Follow
Share
Read More
1 2 3
Alva, sorry to read about this. Keeping you and your partner in my thoughts.
Hoping he has a good recovery and you are back home. As everyone has said, take care of yourself, too. (((hugs)))
(3)
Report

Thinking of you.
(3)
Report

Thinking of you guys, Alva!
(2)
Report

Stay strong and hugs.
(2)
Report

Alva, I'm sorry you and Neil are going through this. You are right, a stroke is the one thing I am concerned about, as well as concerned that someone won't call 911 if I'm not able. I know it can be lifechanging, happened to my mom. I am so glad you were able to take charge for your husband and get him the help he needed. And that little foster dog, seems to me she is an important part of your family now.
(5)
Report

Alva, so, so sorry to hear of this.

You are so right. So important to call 911. Even if it's a false alarm
you'll have done the right thing.

Case in point. My DH's dad. He had a stroke. Did not go to the E.R.
Ended up paralyzed on his left side. Apparently crawled to bed
the night it happened. Woke up next day and the rest is history.
He was a doctor. What was he thinking?

You are in my thoughts.
(5)
Report

So sorry, Alvadeer. I hope his recovery goes well. Your reminders about not ignoring stroke symptoms are spot on. Sending hugs.
(4)
Report

Sending thoughts for full recovery across the miles. And strength to you to help handle it all. Hugs from here to there.
(4)
Report

You’re on my mind and in my heart, AlvaDeer.
(4)
Report

Alva, thinking of you and your partner.
😊

And thanks for the timely reminder about getting help immediately for a possible stroke.
(3)
Report

Sending best wishes to you both!
(2)
Report

So sorry! Hope everything gets better.

beth
(1)
Report

It’s very fortunate that with your experience, you recognized what was happening and took action.
Thank you for sharing your experience and advice so openly..
i know I, for one, will take it to heart and remember it!
(2)
Report

@Burnt: Re your comment: When Neil was looking as tho the clot buster didn't work and they were wanting to do the embolectomy to go in and try to fish out that very visible clot--he was refusing. Said let him go. And I was over him in no uncertain terms telling him "I will let you GO, but you aren't going anywhere but to the nursing home with no left side, no speech and no swallow for the rest of your life, because you won't DIE of this, but you will live impaired". He then said YES. As they were prepping him for the procedure, didn't that clot explode and was gone with no deficits from the clot buster drugs.

Readers, he is HOME. Neither of us can believe it and are more or less in shock. Followup begins tomorrow with appt with his Kaiser MD, but he is looking like it never ever happened, and seeing him almost dead on the Bed Thursday night, unable to move, and with a flaccid left arm and leg, neglect on left side, garbled up speech, confused--this seems miraculous (if you will forgive the atheist's expression when there seems no other). He has dodged a bullet in a way neither of us can imagine. I saw lots of stroke recovery, but never one this full. The clot was apparently sitting above the carotids at branch M1 of the MCA (which has pretty pictures online) and had not moved in to cut off flow to any portion of the brain, nor blocked that main artery completely. Just sitting there. During prep for embolectomy (thinking clot to big to bust from drugs) it did bust. Followup CT is totally normal. And HE is completely normal.
We both were in bed at 7 pm. We look and act like shock victims.
Frieda the dog was so happy to see him come in in hospital clothes, she was spinning and couldn't get her breathe. Then she was smelling all the IV wounds and bruises, rubbing any spot he left just to get his smell on her. I think the little thing is somewhat attached? What say you.

AGAIN, please all take this as warning for if it saves one of you...........just know CALL 911. YOU CANNOT WAIT. You have a window of 2-4 (6 max) hours to get the clot busters in. You must be by that time at a stroke center and have had a CT Scan. So no calling cousin Irma to drive you to ER where you will sit until you are dead, OK. It is 911. They know which stroke center can take you and they will know you are having a stroke. Most of us can't imagine calling them. But believe me, when you see someone you love having symptoms of a stoke, you WILL BE ABLE TO MAKE THAT CALL. Please do. You cannot delay. Neil couldn't even sit up or move, so knew right away that SIL saying "I will drive you right to Kaiser ER" wasn't good. Turns out they are not the best stroke center and were on divert anyway. Would have meant permanent debility. Happily Neil couldn't move or talk well enough to say "OK".
Just know two things. Call 911. Time is of the essence.
(9)
Report

@Alva

I am so happy for you and Neil. It's a miracle.
(3)
Report

Alva, 😢☺️ 😍, I'm speechless, and just so relieved for you!!
(3)
Report

Miracles DO happen Alva, and you just witnessed one with Neil. Enjoy your day with him and with Frieda.
(4)
Report

Bless God for His mercies. He does still perform miracles and answer prayers. I was cured of a 5 year gut yeast infection in moments by prayer. So happy for you and Neil and thanks for the urging re calling 911.
(4)
Report

So sorry to hear this. Sending you healing thoughts…
(0)
Report

All I can say is WOW!!! If that isn't a miracle I don't know what is.
God apparently isn't done with Neil yet. I will continue to keep you both lifted up in prayer.
(2)
Report

Funky, it quite tickles me to think that if there's a god then perhaps he has about a DOZEN more dogs to throw Neil's way; god knows his photo album is FULL of dogs he has placed over many years, so many that the dogs in many cases have died of old age.
God must be a dog lover!
(4)
Report

Wow, Alva!

