Month: November 2016

November 19, 2016
THE SHANNAH

While contemplating the events of the past year, I was reading a passage called “The Shannah.” What exactly is a year? In the Holy language of Scripture a year is associated with the word, “shannah” and it is linked to the number “two.” “Shannah can mean the second, the duplicate, or the repeat. In the course of nature the year is the repeating of what has already been . . . the winter, the spring, the summer, and the fall, the blossoming of flowers and their withering away, the rebirth of nature and its dying, the same progression, the same replaying of what already was. A year is a “shannah” a repetition. Continue reading “THE SHANNAH”

Hippocrates, “On the Sacred Disease,” Men ought to know that from nothing else but the brain come joys, laughter, and sports, sorrows, despondency and lamentations, all these things we endure from the brain.   Somewhere between the ER and the Neuro ICU, I must have fallen back asleep, as I don’t remember being transferred.  The ER having stabilized my condition after my IV tPA was completed, had released me to the next phase of my journey.  My Neuro status had improved dramatically since my earlier arrival to the ER, in that my Stroke score had dropped from a 23 to a 16.  This score is based on the NIHSS Stroke scale which evaluates the acuity of stroke patients, determines appropriate treatments and predicts patient outcomes.
Continue reading “Neuro ICU – 3”

Stroke is the the 5th leading cause of death in the United States, but it is in first place, in regards to the devastating disability and long term impairment that most people suffer.  Many patients do not get to the ER  in a timely manner.  My salvation came from a clot-busting medication, tPA, given via IV in the ER.  If  a patient arrives within 3-4 hours of the first signs of a stroke,  the medication can be given.  After 4 hours, the drug cannot be used.  Since I was admitted to the ER in under 1 hour, from the time my stroke had occurred, I had only a 6% risk of complications from tPA.   Knowing that my impairment  and disability would be extreme without this drug, my family accepted the risk for me.  Within ~ 10 minutes of receiving the tPA-IV, I was able start moving my right arm and leg.  The ER nurse that was at my side the whole time was checking to see if I could speak, but no words were able come out.  The left hemisphere was still damaged due to the blood loss from the clot.  Everyone was in amazement at how fast I regained the movements on the right side of my body.
Continue reading “24 Hours – 2”