Sunday Stroke Survival: Great News for a Change!

I hope y'all celebrated the 4th of July and your independence yesterday. I know I did.
I've been doing the Snoopy dance of happiness this week.  Here's the reason why...

1)The latest scan of my thyroid cancer say it's GONE. The chemo kicked it's hinny right out of my body again.

2)I went to my Vascular surgeon for another scan of my right carotid artery. The report was the artery is less than 70% blocked so no surgery is required. He doesn't need to see me again for a year.

3) I saw my cardiologist for the results of my echocardiogram. My numbers looked so good that he doesn't need to see me again for 6 months! I've seen my cardiologist every 3 months for the past 5 years. He told me whatever I was doing to keep it up.

4) I saw my PCP this week also. It's been a whirlwind of appointments this week. I was in his office just two months ago for my six month check up, but my insurance company requested a physical be done now.  So we chatted/griped about insurance and big pharma. LOL He went through the motions again for a "physical." He said what he always does which I love, "Call me if you need me."

I still need to see my neurologist in two weeks for my standard six month check up. Now that the quarantine has been lifted I need an order for PT again. I also want to schedule Botox again. I desperately need some relief from the spasticity even if it's only 45 days out of 90. It's a stop gap measure until I figure out what else there is. Atlanta is still too hot with COVID-19 to even consider getting another baclofen pump. Not that I've decided to get another one.

I see the endocrinologist it late August about my gone again thyroid and my hypoglyclemia. My A1C on Monday was 4.2. I'm eating 6 times a day already. Maybe she can tell me why my stroke caused my pancreas to go from dead to kick into hyperdrive. No other doctor including my old endocrinologist knew the answer. Maybe, just maybe. I guess I should be thankful for not giving myself two to three shots of insulin a day like before my first stroke in 2012.

So y'all joined me in the Snoopy dance of happiness, won't you?

Nothing is impossible.

Sunday Stroke Survival: Living Post Stroke Just Got Easier!

I pray y'all have a Merry Christmas full of wanted gifts, surrounded by family, and love.

I won't keep you in suspense any longer. The scan was negative for mets! What my PCP wanted to see me about was thyroid replacement hormones since I once again have no thyroid gland. NO MORE CANCER!!!! Anyone who has the genetically altered genes from atomic bomb blast shouldn't have a thyroid gland.

Thank you God for giving my thyroid back to me,

BUT please do not heal this part of my body again!

Heal other parts of my body first.

Does this sound selfish? I apologize, but it's the truth. I guess He's healing me in order of occurrence. My first battle with cancer was cervical. Since I later had all those rusted pipes removed, I'm not sexually active, and at my age, He didn't see the sense in restoring those items. I'm praising Him loudly for this.😁

It's rifle season for deer hunters. So the barter agreement I made with the young man who delivers our firewood is in effect. For every deer he shoots, I'll help him clean, skin, and butcher it, and he'll give us three quarters of the meat from the kill and even the hide if I want to tan it. It's been many a year since I've tanned my own buckskin. He collects antlers and has very little need for the meat being a single guy. I'm not exactly going hunting for deer on our property and I'm not as mobile as I once was. He came last week and set up his game cameras and blind down by the creek.

I hope he gets a ten pointer, but I doubt it. Nnyus, our livestock guardian dog, chases off all other animals that aren't supposed to be on the property. If it doesn't belong to us, it's a predator to our livestock or gardens. He'll be here to man his blind at 6 AM every weekend during the season, but then again in GA, we can hunt our own property anytime for food regardless of the season, but we abide by the seasons guideline. We honestly need meat in our freezer. My mouth is drooling over the prospect of fresh venison and recipes keep popping into my head.

I guess I could stake out the orchard area on the other side of the property to hedge our bet some. I've seen fresh hoof prints and scat in the orchard. So I know they are visiting there. Nah, it's not worth the bruised shoulder and aggravating my spasticity in my right arm. There's something to be said against no pain, no gain when no or reducing pain is my number one goal these days. I wish him luck!

We're gearing up for Christmas, how about you? Without my children and grands around, I'm sort of 'Bah Humbug' this year. I haven't been home to see anyone in over a year. I won't be going home this year because I still can't drive yet. Another month to go since my six month mark of being seizure free.  It's been a double edged sword not being able to drive.

We didn't even break out the Christmas decorations. It's just one more thing to take out, put up, and take down. Even my little 1' tree was too much effort for either of us. So Christmas stayed packed up in the barn this year. I might bake some sugar cookies and decorate them. Although, neither of us like them very much. Maybe I'll make some Buckeyes, that's more to our tastes. As far as Christmas dinner goes. Pfft! No sense in making a huge amount of food for just us. Maybe a small beef roast or grill a couple of Ribeye steaks. Nothing elaborate just dinner for us two. I'd do TV dinners, if I had an oven. Wait, they make them microwaveable now, right? It's been decades since I've bought one. Are they still so blah tasting? The pictures on the box always look so great.

