So you think the kidney thing was something to face, eh?
Well, I got that beat (unfortunately).
I had a brain aneurysm on September 29. Fortunately for me, it did not burst. (Check the Wikipedia article to see what it is; scary stuff.)
Anyway, I was also fortunate in that I wasn't driving. It was late in the day, about 4:30pm or so, and I was sitting on the toilet. I felt light headed, wondering what the hell was going on. I leaned forward a bit, hoping to send a little blood to my head. (I've fainted before, and the usual thing to do was to get my head between my legs, so the blood would rush to my head.)
Didn't work.
In fact, I fell off the toilet and have a little mark on my nose to prove it.
I was fortunate several more times. There was a lady in the stall next to me, and I believe she went and called for help. Help came in the form of several EMTs. Now, where I work, there are many people who are also EMTs, so I believe that's why the ambulance was called so quickly and why so many (must've been 5 or 6) showed up at once. They made a sort of stretcher out of big blanket and got me onto a guerney. While this was all happening, my friend Lynne got in touch with my husband, picked him up, took him to the first hospital's emergency room (I refused the first hospital they wanted to take me to, which is where the ambulance was from).
However, once I got to that hospital, they determined, very quickly, what I might've had and sent me to the best hospital I could've gone to for what I indeed had - Overlook Hospital in Summit, New Jersey.
Why That Particular Hospital?
Very easy, bunky. It's well known for its status as a neurological hospital (working with people with strokes and heart attacks and aortic aneurysms, too). In fact, the neurosurgeon who worked on me I later found out was responsible for developing the surgical technique, called coiling, that fixed me. (I'll be seeing him for a follow up visit later today.)
And the Prognosis Is...
Have I already said I was fortunate? Um, yeah. Here's another one. I've gone to three outpatient speech therapy sessions, and other than a little bit of brain fog (I have some trouble putting together lists of things), I'm okay. I had the aneurysm in the right frontal lobe. The therapist told me if I'd had it on the left side, I probably would've had some language problems. Instead, the therapist is giving me "homework" to tweak those parts of my brain where I'm having my foggy moments.
I can't drive a car (wouldn't want to, right now), and continue to get stronger every day. My hubby helps me up and down the stairs, but I can putter around downstairs without any trouble. (The first day, I could barely walk at all, but then again, I'd been flopped down in a hospital bed for quite a while, and had only recently been given a walking routine at the hospital.)
I'll Have to See What the Doc Says Today
I'm hoping that soon he'll say that I can start working out again. Nothing complicated, of course, even if I can just do yoga, that'll be an improvement over just watching TV. And I know how to start without weights and gradually increase them, so I'm not a beginner when it comes to working out.
But that's in the future, for the moment. The doc will probably prescribe some sort of walking regimen, which I'm all for - although not today (danged rain).
I'm very happy to be alive, thank you! I'm not yet done with my life, and I'm glad I'm being given another chance. I wanted to thank everybody at work and all our friends for the cards and well wishes and all.
Just call me the female Job.
28 October 2008
Here We Go Again
So you think the kidney thing was something to face, eh?
Well, I got that beat (unfortunately).
I had a brain aneurysm on September 29. Fortunately for me, it did not burst. (Check the Wikipedia article to see what it is; scary stuff.)
Anyway, I was also fortunate in that I wasn't driving. It was late in the day, about 4:30pm or so, and I was sitting on the toilet. I felt light headed, wondering what the hell was going on. I leaned forward a bit, hoping to send a little blood to my head. (I've fainted before, and the usual thing to do was to get my head between my legs, so the blood would rush to my head.)
Didn't work.
In fact, I fell off the toilet and have a little mark on my nose to prove it.
I was fortunate several more times. There was a lady in the stall next to me, and I believe she went and called for help. Help came in the form of several EMTs. Now, where I work, there are many people who are also EMTs, so I believe that's why the ambulance was called so quickly and why so many (must've been 5 or 6) showed up at once. They made a sort of stretcher out of big blanket and got me onto a guerney. While this was all happening, my friend Lynne got in touch with my husband, picked him up, took him to the first hospital's emergency room (I refused the first hospital they wanted to take me to, which is where the ambulance was from).
However, once I got to that hospital, they determined, very quickly, what I might've had and sent me to the best hospital I could've gone to for what I indeed had - Overlook Hospital in Summit, New Jersey.
Why That Particular Hospital?
Very easy, bunky. It's well known for its status as a neurological hospital (working with people with strokes and heart attacks and aortic aneurysms, too). In fact, the neurosurgeon who worked on me I later found out was responsible for developing the surgical technique, called coiling, that fixed me. (I'll be seeing him for a follow up visit later today.)
And the Prognosis Is...
