Good news from our doctor appointment

We had our follow-up visit to Galen's stroke doctor on Friday, June 7.


Dr. Sharma gave Galen the go-ahead to resume driving again, which was a huge answer to prayer for us, as we want to drive to San Antonio, Texas, this upcoming weekend to see Matthew graduate from basic training, and I didn't feel I could do that long of a trip all by myself.


He also said Galen could resume going to work as he felt able: he recommended just an hour or two a day at first and then working up to full time. He warned that the brain is just like any other part of the body, it takes time to heal, so don't rush it before it's ready or it will affect recovery. He will also be continuing speech and occupational therapy for as long as he feels it is helpful.


As for the cause of his blood clot and eschemic stroke, they have found none. Dr. Sharma said the area where the cartoid arteries connect with the heart had not been included in his previous MRI's, so he'd like an MRA done to check if that area of his arteries could have been the source of his stroke. So one more hour of being trapped in an imaging tube lies ahead for him. The doctor admitted that odds are this MRA won't turn up anything, but it's a diagnostic tool that he recommended, so guess we will do it.


We've been babysitting Andrew and Nathan from Thursday through today: so fun!! We went to the swimming pool, the park, and the All Seasons Center on Saturday when Sioux Center's "Summer Celebration" was moved indoors because of rain :(


The inflatables, children's games and Mr. Twister's "balloon art" were fun for the kids: the boys each asked for balloon swords, which they dualed with until both had popped. The parade was cancelled, as was the Rods N' Rides motorcycle ride this morning, which we were just going to go to with the car to get some pictures for the website I set up for them.


Galen went to Okoboji to get Meghan and Jessy this afternoon, so when they get back we will take all four grandkids to Sioux City, have supper together with Michael and Amy, and then send them all back home. Today is Jessy's 16th birthday so it's a treat to be able to celebrate that together with her.

Headed to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for a week of vacation with the Gilberts and Hutchinsons.

We had a busy weekend! Friday night was graduation at Sioux Falls Christian for my nephew, Sam Renes. Saturday morning we planted our garden and did a bit of house and yard work before going to the Tulip Festival for the evening parade. Sunday we went to Omaha for Nathan's 3rd birthday. I am still doing all the driving, we're hoping Galen will get the go-ahead to resume driving when the doctor sees him again on June 7. He is continuing both occupational and speech therapy three times a week, as well as "home" therapy with me (I'm pretty sure his home therapist is tougher on him than the other one's he's working with ;) We've come a long way, but still a ways to go for him to get back to his job. He's definitely not getting bored with three women therapists :) We got such a nice letter from Matthew today: our grandson is at basic training in San Antonio, Texas. His day starts at 4:45 a.m. and "we're run, marched, screamed at, and turned crazy till lights out at 2100 (9 p.m.). BUT it's not all that bad." He loves the physical training, is outrunning the other guys, and in his last PT evaluation scored 48 push-ups in 60 seconds and 52 sit-ups in 60 seconds. He's also got the assembly and disassembly time for his MIG down to 30 seconds. So proud of him!

Pretty sure China Buffet may become a new Mother's Day lunch tradition :) Alissa came for the afternoon (Ryan was working) so Galen, her, and I went out to eat, then we helped her with a craft project (making a wreath out of softballs, sounds weird but turned out really cute). She gave me a set of nice red wine glasses, so tried them out by opening a bottle of wine tonight. Got a nice Mother's Day card from Farah/Greg and was able to Facetime chat with them Saturday so that was a treat too. Galen and I went to a matinee Saturday afternoon, 42, which was really good! So all in all a nice Mother's Day weekend.

