Text 8718, 91 rader
Skriven 2014-01-10 23:21:26 av Stephen Haffly (1:396/45.27)
     Kommentar till en text av Dale Shipp
Ärende: I'm Home
================
Hello everyone,

Second attempt:  The first one bounced. That is one of the quirks of
DOSBox. It renumbers my addresses down one so that 1:396.45 becomes
1:396.44, so it does not go through. When I try to address a message to
"ALL" this happens but replies to existing messages get sent correctly.
That is why Ruth and I generally use a specific person's message to send
rather than sending to "ALL."



I'm home from the hospital now. Here's the story:

On Monday, just as we were getting ready for lunch, I felt lightheaded
when I stood up. I sat down and my vision went blank. I could not see
anything. I asked Ruth to call a neighbor (a nurse) who came over. Once
she arrived, we called 911. The ambulance came and took me to Duke
Raleigh Hospital. On the way there, I regained the vision on the right.
(Imagine a circle, bisected vertically). The left half remained blank.
This was in both eyes. To me, this indicated a stroke, but the ambulance
crew did not recognize it and thus did not notify the hospital that a
stroke victim was coming in.

When I got to the hospital, I went into the emergency room and then
waited for two hours to see a doctor. Once he came in, he recognized it
and called "code stroke" which then put things in high gear. I was taken
for a CT scan. Once that was done, we discussed the risks and benefits
of Tissue Plasmogen Activator (TPA) to dissolve the clot. We had to
hurry because the window for administering it was approaching an end. It
is best administered before 3 hours but can be administered up to 4
1/2 hours after the stroke began. They were able to get it done in time,
and I started to regain some vision on the left.

I then was moved to the ICU for tests and observation. That is because
the TPA can cause bleeding, so they wanted to make sure that was not
happening. The next day, I was taken for an MRI of the brain, and of the
arteries in the head and neck. I also had an echocardiogram and lots of
blood tests. I signed paperwork asking to be moved to the VA hospital in
Durham. The case manager worked on that, and the VA hospital said that
they did not have room, so I stayed at Duke Raleigh.

My third stop was the neurosciences unit. I had more tests including a
doppler study of the legs to see if there were blood clots there. I also
had another CT scan. There were no clots and the CT scan indicated
things were stable. They also drew a lot more blood to be sent off for
tests. The VA hospital said they still did not have room, so I remained
in Raleigh.

Finally, since the VA hospital did not have room and since I had been
there for about 3 days (long enough after the TPA administration, and
since there really was no type of rehab that could be done, the doctor
decided to release me.

Things I found out:
1. I may have had a previous stroke at one point. There was a place on
the cerebellum which indicates a probable prior one.
2. I am not diabetic. My A1C was 5.4
3. My cholesterol was a little high, but not extremely so. It was 245
with HDL at 85, LDL at 142, and VLDL at 18. I blame that on travel and a
different diet. Usually, the LDL is in the 120 range.

So, I have no clue as to what caused this stroke. I am now taking
low-dose aspirin to try to prevent another one. I am avoiding statins,
as I have had bad side-effects every time I have tried to take them. I'm
going to have to change my diet even more to try to lower it.

Anyway, I have regained even more of the vision on the left side,
primarily in the upper half of the left hemisphere. The lower left
remains the most seriously affected part. I can now see light and a
little motion in that area, but I can't make out shapes yet. Hopefully,
that will return, but it may take several weeks while the brain bypasses
and reroutes around the damaged area. If it can't do so, eventually, the
brain will supress the data from that area and I will have a permanent
chunk out of my vision. That happened already in my right eye in 2000,
so I know what that is like. I have hopes that it will not happen this
time, since I am seeing light now.

Thank you all for your prayers and concerns. I am sure Ruth will keep
everyone up-to-date with my progress. However, I wanted to give a bit
more detail as to what happened.


Regards,

Stephen
Professional Point in DOSBox running on Linux.

... Proverbs 3:13 | Happy is the man that findeth wisdom,...

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