I should be celebrating, right? But I have the carry over effect from the high I-131 radiation...chronic fatigue. I keep telling myself I'll be better in January and I will. It's the high stress letdown too. I know all of this. I miss my husband. On the Christmases when my ex had the children, he'd take me to the local Chinese restaurant for something different to eat instead of turkey, ham, or roast beef. They were the only restaurant in town open on Christmas day...even McDonald's is closed. Mama and Daddy Chow's restaurant was always open. I cooked there when they first opened their doors and remained part of their family since 1977. My oldest daughter cut her teeth on their rib bones. But the restaurant closed its doors three years ago when Daddy Chow died at 90. Christmas is the time for nostalgia or is it melancholy, right?


Okay. Now I'm just rambling. 
Merry Christmas y'all! 

Remember...

Nothing is impossible! 

Sunday Stroke Survival: Things that Make Me Go ARGH! Revisited

Everyone has them. I'm not immuned to "ARGH!" moment, but the past couple weeks there have been almost daily events.

ARGH! #1
 I tried something new with this blog. I tried to link this blog to our website. Instead it redirected to our google + page. So I believe all my previous posts are there. So if you were trying to find it...it's there, I think. I also think I've got it all back to normal to appear here now. We'll see when this publishes.

ARGH! #2
Before I left my previous cardiologist, she had performed all of the necessary information gathering for my new cardiologist except for an ultrasound of my legs to check for PAD (peripheral artery disease). So I had one done once I got established with my new cardiologist. The results were troubling. Coupled with severe leg cramps several times a night and pain, I agreed to another heart cath and angio of my legs. If there was significant blockages, stenting would be performed or I'd be sent to a vascular surgeon to have it corrected.

At this point I should mention, I had a coronary artery disease and a heart attack before age 50. I also have a very bad family history in heart disease from both parents. The heart attack damaged two valve in my heart and with time (10 years) the stress on my heart has damaged a third of four total valves. I'm heart broken which limits me even greater than my strokes. Oh, and my strokes were from blood clots forming in my heart which went to my brain. All my doctors agree that I'm a very sick woman, but that's only their opinion.

Angio of triple A like mine

Okay so I go through all of these tests, after waking Mel at 4 AM to take me, and the results...the cramping is NOT a blood supply problem. So now I'm still having leg cramping and pain from some mysterious, unknown cause. So this test didn't do anything. Surprisingly, what the angio did show was an Abdominal Aortic Aneursym (Triple A). It's still small so it bears watching although it could rupture and kill me. My thoughts on the matter, everything else is trying to kill me, why not this too? But hey I'm still here in spite of everything.

Don't think I'm taking this lightly. I'm not. This is serious. It has less than a 10% survival rate if it ruptures. It will be taken care of. It should be as easy as a stent placement with only a day in the hospital.

ARGH! #3
We built the new coop and run for the chickens. The chickens have flown the coop literally! It took less than two hours for the main rooster, Whitie, to figure out he could fly over the 4' fence safely and show the others how it was done. They were back to roosting on our front porch.

I got irritated with it all. I swiped them off with my cane. They just waited a few minutes and were right back again. I grabbed a sleeve of stale crackers and led them back to their new roosting spot inside the fence. A couple of them decided to fly the coop again. My trusty cane had a workout until they decided to see it my way. I had to do this for a few days before it became a habit for them. Now they at least roost in the new chicken area instead of our porch. I take victories when I can because once daylight shines they are back free ranging everywhere. They still lay eggs in Mel's tool box and behind the front storm door, so I can at least gather eggs. The egg laying bins need to be built. The hens like their privacy and security. Then I'll have to train them to the new set up.


ARGH! #4
We finally got a good drenching rain!! It's been a long, dry summer and fall. We actually had puddles on the property that weren't from a busted water pipe! They lasted for two days before they dried up/soaked in. Of course, it would storm the day we had to drive at 5 AM to the hospital for my procedure. But we were thankful anyhow. It's supposed to rain today according to the forecast, we'll see. It gave us a reprieve of sorts.

As far as our water conservation techniques go, it looked something like this.

• Early AM, while the well had overnight for the spring to refill, I'd draw five gallons of water.  

1 for the household animals
2 for the canning pot on the wood stove
1 gallon for cooking
1 gallons for outside animals (rabbits and chickens)

• Early afternoon

6 gallons for washing clothes (1 load by machine)

• Early evening

2 gallons for iced tea
Mel's 5 minute shower and my sponge bath.

• Late evening

2 gallons for the wood stove
3 gallons to run the dish washer.
1 gallon for incidents or in case the well goes dry overnight so we can at least have tea in the morning. Hot tea is our coffee in the morning.

Hope all is going well with you. As always ...

Nothing is impossible.