Eclectic: Diane - Two Year Stroke Anniversary

Diane - The Pink House OTC

Two years ago, tonight, our world fell apart.

The two years since have been utterly brutal, exhausting, frustrating, enlightening, and, yes, sometimes absolutely amazing.

Yet, I have often wondered, these past two years, why Bob's recovery has been so slow. I have wondered why he is "behind the pack". Why nearly every other stroke survivor I meet is doing remarkably better than Bob. Why he has never "hit" one of those established stroke recovery timelines.

• Why he still cannot walk. Or even stand.
• Why he still has no movement in that right arm or hand or shoulder.
• Why he still cannot control bowel or bladder.
• Why he still cannot speak well.
• Or swallow.
• Or read well.
• Or write.
• Or so many other things.

I have wondered what we were doing wrong, if we weren't working hard enough, or if it was because he was so long hospitalized at first and "started late" on therapy. I wondered if we "missed the window" that all those therapists mentioned. I wondered if it was just that "every stroke is different" as the doctors always say. Or if we just had bad luck, bad therapists, bad doctors ...

But I wonder no longer about these things ...

Recently, I had an enlightening conversation with our new attorney, who had just finished perusing 1500 pages of medical records. It seems, that two years ago, tonight, a nurse entered Bob's ICU room at about 10 p.m. and recorded, in her notes, that this patient has "right side hemiplegia".*

And each subsequent nurse, who entered his room, made the same notation on the chart.

And this went on for 11 hours.

Yet no one thought to summon a doctor.

 Until 9:00 a.m. when I arrived and said, "Something is wrong with my husband!"

And the nurse said, "Isn't he always like that?"

A statement which never made sense to me---- until now.

In fact, it all makes sense now. I mean, 11 hours? I never knew how long it had been that his brain was cut off from oxygen, but never thought, um, 11 hours. My god.

In fact, the true wonder is this: he somehow survived. My Bob is still with me. He is alive and home and I love him with all my heart.

Today I celebrate that fact.

_____
*"hemiplegia" is the medical term for paralysis on one side of the body

See the article Two Year Stroke Anniversary in The Pink House On The Corner.