Skip to main content

I am going to have to start blogging again...

I guess this is not a bad thing; I used to blog, nearly, everything that happened in my life, but lately I have been a little "slack" concerning how I feel. But, I need to have a "record" of everything, and, since this is how I used to do it, it just seems suitable to keep blogging more.

Well, I have felt pretty good for the last 6 months or so since I last blogged. There are some problems, though. I have noticed a trend: whenever I do not get a nap, I get real weakness in my left arm and left leg. The other day I had a REALLY bad day; some of it is because I did not get a nap, and some of it was because I am just prone to have bad days. This past weekend (October 1-3) I had some balance and "spacey" troubles. I seemed to stumble a little more than usual, and actually fell over (although it was into a chair, it was still a fall).

Some of the problems that I deal with on a regular basis: I still struggle with Aphasia (words just do not seem to come to me). I have learned how to "deal with it" by pausing a little between words and using phrases like "what is the best way to say this" (the reality is, I don't know the right words and I am trying to think of it). I also struggle with using the right words. Sometimes I will find myself saying that "this probably is not the right word...I guess a better word would be". I still have some problems swallowing; not that I cannot swallow, but it takes 2 or 3 attempts to swallow completely. I have a pulsating sound in my right ear. Initially I thought it was just my heartbeat, but it is not a regular pulsing; it is an irregular type sound. I often find that my left leg just gives out on me. I have only gone to the ground because of it once, but I do have to rely on something else to gain my balance. My blood pressure is all over the board; it is the worst of situations: if I do not exercise, I can control my blood pressure pretty well but my cholesterol gets out of whack. Since I only have one artery going to my brain I cannot allow my cholesterol to go high; however, when I do exercise a lot to lower my cholesterol, my blood pressure plummets (from 135/85 to 108/68 in just a few days). So, here is the question that I deal with every day: do I keep my BP up and play roulette with my cholesterol, or do I exercise to keep my cholesterol down and play roulette with my BP.

I really do FEEL good, but I just wanted to share what I deal with internally on a day to day basis.


Comments

  1. The Beginning Farmer's WifeOctober 13, 2010 at 6:52 PM

    Haven't been on blogs for awhile. Thank you for sharing. It is nice to better know how to pray for you and your continued recovery. We love you guys!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Does it get any worse than a stroke? Yes

On December 8, 2008, my life changed forever. I had a double sided cerebellar stroke with 2 brain stem compressions. It was not until December 10, 40 hours after my stroke, that surgery was finally done to relieve the pressure. Dr. Piper, the neuro-surgeon from Iowa Methodist hospital in Des Moines, told my wife that surgery was nothing more than an attempt to save my life, but that it would not erase the deficiencies as a result of the stroke. Although she admits that she did not really understand what Dr. Piper had just said, my wife, Laura, agreed to the surgery and the care team performed a decrompessive craniotomy, to hopefully relieve the pressure and allow my brain to function somewhat normally. For those who have followed my blog for the last 14+ years, the surgery was successful, I returned to the church and I now live a relatively normal life, although I do have some pretty severe, though not always visible, defieciencies. I really thought that life could not get any worse th
Post a Comment
Read more

Sometimes I forget...and sometimes I just have a problem putting words together

It has been almost 15 years since my stroke, so you would think that, by now, I would be readily prepared for everything that life can throw my way; but, I often forget what it's like to have a simple head cold after my stroke. Now, understand, I am not suggesting that other people don't feel bad when they have a cold; it is just that it is different for a stroke survivor. Maybe some of the other stroke survivors feel the same way: many times when I get a head cold with the congestion, suffy nose, fever, etc., it begins to feel like I'm having a stroke again. For those who don't know what this is like, let me try to explain. I get up at night, whether to go to the bathroom or some other reason, and I feel completely disoriented for a few seconds. Not like I'm groggy, but that I feel the room is spinning, I can't tell which direction I am going, I forget where the bathroom is for an instant, things like that. On the first day of this last cold, I was going down
Post a Comment
Read more

Sometimes my new life stinks...

For the last few weeks I have been experiencing some pretty terrible headaches; not the kind that you can relieve by rubbing your temples or taking Tylenol, but headaches that radiate from the back of my head. It seems as though I have tried several things to relieve them: taking naps, lying down on heating pads, taking Tylenol, turning the lights of, etc. but nothing seems to help. Now, I don't have them all the time, only a few days a week and I can tell that they are more from muscle tightness than anything else. I have been instructed to go the ER if they flare up again, because of my past history of headaches before my stroke, but most likely it is due to the muscles that were cut in the back of my head for the Craniotomy. I would say that most days I do not struggle with headaches at all; but, the days I do have headaches they are a doozy. I don't have blurred vision with them or sensitivity to light or sound; it just hurts. As I look back over the past 3+ years I realize
8 comments
Read more