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I had a good visit with my surgeon...

After telling me how good I looked (boy, am I glad beauty is in the eye of the beholder), he went on to show me a picture of my brain. It is interesting, the brain looks a lot different on a CT scan than it does in a book. Anyway, he said that my brain looked really good, from what he could see. He told me I should be back to NORMAL (don't you feel bad for Laura) in abut 3 - 4 MONTHS. Originally, he told Laura that I may not survive the surgery, then he said 6+ months of intense rehab, now he is telling her that I should be normal in 3 - 4 months. To say that I had a good visit would be an understatement. He is lifting my restriction (I still have to assume I have a blood clot) on lifting. Basically, he showed me all the dead spots on my brain, and he showed me where the swelling was. He told me that Dr. Karlstom did not expect me to survive the surgery. I guess you could sum up what he told me this way: He thinks that the over-the-counter medicine, combined with the High Blood Pressure, led to the stroke. IF you eliminate the problem (the medicine and the high Blood Pressure) then you remove the possibility of a recurrence. In other words, he did not think that I had to worry about another stroke - this will not be something I have to worry about for the rest of my life. I left the meeting with the surgeon very positive about my recovery.

When I go to see the stroke specialist in March, I think they will be testing to see if I have a problem in my blood that causes my blood to clot easily. He thinks he knows what caused my stroke, now it is just what specifically caused the problem.

On a lighter note, this was the first time I got to eat in the Methodist Cafeteria. I have to say, it was really good. Laura and the kids ate there nearly every day for about a week. I think our church nearly kept them in business for a little over a week. But, even though I was in the hospital for 8 days, this was my first time in the cafeteria. I may not want to take my wife there for a date, but it was really good. I can see now why my Associate Pastor like eating there so much. Maddy had a salad every day, Shaylee had the pizza bar every day, Brendan did not have a favorite, though he would eat nearly everywhere. Laura also did not have a favorite, she would just have whatever she felt like. Our Associate Pastor said that he really liked the Chicken Strips and Fries. Today, I had pizza...I can see why they went ga ga over the food.

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