Thursday, October 18, 2018

Blood is no longer thicker than water

Blood is no longer thicker than water - at least not my blood.

They sprung me from the hospital late Wednesday afternoon. They never did particularly find out what caused my stroke, so they decided to thin my blood by getting me to take Lovenox. Well, I don't take it; I inject it, twice a day. They also want me to start taking statins - not that I have high cholesterol - just that it seems to reduce recurrence of strokes. They also tell me that it might make me feel achy.

My hospital stay was relatively uneventful - as it should have been given that all they did during my stay was to give me a single CAT scan which took about five minutes. I went in Monday at around 10 AM and cooled my heels in the ER for 11 hours until about 9:00 PM. Barbara and I sat there and read books. They then moved me to a shared room on the 16th floor where they connected a bunch of wires to me using special tabs. These become one with the patient's skin, so that they cannot be removed. These tabs are then electronically wired to some device that alerts the staff if you start to fall asleep so they can come in to measure blood pressure or poke you for some other reason.

But, the important thing is that I am now out and can get to work shooting up the drugs that will thin my blood to prevent further strokes.

My oncologist tells me that he is taking me off of chemo for a couple of weeks so that I can recover. I am looking forward to the break. It will be interesting to what happens with my side effects.

So, after all of this, I seem to be pretty much OK. I might not be quite as solid on my feet as I was a week ago, but I don't have any trouble standing or walking, so I am not complaining. I will stop writing now. I have to go give myself a shot.

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Getting my head examined

  Apparently, I have had a stroke. Not that I am paralyzed or anything like that - I just have intermittent bouts of severe dizziness. When this happens, I can't walk without leaning on something or using a walker. It first happened last Friday. The first couple of times it hit me, I was so  dizzy that I got motion sickness and threw up - once so violently that I fractured a rib. It was not to bad over the weekend, but on Monday, my PCP sent me to get an MRI - of my head. Barbara agreed that getting my head examined was a good idea; she had been recommending this for years.
 
  So, here is sit at the Brigham - and I don't mean the one with all the flavors. Spent all day yesterday waiting for a "neurological workup". They want to figure out what caused the stroked in the first place. They don't want me to have any more - since strokes are generally not regarded as good things.

  Last night, they moved me into a regular room. I am waiting for something, but I am not sure what.
 
  Maybe I will finally get caught up on some of the computer stuff.

Yesterday, one of "neurology" doctors stopped by to talk to me. His name was "Doctor Young" and if ever a guy was aptly named it was he. This guy looked like he was barely out of diapers. I expected him to take notes using crayons. Fortunately, he did not bring his Teddy Bear into the room with him. Barbara figures he must be some sort of prodigy.