Have I already said I was fortunate? Um, yeah. Here's another one. I've gone to three outpatient speech therapy sessions, and other than a little bit of brain fog (I have some trouble putting together lists of things), I'm okay. I had the aneurysm in the right frontal lobe. The therapist told me if I'd had it on the left side, I probably would've had some language problems. Instead, the therapist is giving me "homework" to tweak those parts of my brain where I'm having my foggy moments.
I can't drive a car (wouldn't want to, right now), and continue to get stronger every day. My hubby helps me up and down the stairs, but I can putter around downstairs without any trouble. (The first day, I could barely walk at all, but then again, I'd been flopped down in a hospital bed for quite a while, and had only recently been given a walking routine at the hospital.)
I'll Have to See What the Doc Says Today
I'm hoping that soon he'll say that I can start working out again. Nothing complicated, of course, even if I can just do yoga, that'll be an improvement over just watching TV. And I know how to start without weights and gradually increase them, so I'm not a beginner when it comes to working out.
But that's in the future, for the moment. The doc will probably prescribe some sort of walking regimen, which I'm all for - although not today (danged rain).
I'm very happy to be alive, thank you! I'm not yet done with my life, and I'm glad I'm being given another chance. I wanted to thank everybody at work and all our friends for the cards and well wishes and all.
Just call me the female Job.
Well, I got that beat (unfortunately).
I had a brain aneurysm on September 29. Fortunately for me, it did not burst. (Check the Wikipedia article to see what it is; scary stuff.)
Anyway, I was also fortunate in that I wasn't driving. It was late in the day, about 4:30pm or so, and I was sitting on the toilet. I felt light headed, wondering what the hell was going on. I leaned forward a bit, hoping to send a little blood to my head. (I've fainted before, and the usual thing to do was to get my head between my legs, so the blood would rush to my head.)
Didn't work.
In fact, I fell off the toilet and have a little mark on my nose to prove it.
I was fortunate several more times. There was a lady in the stall next to me, and I believe she went and called for help. Help came in the form of several EMTs. Now, where I work, there are many people who are also EMTs, so I believe that's why the ambulance was called so quickly and why so many (must've been 5 or 6) showed up at once. They made a sort of stretcher out of big blanket and got me onto a guerney. While this was all happening, my friend Lynne got in touch with my husband, picked him up, took him to the first hospital's emergency room (I refused the first hospital they wanted to take me to, which is where the ambulance was from).
However, once I got to that hospital, they determined, very quickly, what I might've had and sent me to the best hospital I could've gone to for what I indeed had - Overlook Hospital in Summit, New Jersey.
Why That Particular Hospital?
Very easy, bunky. It's well known for its status as a neurological hospital (working with people with strokes and heart attacks and aortic aneurysms, too). In fact, the neurosurgeon who worked on me I later found out was responsible for developing the surgical technique, called coiling, that fixed me. (I'll be seeing him for a follow up visit later today.)
And the Prognosis Is...
Have I already said I was fortunate? Um, yeah. Here's another one. I've gone to three outpatient speech therapy sessions, and other than a little bit of brain fog (I have some trouble putting together lists of things), I'm okay. I had the aneurysm in the right frontal lobe. The therapist told me if I'd had it on the left side, I probably would've had some language problems. Instead, the therapist is giving me "homework" to tweak those parts of my brain where I'm having my foggy moments.
I can't drive a car (wouldn't want to, right now), and continue to get stronger every day. My hubby helps me up and down the stairs, but I can putter around downstairs without any trouble. (The first day, I could barely walk at all, but then again, I'd been flopped down in a hospital bed for quite a while, and had only recently been given a walking routine at the hospital.)
I'll Have to See What the Doc Says Today
I'm hoping that soon he'll say that I can start working out again. Nothing complicated, of course, even if I can just do yoga, that'll be an improvement over just watching TV. And I know how to start without weights and gradually increase them, so I'm not a beginner when it comes to working out.
But that's in the future, for the moment. The doc will probably prescribe some sort of walking regimen, which I'm all for - although not today (danged rain).
I'm very happy to be alive, thank you! I'm not yet done with my life, and I'm glad I'm being given another chance. I wanted to thank everybody at work and all our friends for the cards and well wishes and all.
Just call me the female Job.
22 September 2008
I Know - Where Have I Been?
Well...
I was feeling really sick a few months back. That, combined with continued stress (husband not finding a job, company that I work for bought out by another company), gave me what I thought was a bad back.
In February, I received some pills for my bad lower back. I thought that would take care of the problem.
Nope.
The pain came back again in June, and I knew something wasn't right. So I went off to the doctor's office. I was again prescribed some pills for the pain, but this time, the doctor thought it would be a good idea to have some blood work done, as I hadn't had a physical done in quite some time.
The urine test came back - blood in the urine.
