Saturday, October 20, 2012

Boy, Oh Boy how life can change in a minute.

This month is a month I would like to have completely pasted if I could.  On the last Sunday of September, I found my husband, John, on the floor at 7:30am.  He was in the chair when I left the room and when I came back a few minutes later he was on the floor.  He wanted me to help him up but I could see right away that he had had a stroke.  I immediately called 911 and the paramedics were here within 5 minutes.  The fire station is only a little over a mile from our house.  They took him to the hospital right away and at this time John could still speak and answer questions.  

I got myself dressed and then went to the hospital, a mile and a half down the road.  I got there and signed him in before I even got to see him.  I then was able to go back to the ER and he just wanted some thing as he had a big headache he said.  He was hooked up to a bunch of monitors and I said they not going to give you anything right now.  The doctor came in and said they had done a CAT scan and he did have a stroke and would I like him to get the shot they give to stroke patients because he was in the window to be able to have it.  I said yes.  This drug (expensive) is a super blood thinner which is giving in an IV.  First a super shot and then an hour of drip.  As he was having the drip he was getting further and further out of it.  Couldn't talk and throwing his arms around.  I had to hold his arm down and talk to him so he would lay still.  The nurse and doctor kept checking him and they wanted to do another CAT scan because he was worse than when he came in.  So off they took him.  When they brought him back and while we waited for a room in ICU they told me that his brain didn't have a bleed. It took another hour or more to get a room for him.

He got in the room and I was able after a bit to go see him.  Very little movement in the whole left side and he was pretty much out of it.  He tried to talk but he really couldn't.  They told me I might as well leave and go have something to eat as by this time it was after lunch time.  I came back in the afternoon and there still was very little change so I only stayed long enough to talk to the nurses on duty.

Monday he was some better and you could understand part of what he said and he could move his arms and legs.  I visited in the morning and again in the afternoon then for the next 8 days in ICU.

Each day he got a little better.  I finally got to bring him home on the 8th of October.  He is quite weak on the left side and can't do things like put a shirt on or button it or tie shoes.  Couldn't pull the zipper on his pants so we went and bought he some sweat pants.  He can do pretty much any thing else by himself.  He does have problems with a fork or spoon because he is left handed and the left hand doesn't always cooperate.

He is still facing surgery on the artery in his neck as it is 90% blocked and it needs to be cleaned out.  He still has some swelling on the brain or they would have done the surgery right away so now we think that may be the middle to end of November.

He still has a lot of confusion, especially as the day goes on.  He can't always get out what he wants to say either.  He is taking a bunch of pills every day.  

We now have a visiting nurse once a week and physical therapy will be started this week.

I am so thankful for our wonderful kids.  Our daughter was here the day after John came home from the hospital and she was a wonderful help.  To me mentally because I really needed someone to talk tooShe left on this past Tuesday and so we have been by ourselves most of this week and will be all this next week before our youngest son will be coming to live with us.    

So right now we are going through a lot of changes and John is not really pleased with them all but there is nothing else we can do.  I don't think John really understands just how sick he still is and that the surgery is not going to make things back to the old way.  During all the CAT scans, (3), and the MRI, they found that he has had three strokes.  Two old minor ones and then this massive one.

With all of this going on, I have not done any work on dolls or doll clothes.  I really want to get back to doing that and with the holiday season coming up, I need to get the stuff out there or I will completely miss all the good sales I normally would have during this season.     Lucky I didn't have any shows scheduled because I would not have been able to do any of them anyway.

I did get a chance to update and reduce some of the things I have on my website so I hope you will all go take a look and see if there is any thing that you might like.  I have so much that is not on my website and that was one of my goals for this fall to get pictures of everything and get it on the website.  Don't think I will get it done now.  Website:  http://www.ejcrafts.com

We are living day by day and hope the next day will be better.  I have to thank all my friends, relatives and all the other people who have sent prayers and positive thoughts for us.  They sure have helped us get this far.