Stroke Update:
It seems like us old Geezers topic of choice seems to be our health.
This is a fairly long post that I am making because I experienced and learned several things this past week about strokes and their treatment. This information may be beneficial to you in the future, hopefully not.
Tuesday, I was drawing insulin into a syringe and could not see to put the needle into the vial. After covering my right eye, I realized that I could not see anything but a white area in my central vision of my left eye. Renae also noted that I was speaking gibberish and was drooling. She immediately put me in the car and took me about three miles to the hospital. She might have saved my life according to the Neurologist.
At the hospital they rushed me past the ER in a wheelchair and into an exam room. After a quick evaluation they did a Cat scan. The cat scan showed an area of the brain that seemed to have a blood clot.
I was soon looking at a large flat screen of a Zoom conference with a Neurologist from Maryland. He questioned Renae thru an evaluation while I watched. I could not even remember the correct word for diabetic. The doctor said that we needed to use a very strong medicine to dissolve the blood clot. He also warned me that the mortality percentage of this drug was a 5% death rate from a brain hemmorage. We went ahead and they started the pump to send the medicine in.
Shortly after I started to see thru my left eye.
The hospital had already ordered a Medivac Helicopter to take me to the Las Vegas hospital that specializes in Strokes.
After an hour flight of about 200 miles I was met at the pad and rushed to the ICU for another evaluation and Cat Scan. I spent the next 48 hours getting every kind of diagnostic test that you can imagine. At the end of the first 24 hours they did the fourth Cat Scan because they said that was the time that was most dangerous for a brain hemmorage.
The time spent in ICU was very uncomfortable, not because the staff was not great but because I was wrapped in wire, cables, tubes and was poked and treated and trapped in a gurney for 48 hours.
The third day I was sent up to the top floor of the hospital to a huge private room. The room had a much more comfortable hospital bed, a large screen TV, a bathroom with a shower, and a sitting room with comfortable chairs and a picture window with a view of the Las Vegas skyline. The room could have easily supported two patient beds.
An important test that they still needed was an MRI. I had shown them the card that I had from Boston Scientific relative to the Cardiovertor that I had inserted in my chest a few years ago. The card said I could not have an MRI.
The doctors researched the issue with Boston Scientific and they said that the could send a representative to reprogram and deactivate the unit but it would take two days to fly him out.
I suggested that since I was basically recovered that I could have the MRI as an outpatient in Lake Havasu City. They agreed, but a few hours later they had located a Boston Scientific Rep in Las Vegas that could disable it the next day. I told them to go ahead with the MRI at the hospital. The reason that they had to deactivate was not because of the metal or battery as I thought. It was because if it activated, especially the defibbralator, it could damage the MRI circuits.
The next morning, I had breakfast and took a bite of what I thought was bacon. It was turkey bacon and was the worst thing I have ever tasted. I gagged and then ran to the bathroom and vomited. I will never eat turkey bacon again, but it did have the effect of emptying my belly. I am mentioning this because it had a direct effect on my MRI a few hours later. After deactivating my Cardio unit, I was taken in for the MRI. When I laid down on the table that takes you into the tube I became sick to my stomach and had dry heaves. Because of the empty stomach I did not vomit at least. I told the tech that 20 years before I had a triple bypass and a few years after I had the same type reaction to laying flat on by back on a hard concrete surface while sliding under a motorhome on a creeper.
We tried putting a pad on the table under my back with the same result. Fortunately, she suggested a spacer and a cushion under my head in the fixture that holds the head steady. That solved the problem because of the hyper extension of my neck when my head was lower that my body. This may help someone else.
We completed the test with me having no problem lying still. They actually ran the scan twice after seeing something that they wanted to check again in more detail.
They discovered that I had absolutely had a stroke and a clot in my brain in the area called A1 on the left side. The clot had dissolved into several smaller clots and the circulation was restored. Interestingly, the area of the brain where the clot was is usually related to the right leg. I had no problem with the right leg.
They had also discovered on the previous day by inserting an ultrasonic probe down my throat while under anesthesia that I had a hole between the two top chambers of my heart. They think that a clot, probably from my leg, had entered my heart in the left upper chamber and crossed over to the right upper chamber thru the hole and then pumped by the right lower chamber to my brain. If the hole had not been there it would have entered the left lower chamber and went to my lungs.
They will repair the hole later, maybe with some super glue or Dicor roof sealant, (just kidding, RV joke).
On the way back to my patient room I told the medical tech that I was feeling guilty because as I was being pushed on a gurney to the various test during the last two days I had observed a great many patients on gurneys and even wheelchairs lining the hallways. It looked like a mass casualty scene.
I felt bad that I was in this big room with room to spare.
He told me that there were two reasons that I was in what he called the “Penthouse”. First, I was negative for Covid, and second, I had full insurance coverage. I still felt guilty.
After returning to my room I was met by a driver for a patient transportation company that drove me in a van to Lake Havasu City.
I am happy to be home and feeling very good and very lucky.
)
