This is a true story, submitted by my friend Gary.  His email is at the end if you'd like to contact him.

Stroke #1

Feb. 21, 2002 ~ We had just finished supper at The Cottage restaurant in Story City around 6:00 pm. Everything seemed normal until we walked out of the restaurant and started walking back to the car. As we walked, I kept walking to the right. Sharon was in front of me and could not see what was happening. I felt fine but, had to correct myself often as I continued to walk off to the right.

I drove back to Ames without any problem. After sitting down, I could tell that something was wrong. My vision was becoming worse. I ask Sharon to get the medical book and turn to the chapter on strokes for me, while I could still read. Among other things, the book said to take a couple of aspirin. We did not have any in the house, so I ask Sharon to go and buy some.



At this time, I was not too sure that it was really a stroke. Earlier in the day, I had planted some seeds of Datura plants. This plant has very pretty flowers but is also poisonous. It seemed possible that I could have poisoned myself by handling these seeds.

 Unfortunately, I had eaten two dishes for supper that contained mushrooms. This provided another explanation for feeling ill.

Eating mushrooms affects different people in different ways. Many people can eat a mushroom variety with no problem while others may become sick from eating it. I had no idea of what variety of mushrooms I had just eaten. Due to the fact that I did not know if my illness was a stroke, or a poisoning from seed handling or mushroom eating, I took some aspirin and went to bed and did not go to the hospital.  

Soon I began to vomit and that continued through the night.

 This vomiting led me to believe that I had indeed poisoned myself.

By morning my whole world was spinning and I could not balance myself well enough to walk. Sharon and Kevin were ready to take me to the hospital, but I could not stand or walk and I knew that I would cause all of us to fall down the front steps. I told Kevin to call for the ambulance to come and get me. 

In 3 or 4 minutes, the fire department arrived and started to monitor blood pressure etc. Soon the ambulance came and I was put on a stretcher and loaded into the ambulance. As they wheeled me into the hospital I realized that I could not tell up from down, I was completely disoriented. The world as I knew it was gone, only a confused mix of spinning visions was visible to my mind.

For several hours, we were still not sure of the cause of my problem. As time went by, a stroke became the most likely cause. Several tests were done and it was decided that there was some blockage in the Basilar Artery. This is the area where the spinal cord meets with the brain. There is no operation or cure for this condition. Other than testing, not much was done but to observe my condition. I could not stand or feed myself. After 3-4 days, I went home.

I had several problems from this stroke. These include:

· Left leg pain

· Numbness of left foot, leg, arm, hand and the whole left side could not feel temperature. Warm water felt the same as cold water.

Balance was very bad and I needed a walker to move around.

· I had vision problems, especially with my right eye which did not focus properly due to some muscles that focus the eye are damaged. There also was some problem with the way my brain processed visual images. It could be overwhelmed with visual images and cause me to become confused and disoriented. Anything that moved caused problems with my vision. For many months, I also saw everything with “double vision.”

 
I went to rehabilitation class for several weeks and gained strength and improved my walking skill. Eventually, I could walk without any crutches or extra help. Normal walking never came back and always have left leg pain and some balance problems.

Vision has improved but is not back to normal. Driving a car is something that I can still do but, I have to be extra careful at intersections to be sure that I have seen all of the other cars.

   We had hoped that this stroke was just a one time occurrence and would never happen again. While I still have several problems, I have learned to adapt my life to them. Poor balance is the most serious and most obvious problem. It is very hard for me to walk where there are leaves on the ground.

These make an overwhelming amount of visual images that just overload my mind. I have also found it almost impossible to step down to a lower level. Even to step 12 – 18 inches lower will usually
require that I get on my hands and knees first, then lower my foot.

I am now more claustrophobic now than I have ever been. Even a small room or narrow isle in a store can cause this. While this stroke was bad, there would be more bad news ahead.

We did not know that another stroke was yet to come.

December 9, 2005

 

December 18, 2004 ~ At around 7:00 pm I was working on my computer when my eyes began to lose focus of the screen. I went down stairs and told Sharon “to keep an eye on me” as I felt sort of strange. Within a few minutes, I knew for sure that something was wrong and told Sharon to take me to the emergency room. I told them at the desk that I was having a heart attack or a stroke. Within one minute I was in a bed and they were checking me to see what was wrong. They ran all the tests and we knew that it was another stroke. I was not very happy about having a second stroke.

This stroke seemed to affect about the same parts of my body as the first one had. However, this one seemed to move about 6 inches further to my right side and not stop in the center of my body. This affected my swallowing and speech quite a bit. For several days I could hardly eat or drink without choking. My speech had become weaker and more slurred. Both have got better with time, but never returned to normal. My balance has gotten a little worse but not a whole lot worse. I do have to be very careful not to fall.




Stroke #2


My right eye vision did get worse and it began to produce a a yellow, sticky substance that clouds my vision in the right eye.

We have tried to control this but have not been successful. Several times a day, I have to wipe this from my eye.