Such great news!

May God give you many more years together!
(3)
Report

Sorry I missed this earlier, glad to see he’s doing better Alva!
(2)
Report

Yes Alva, God is a lover of all of His creatures. He's good like that, and I do hope that there are many more dogs in Neil's life.
(2)
Report

Thank you for your words of wisdom and encouragement to call 911.
(2)
Report

I will update anything else here, otherwise allowing this thread to fade far into the past, I hope. We see regular Kaiser MD tomorrow to just see how we keep an eye on things and what the medication changes will be over time. And on we go. If we continue to try to place Frieda it will be under the heading "Lifesaver Dog". But I am uncertain if he will give her up now. He had dawdled for a year at best. At 82 and 84 and with the uncertainties of our lives just proven, with access to vets in Bay Area almost nil, we understand this isn't something we should be doing. So time will tell.
Thank you ALL for your encouragement, love, thoughts, prayers, wishes. You are an amazing community of VERY GOOD PEOPLE.
(9)
Report

I’m so glad things are looking up!
(0)
Report

Alva, apologies for being so late to the party here. I’m soooo glad to read of an excellent outcome! It is indeed miraculous. To go from so much fear after witnessing all that damage to being home as normal petting that lucky dog, just wow!
As anyone who reads here much has seen me saw on about, my mom had four strokes we know about, likely more we didn’t. She’d long death with high BP. The first three were from clots and none of those times, none, did she receive the clot busting med. I will live the rest of my days never knowing why, I wasn’t directly there for any of them, but it never made sense to me. She was sent home on the much hated Coumadin with no other real follow-up. This wasn’t in a rural setting, but a city of 350k with a “teaching” university hospital. We weren’t told anything, couldn’t understand her new apathy. We now know it was depression that so often comes after a stroke, but it was never mentioned. The fourth stroke was hemorrhagic and took every physical ability. It would have been far kind if she’d died. I so appreciate your inclusion of instructions and tips for all of us. How wise of you. I’m now the daughter desperately trying not to repeat the pattern. My doctor watches my BP and advises me to keep my weight down, I take both seriously.
I’m so glad for you and your beloved, getting this great news and chance at life again. Enjoy every day!
(2)
Report

Alva, when I wake in the mornings, I try to think of happy thoughts, this morning I thought of you and Neil. 🙂‍↕️
(1)
Report

@daughter1930 : I hate the blood thinners, and that last stroke for your mom, that was hemorrhagic, was likely a side effect of the coumadin if she was on it. It is almost impossible as strokes can be either clot or hemorrhage, and each treated differently.

In order to get t-PA or the other "clot busters " you have to be in the hospital and getting it within hopefully two to four hours of your "incident". Now they say may work at 6 hours and give it, and if they actually have a clot that will visualize on the CT scan which must be done BEFORE the administration of clot busters, they may choose to try to go in and grab it by stringing in their catheters from groin to brain to grab it.

Most teaching hospitals of any size are stroke centers, but here in SF we have only THREE. General, Pacific and UCSF (university hospital). Had Neil been taken not by 911, left to sit a bit in an ER, and not taken by ambulance to stroke center (which isn't out usual Kaiser) and directly into cubicle, then directly to CT scan machine, then we would not have been "in time" for the clot busters.

But if your Mom was in by ambulance, to a hospital with a "stroke center", and into the cubicle, into the CT scanner, I don't understand why she didn't get the clot buster. For Neil it was looking not to work and they were preparing to do the embolectomy when suddenly, during prepping him, he came completely around. It works by an enzymatic action of going to the clot, "eating it up--it's fibrin" and destroying it. And he was lucky in that it did work for him. But it was all miraculously fast action.

We are just feeling a bit shocky. Off today to Kaiser for followup first time with their MD who will "follow him". We are kind of PTSD in some sense, but holding! And feeling so incredibly lucky. We are both atheists. We seem to have no gene for belief. Not a choice, just a fact, but sometimes our language only has so many words, and this does feel to us a bit "miraculous".
During the whole thing he didn't want to really be treated. Was in la la land mumbling away and "ready to go" and I told him "I will let you GO, if I HAVE to, but I won't let you sit mumbling in a nursing home for another few years if I can prevent it! You WILL have this procedure (embolectomy). Hee hee, Nurse Rachet drops the hatchet.

We are hopeful. We are PTSD'd a bit, and we are scared. It's hard to wrap your head around. I am afraid to let him out of my site. And oh, man, my stomach and bowel are SUCH a mess.
(4)
Report

1 2 3
Start a Discussion
Subscribe to
Our Newsletter