn’t know whether it would be endovascular or craniotomy until they got into the OR, hubby and I did a quick tearful “goodbye” and then I was out. Haven’t thought about this for a while…
When I was finally awakened post-rupture, of course, the first question I had was where are you? I was shocked to learn I was in a big city hospital, and not my local hospital (admittedly part of the big city system). One of my first thoughts was “I can’t believe I missed the helicopter flight!!!”
Flash forward to when I got meningitis. Good news, I got to do it all over again, but was much more conscious this time around. Bad news is that I agree, not as much fun as I anticipated being all-strapped in. Which reminds me, need to add that to the bucket list, but NOT in the patient context.
My local hospital didn’t document much in the ways of many of our members receive, no Glasgow scores, etc that commonly come with a rupture. They told BH I was alert but they were working on me so BH had to hang out in the ER waiting room then said wait until the helicopter leaves and we’ll come out and tell you when you can go. I remember nothing about the ER. BH tried to tell them numerous times that I can carry on full conversations in my sleep but all they said was I was awake and talking. I do remember the pilot and RN struggling to get me into that dang helicopter. I told the RN I could get out of the gurney if it would make it easier. I woke up a few times on that short flight and I recall the RN saying he’d given me enough to knock out a horse, I told him try an elephant. He had to call back to the local ER because the one I was either not admitted to the one I was headed to or not in their flight zone, I forget. I don’t remember landing🤣
My Fischer level was in the ER records from WFBH. It took me awhile to get the records from the local ER, no patient portal. I learned from members here just how important it is to have our records. I’ve got a grievous error on why I was on a med and couldn’t get it off despite repeated attempts and the NSICU RNs seemingly repeating that error when they’d go over my med list even though I corrected them. It cause me a bunch of stress and they stopped going over my med, plus they finally kept me with just four RNs, except on their off days. 2 on day shift that switched until some NSICU politics and immaturity went into play and 2 on nights that worked together.
Oh – to add to the handwriting part, he advised, even better would be to read a physical book (you know, the ones with print on paper 
), stop after a paragraph or page or so and summarize in your own words what you just read – essentially going back to high school level English Lit I suppose. Have I done this? No. I’ve been trying to do a sketch a day and already missed two days - lol.
) Once I could show I could do it for 1 hour, could I do it for 2 hours, 3 hours, etc.? While I was “working,” do the Pomodoro method - work in 20-30 minute blocks - stop, take a break, assess how you feel - do you need to do some stretches? Drink water? Have protein? Mediate? Call it quits? Etc.