I love the devotional book I'm using "Jesus Calling, Enjoying Peace in His Presence" by Sarah Young. For May 10, the day we had been scheduled to be at the Mayo Clinic to see a neurosurgeon (before getting our corrected stroke diagnosis) this is what she shared, taken from John 15:5; 2 Cor. 1:8-9; and Eph. 5:20: Do not resist or run from the difficulties in your life. These problems are not random mistakes; they are hand-tailored blessings designed for your benefit and growth. Embrace all the circumstances that I allow in your life, trusting Me to bring good out of them. View problems as opportunities to rely more fully on me. When you start to feel stressed, let those feelings alert you to your need for Me Thus, your needs become doorways to deep dependence on Me and increasing intimacy between us. Although self-sufficiency is acclaimed in the world, reliance on Me produces abundant living in My kingdom. Thank Me for the difficulties in your life, since they provide protection from the idolatry of self-reliance."

Babysitting the grand-dog this weekend, so lots of little walks with Moshi while Alissa and Ryan attend the Okoboji wedding of their friend who is youth director at First Reformed in Sioux Falls. Yesterday I fixed a few things on Joan's computer in the morning and she mentioned they were thinking of going to the Mexican restaurant at night, so we went together and then came back to our house to play Mexican Train dominoes. That went REALLY well for Galen, so that was pretty cool to see. Earlier in the week we played 5-card pinochle and Help with Barb and Bob Dreke, and that went really well also, so I am glad I haven't lost my favorite card partner :)

Pastor Rog stopped in today, and it was interesting visiting with him about his wife Kathy's hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding stroke) as compared to Galen's Ischemic Stroke (blocking stroke). Kathy's stroke was much worse than Galen's, but we can relate to the advice a doctor made to them, that recovery is a marathon, not a sprint. Galen is so anxious to be back to what he was before that he pushes himself to hard and then gets discouraged. He's learning to pace himself but that is a struggle, particularly since he feels good physically. While Galen was a therapy today I went to the last day of MOPS, where us volunteers were treated to brunch. Very yummy and nice!

It's official, I have been fired from helping with Sudoku's. Galen is back to doing them on his own, so guess I'm going to have to get my own book ;) He went to occupational therapy today, and will be going again tomorrow. He also stopped back to visit coworkers at the office, then came home and mowed the lawn. That went fine, but he was surprised that it was a bit tiring.

On Friday we didn't get checked out of the hospital until almost suppertime, so we made a stop for something to eat (no more hospital food :) and then headed home. Galen finally got a good night of sleep in his own bed and so did I. Saturday morning started as it always does, with me getting up and reading the paper. When Galen gets up he had always done the Sudoku in the paper before his stroke, so I said do you want to give it a try? So he taught me how it's done, I helped him see when he was misreading numbers and 1-1/2 hours later we were done!! This is definitely a man of determination! I could see improvement just from beginning to end of that one puzzle, so it will be interesting to see how much faster we get at working it out each day. I love this expression he gets on his face when he's trying to find a word or number: it's like, "That's not where it was the last time, just give me a minute to look around up here and find it ... and then he does! It's all the process of building new pathways to the information still stored in his brain, but there's a road detour around the left/rear area that didn't get blood during the stroke. The speech therapist assured Galen he would get everything back, it's just going to take time and work to get there. The doctor is not as certain about the how much, if any, of the absent right peripheral vision will return, but he assured Galen that he will be able to compensate for that missing spot in his line of sight by just doing a lot of turning his head and scanning.

Doctors still have not been able to answer the question of why Galen produced a blood clot that brought on a stroke. Through the process of elimination we have learned that his heart is functioning well and his cartoid arteries are not clogged, but the lab results are not back yet for the hyper coagulation test. So the plan right now is an aspirin a day, and 30 days on a heart monitor to see if there is ever any occasional atrial fibrillation (irregular heart beat) not detectable right now. Galen will also be doing outpatient occupational and speech/cognitive therapy. We are planning on being checked out of the hospital today, so it will be good to be back home.