There is also some further brain damage; I make far more typing errors than before. This is very obvious to me and I rely heavily on “spell check”. I feel that my condition continues to get worse, but very slowly. If I check myself with how I was a month ago, I see no change. However, if I compare myself to how I was several months ago, I have gotten a little worse.

Poor balance is still my biggest problem, but declining vision is certainly a concern too. I get fatigued too easily and do not have the strength that I am used to. This is quite frustrating as there are many things that I would like to do, but cannot. Around Thanksgiving of ’04, I was walking 2 ½ miles with Holly. Within 6 weeks, I could only walk a couple hundred yards. I could not understand this.

In January of 2005, we will find out why I get so fatigued so easily. It came on so very fast that it is hard to believe, I can only call it A Broken Heart.

December 9, 2005



Broken Heart

January 11, 2005 ~ During a routine visit with my neurologist, he said that he did not think that my heart sounded normal. He sent me over for an EKG to confirm his observation. Three days later, I met with my regular doctor who had been looking at my EKG results.

Five days later I was in the office of a cardiologist. Over the next two weeks I had just about every heart test that can be done. Every test showed that I had several heart and artery problems.

This came as a huge surprise to me. After both previous strokes

I had many MRI, X-ray, CT scans and other tests done and none showed any heart problem. I really could hardly believe that after all of the tests over the past two years, that this was really happening.

February 1, 2005 ~ After exhaustive testing, the doctor said that he did not know why I was still alive. Heart output was only 19% of
full output. He said that it was too risky to do a heart by-pass but he could probably put stents in several arteries, starting tomorrow.


The next day found me in the hospital and 2 stents were inserted in the worst blocked arteries. A month later he was going to insert 2 more stents. He got the first one in alright. However as he tried to place the second one, I told them that I was developing a breathing problem. I soon went into cardiac arrest. I remember nothing after that about what happened, but the 45 minute procedure had turned into a 2 ½ hour fight to keep me alive.

Six weeks later, 2 more stents were inserted for a total of 5 stents.

For some reason, I really did not feel any better with the stents, but Sharon said that she noticed that I breathed better. I had really expected a much greater feeling of improvement.

For quite a while I took several pills meant to improve my heart.

However, some of these pills seemed to cause severe back and joint pain, I quit the heart pills and decided to just sit back and see what happens. I now take only a Zocor and aspirin for my ailments. A couple of Tramadol for my left leg pain will usually get me through the day and I really feel better without all of those other pills.

After two strokes, heart trouble and 5 stents, you would think that things couldn't get worse. Well, they do in August ’05.

December 11, 2005

Prostate Cancer

August 16, 2005 ~ For several months I had been having trouble urinating and had assumed that it was a enlarged prostate. This is fairly common and can be dealt with. However, as more tests were done we found out that it was much more serious. It was prostate cancer and it had moved into bones in the lower back and hips.

There are two important sets of numbers that are used in determining the extent of the cancer. The first one is called PSA, anything above 2.0 or 3.0 is cause for concern. Mine was 12.6.

The other one is the Gleason Score. It goes from 0 to 10, with 10 being the worst. Mine was 9. Nothing to be happy about here.

In September, I went into the hospital for a bilateral orchiectomy, a TURP and more x-rays and tests. In late Sept., I went to the cancer doctor and started a monthly infusion of Zometa. This is used to strengthen bones that are weakened by the cancer. It has no effect on the cancer it’s self. It is like an IV into the back of the hand and takes about 45 minutes.


Many cancer cells need the hormone, testosterone, to live. The orchiectomy has deprived these cells of the hormone, and they will quickly die. Unfortunately, there are some cells that do not need this hormone and continue to live. At first, the PSA will drop because most of the cancer cells were killed do to the lack of testosterone. However, the remaining cells will start reproducing and these will start an increase of the PSA reading. What is closely watched is how low the PSA gets and how fast it comes back up. This velocity curve is a good indication of the amount and aggressiveness of the cancer. Low and slow is best.



PSA: readings

August 12.6 Dec. 7.2

September 8.0

November 6.1


The rise from Nov. to Dec. was unexpected and not something that we wanted.


It is likely that radiation therapy will be necessary in the future.

According to the cancer doctor, “it will someday be fatal if something else doesn't kill you first.” Well, on that cheery note, I guess that one can hope for a fatal heart attack first. There are several, very painful, likely possibilities that happen with cancer in the bones. Probably the worst is known as spinal cord compression.

In this case the spine is weakened by cancer enough that the spine starts to collapse and this pinches all of the nerves that run through the spinal column. Can be very painful and paralysis likely.

Since I have had several bad reactions to different drugs in the past, I really don't take very many, any more. It just seems that I have accumulated so many serious problems by now, that I won't plan on too many more months or years. Regardless of what I do, I can never get back to normal. The problems from the strokes can never be overcome. I am tired of having such poor balance and blurry vision that it is simply not worth a big fight to remain at that level. With that in mind, I'm just going to do as I please and eat what I want and not worry about the consequences. What ever happens, happens. I can accept that and that’s all that matters.


December 12, 2005

 

Submitted by:  Onemooreg@aol.com

SEE ALSO:  My Special Friend Gary

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