Skip to main content

I got some interesting information, but I wonder about it...

I went back to my neurologist earlier this week; the neurologist that had been with me since my stroke left to take another position at the same hospital so I now have a new neurologist. Needles to say I was a little unsure about going to a new neurologist. I know, I know, I should not think that Dr. Benjamin walks on water but it is hard not to think that; without her I would be dead! But, I digress. This new neurologist told me some things that I had never heard before. First, I had always been under the impression that I cannot take any NSAID pain relievers because I am on an aspirin regimen. But, he told me that an occasional Motrin or Aleve is not bad; I should not become dependent upon them (that is, I should not take them daily, just periodically) but 1 every now and then is not going to hurt. The second thing he told me that made me go hmmmmmm was when he told me that all of my headaches (I get periodic terrible headaches in the back of my head. Those of you who have followed my blog for a long time know about them) are caused by nothing more than stress. If I eliminate stress (yea, good luck with that one) I can eliminate my headaches. When I told him that I get terribly fatigued, especially late in the day, he basically told me it is simply because I am out of shape and need to try walking on the treadmill more. One problem: I do walk on the treadmill periodically but then my blood pressure gets all whacky on me and then I get fatigued from the that and I am not able to do it anymore. It is not as if I do nothing; I do walk on the treadmill periodically and I try to stay active. Then he laid the biggy on me: there really is nothing that I used to be able to do that I should not be able to do now. My balance will be worse, obviously, but my stamina should not be changed at all. I'm sorry, what? I have seen my stamina go in the crapper, my endurance is terrible and my energy gets depleted quickly. So I am thinking "What the crap?" But, I went home and started thinking that it has been 5 years since my stroke (WOW....) and I have done pretty well for these 5 years, so I think I will just keep doing what I have done before and see how things go.

Comments

  1. oc1deanNovember 22, 2013 at 9:14 AM

    Your neurologist knows nothing about fatigue, getting more cardivascularily fit may not help. My fitness is at the athlete level and I still have massive fatigue at 7 years.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMay 21, 2015 at 4:28 PM

    some times we won't get good advice or a good person for help. alejandro betancourt

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

15 years already...It's only been 15 years...such a weird feeling

Today is December 8, 2023 - 15 years since my stroke. Time is deceiving; on one hand, it moves so fast that we can barely imagine that the person we were 15 years ago, and the person we are today are the same person. I have started this post 4 different times in the last few weeks; it is just so hard to put into words what I'm feeling. I feel really good for a dead guy (that is my standard greeting; several doctors have told me that I should had died at least 11 years ago.) But, it is so hard for me to talk about feeling good, considering the path we have been on for the last 2 months. My son was the one who helped me to the car when I could not walk; my son was the one who watched the girls when Laura had to take me to the hospital. My son was the one who bought me the little Christmas tree for my ICU room after my surgery, and it was my son that so often told his mom how worried he was about me when I would show signs of weakness. My son has been such a big part of my recovery,...
Post a Comment
Read more

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