Strike it Up

Wednesday I had a neurologist appointment.  I wanted to update him on everything that has happened to me in the last four months.  I haven’t seen him in more than a year.  The last appointment I had, I cancelled because I was too sick to go.  I mostly go to him for follow ups so it was one of the things that got neglected while I was sick.

Jason went with me because I wanted him to tell my doctor about the stroke.  I can obviously tell him some things, but Jason was coherent through the whole thing and he knows more than I will ever know.  I gave him all the scans I got from Presbyterian (I picked them up when I went for my bronch) and Jason told him about me.  He told him about my symptoms, what I was doing and what happened when I was in a coma.  Jason was not overly thrilled how I was taken care of during that whole process.   The resident didn’t believe I was having a stroke and left me all night to see if I would get better.  Even with Jason and Erika both telling him it was a stroke and they needed to do something immediately.  My doctor asked why Jason didn’t call him.  He said that he knows doctors at Columbia and he would have been able to consult.  At the time Jason didn’t even think about it.  Even after I woke up and we were trying to figure out what happened we didn’t think calling him was really an option.  In hind sight now I see we should have.  Luckily everything worked out, but now I know for future reference, and for those of you reading, you can call your local doctors.  They know you better and can offer more help than residents who have never met you.

It seems like I have completely recovered from the stroke.  There are only two small things that I think are still lingering from it.  My short term memory is not completely back.  I was copying some recipes onto my computer the other day and noticed I could only remember one ingredient at a time.  I use to be able to write two or three ingredients before having to look again.  Also I noticed that sometimes I have a hard time coming up with the name of something.  I will know what I am trying to say, but it will take me a little longer to come up with the word.  It is like when you are trying to come up with someone’s name and you can’t quite remember it.  It is so annoying because it is right there on the tip of your tongue but you can’t get it out.  It normally doesn’t take me long to come up with it, but it is annoying all the same.  My neurologist told us those issues will most likely get better with time.    He said the brain is amazing how it creates new connections when something happens to the old ones.  With what happened to me I am extremely grateful that those are my only issues.

Although I seem to be doing great he wants Jason to keep an eye on me to make sure I am not having any seizures.  Even though the EEG showed no signs of them he still wants to be cautious.  Jason said he never saw me have a seizure in the hospital, but not all seizures include muscle tremors.  A seizure could be going on while the person shows no sign of it physically.  We are to call him immediately if I show any confusion or any other symptom I had in NY.

After the appointment Jason, Courtney and I went out to eat at Ruby Tuesday’s.  There Jason surprised us with Sabres tickets for that night.  Every season he buys five games from a co-worker who has season tickets.  The first game he got was for that night and he was telling me and Courtney to go.  He had to go away for business.

It sucked that Jason had to miss the game, but it was fun going with Courtney.  He wasn’t happy that he had to miss it, but he wasn’t completely disappointed either.  They are playing really bad this year so he didn’t think he would miss much of a game.  You could definitely tell that the attendance was down because it seemed like there were more empty seats than people.  It was weird seeing the stadium so empty.  Whenever I have gone before the stadium was always full with most of the games being sold out.  I guess us diehard fans can only take so much disappointment.  I held on to some hope that we were going to win this one since we were only down by one.  Bringing up that disappointment I just mentioned…well I definitely was because we ended up losing 5-2.  Even though we lost we are still happy we went.  Courtney and I enjoy hockey and it was still a fun outing.  As bad as they played, the worst part was walking back to the car.  OMG it was cold!

Another thing I want to mention is a side effect I am experiencing from the drugs.  I have started to notice that there has been an increase in my hair growth.  I starting noticing it a little bit before we went to Florida.  Now that we are home I seem to be noticing it even more.  The hairs on my arms seem to be thicker than before.  I have also noticed some side burns and some light facial hair.  This is not cool, not cool at all.  I remember them mentioning this to me as a side effect back in the hospital.  I think it might be the prednisone.  I was on a high dose there for awhile and I am hoping that now I am weaned down to 10mg a day the hair will slow down.  We will see.  If not, this might be something I will have to deal with. I will have to find some kind of solution to keep it under control.  I am really hoping it stops, but if I had to choose, I pick having to deal with more hair over not breathing any day.