On the other side of crisis

Two days after my last post, I had a stroke. Now, "stroke" conjures certain things for most people including me, and those things didn't apply. In short, on Tuesday night, Jan. 27, Brian came out of his room and started a political discussion which immediately raised my stress level. Rick deals with those things less passionately, so I went to the barn to do chores and then to our room to put clean sheets on our bed. When I bent over and was hit with a "thunderclap headache" and nausea, I knew something bad had happened in my brain. I walked out to the great room to tell Rick I wasn't feeling well, and he rushed me to the nearest emergency room, where they took a CT scan and handed me off like a hot potato to OHSU, the best regional neurosurgical center. Diagnosis: a subarachnoid hemorrhage resulting in hydrocephalus, requiring an external ventricular drain. I was in the NSICU for over a week (I was told it would be weeks), moved for one day to the neuro ward, and was discharged on Feb. 6 with no deficits or restrictions, other than not overdoing it.

head drain, borrowed glasses, and borrowed 'clothes'

OHSU had some great salads when I could make myself eat

NOT hospital food; Rick brought IN this heavenly pistachio cannoli

Perfect sentiment from social media for me!

The o'dark thirty view from my neuro ward room

The daylight view from my room

I managed to do a tiny bit of spinning on my last day at OHSU

Home again, home again with my dear doggy

a view from my bedroom

seen on my first venture outside Thursday

a bright pot of spring flowers from our church family

another view from my bedroom

Valentine chocolates from our sweet son (Dubai; oh my!)

My guys were great support while I was in hospital and have continued to be so after discharge. Poppy has been the best little nursemaid; maybe if she had been allowed into OHSU I would have been discharged even sooner. 😊 Of course I'm still on a boatload of drugs and am thankful for them; my head and sciatica would be much worse without them. Oh yeah; after a week of laying in a hospital bed my sciatica returned with a vengeance, which has been a more debilitating problem than my 'stroke head.' It was a good thing I was released on a Friday night, because it took all weekend before the sciatic spasms abated enough that I could try moving somewhat safely on my own.

'Stroke head' is a thing, folks. Even though I no longer need the 'brain drain,' the lining of my brain is still being irritated by the presence of blood where it's not supposed to be, which I was told could take up to a month for my body to absorb. Things like sudden changes of position, bending over, concentration on things like the small screen of my iPhone hurt my head, but sensitivity to light and sound have improved greatly. I am slowly and carefully able to do more; tomorrow I am hoping to be escorted to the barn so I can visit my horses and sheep. I can't drive until I'm off all my meds, so my home place is my world for now. Life could be sooo much worse.

That's it for now from . . .