Not gushing, mind you. But just enough to have the doctor's office calling and leaving me messages.
To make a long story a bit shorter ;-), I went to a urologist, who told me my kidneys weren't in good shape. Especially the left one. Now, I've known for 7 years that my left kidney was smaller than my right. Didn't think anything of it, except that it was strange (threw me for a loop). Since the doctor didn't say anything about it, I didn't think there was a problem.
Meh.
Anyway, I've already been through 2 minimally-invasive surgeries as I write this. The first one was to insert 2 small stents (which circumvent logjams in your arteries or wherever) on the ureters (which are the tubes that lead from the kidneys to the bladder).
As he figured would happen, the right kidney's flow through the ureter improved a bit; the left one did not. In fact, the left kidney is only functioning at 11%; it also is so crappy that keeps introducing infections into my body, which might explain why I've had so much pain in my abdomen over the years).
Anyhoo, the bottom line is, once he sees the larger stent that's now on my right ureter working fabulously well (being positive is the only way to be!), he'll then take out the left kidney.
Yup.
I'll be a 1 kidney person, probably by the end of this year.
To which I say - fine. If the left kidney is barely functioning, and it's operating like an infection machine, it's not doing a friggin' good thing. Obviously, though, the doc wants to make sure my right kidney is working at 110%, since it'll be the only one left.
So that's where I've been, you stalwarts who've insisted on keeping track of this blog. (And more power to you, because it's been...what...3 or 4 months since I last posted?) I'm also going to be working on getting my high blood pressure under control, which I desperately need to do. (I'm not going to even tell you the numbers at the last same-day surgery; just know that they were too high; something I've never had to deal with in the past, although there's plenty of hypertension on both sides of my family.)
Hopefully, I'll post a little more regularly, like 2-3 times per month. It's all going to depend on how I feel, when hubby gets a job, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Only positivity here, though! Prayers, good thoughts, crossed fingers and toes are the only things allowed, lol.
I've felt like the female Job the past few months: If it's not one downer thing, it's another, lol. But, as you can tell, I'm very optimistic about life and stuff.
Why?
Because. It's as good a reason as anything else.
Much love,
Nancy
I was feeling really sick a few months back. That, combined with continued stress (husband not finding a job, company that I work for bought out by another company), gave me what I thought was a bad back.
In February, I received some pills for my bad lower back. I thought that would take care of the problem.
Nope.
The pain came back again in June, and I knew something wasn't right. So I went off to the doctor's office. I was again prescribed some pills for the pain, but this time, the doctor thought it would be a good idea to have some blood work done, as I hadn't had a physical done in quite some time.
The urine test came back - blood in the urine.
Not gushing, mind you. But just enough to have the doctor's office calling and leaving me messages.
To make a long story a bit shorter ;-), I went to a urologist, who told me my kidneys weren't in good shape. Especially the left one. Now, I've known for 7 years that my left kidney was smaller than my right. Didn't think anything of it, except that it was strange (threw me for a loop). Since the doctor didn't say anything about it, I didn't think there was a problem.
Meh.
Anyway, I've already been through 2 minimally-invasive surgeries as I write this. The first one was to insert 2 small stents (which circumvent logjams in your arteries or wherever) on the ureters (which are the tubes that lead from the kidneys to the bladder).
As he figured would happen, the right kidney's flow through the ureter improved a bit; the left one did not. In fact, the left kidney is only functioning at 11%; it also is so crappy that keeps introducing infections into my body, which might explain why I've had so much pain in my abdomen over the years).
Anyhoo, the bottom line is, once he sees the larger stent that's now on my right ureter working fabulously well (being positive is the only way to be!), he'll then take out the left kidney.
Yup.
I'll be a 1 kidney person, probably by the end of this year.
To which I say - fine. If the left kidney is barely functioning, and it's operating like an infection machine, it's not doing a friggin' good thing. Obviously, though, the doc wants to make sure my right kidney is working at 110%, since it'll be the only one left.
So that's where I've been, you stalwarts who've insisted on keeping track of this blog. (And more power to you, because it's been...what...3 or 4 months since I last posted?) I'm also going to be working on getting my high blood pressure under control, which I desperately need to do. (I'm not going to even tell you the numbers at the last same-day surgery; just know that they were too high; something I've never had to deal with in the past, although there's plenty of hypertension on both sides of my family.)
Hopefully, I'll post a little more regularly, like 2-3 times per month. It's all going to depend on how I feel, when hubby gets a job, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Only positivity here, though! Prayers, good thoughts, crossed fingers and toes are the only things allowed, lol.
I've felt like the female Job the past few months: If it's not one downer thing, it's another, lol. But, as you can tell, I'm very optimistic about life and stuff.
Why?
Because. It's as good a reason as anything else.
Much love,
Nancy