It's been a whirlwind since my last post! We left our neurologist appointment at about 4 p.m. yesterday, walked across the street and checked into the hospital. As we (Galen, me, Amy, Alissa and Ryan) walked with the nurse to his room in the neuro-acute care/stroke unit, the person that admitted us said that was the first time he had a patient walk in and he couldn't tell by looking at us which of us was the patient :) Immediately on arrival multiple tests began: by 8 p.m. he had had a complete Echocrdiogram, a Echocardiogram with Saline Contrast, a new MRI with diffusion, blood drawn, urinalysis, hooked up to heart monitor, saline, etc. This morning the nurse practitioner has already been in, and the MRI confirms Galen had an eschemic stroke, which means there was no blood flow in left/rear portion of the brain. This area will not recover, but he will be getting therapy to help other parts of the brain compensate. He is very fortunate that the area it struck had almost no effect on the muscles on the right side of his body, other than the vision in his right eye, which has a large blank spot in his right side peripheral vision. His primary problem is very subtle delay/impairment in his thought process. The doctor will be visiting with us later today, hopefully finding out why this occurred and dealing with that.

Thank you for your prayers, because they worked! God is good. It might not sound like good news to you, but to us the diagnosis we're getting confirmed at Sanford Hospital (Galen's being admitted now) is that he potentially had a subacute/distal watershed stroke. He's in the neuro-acute care/stroke unit, and that's all we know for now. They will be doing a new MRI with diffusion study to confirm the stroke diagnosis, as well as ECCO, etc. No tumor, what they were actually seeing on the MRI was the area of the brain that was cut off from bloodflow (because of a clot) and died.

Psalm 27:12-13 I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Best medicine ever ... Amy just drove up with Andrew and Nathan in tow. Grandpa is busy dropping parachuters down the basement steps :)

We have an appointment with a neurosurgeon at Sanford in Sioux Falls (Dr. Troy Gust) tomorrow at 2:30.

Just had a call, Mayo Clinic said they can get us in with a neurologist and neurosurgeon next week Friday (May 10). Our doctor is checking back with them to see if they can't get us in a little sooner.

We've gotten some unexpected news today, so I need to share it with friends and loved ones. Last week Galen started having some symptoms of something wrong: he was losing his peripheral vision in his right eye, his eye/hand coordination was a little off, and his thinking felt a little fuzzy for some random tasks that he normally wouldn't think twice about. He got into the eye doctor Friday morning, who said he saw something suspicious and referred him to a medical doctor. We saw the doctor in Sioux Center Friday afternoon, who said he needed an MRI, which was scheduled for this morning. The MRI confirms that there is either a swelling or a small mass on Galen's brain. The doctor recommends we go to Mayo Clinic as soon as possible, and they will be calling us as to when that will be. Best case scenario it's an infection, they do a spinal tap, and figure out how to treat the infection to take the swelling down. Other scenarios are either benign or malignant mass that would likely need to be removed in one way or another. I'll let you know when we get scheduled at Mayo, we hope it's this week. Thanks for your prayers, they mean a lot to us.

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Just in time for Michael and Amy's 8th anniversary I finally decided Amy is never going to have time to put together a wedding album, so I made one for her/them. Good memories of a beautiful day!

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Our trip to Israel in March.

Two fish and a little bit of bread

I had good intentions of blogging while I was in Israel for 10 days, but that's all the further I got. We had a wonderful time but our days were full, with wake-up calls at 6:30 a.m. and full days of touring while our bodies were still rebelling against jet lag and the eight hour difference in time zones.

One of the many highlights for me tied in to a message I heard by Pastor Tanner on the same Sunday we were in Omaha (previous blog). That week he spoke on "Jesus the Bread of Life" based on the scripture passage of the feeding of 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fishes. In Israel we visited Tabgha, the location where Jesus is believed to have performed that miracle.

Pastor Tanner shared that when Jesus asked the disciples to help him feed the people that day, Andrew didn't know what to do, so he does the only thing he knows how to do: he took the sack lunch to Jesus and said this is what I have, what can you do with it?

We don't have any idea what God's going to do, but we do know that Jesus has bigger plans with our "two fish." He makes them enough. When life isn't going the way you want it to go, then at the point of brokenness and desperation is a place of faith. Like Andrew we need to bring it to Jesus.