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It’s been a while since I wrote in my blog. It has a password problem, something in PHP that I don’t understand. I need install the next version, but I don’t want to do that until I can type faster.

I had a stroke last Monday. Around 11, in my office at NGDC, my hand fell asleep, and then my foot. At first, I thought I was just thinking my way out of work and I told myself to stop fooling around, but I couldn’t. The effects were cyclic; a couple times, I could feel my foot again, and one time I walked around (and closed the door a little so that folks wouldn’t come ask me questions). It didn’t get better, though, and after 30 or 45 minutes, I called Paula (my coworker) and asked if she could drive me to the hospital. She said sure, could I stand up? But I couldn’t.

So Paula called Dan, and Dan called the nurse, and the nurse told Paula to call 911, and they layed me down in someone’s office and waited for everyone to arrive. The firemen came first, then the EMTs. The EMT who worked with me was very nice; I must’ve been a little nervous, but she kept me calm. They loaded me into the ambulance and brought to the hospital with the sirens wailing.

At the ER, they drilled for my blood, which is pretty hard to find. I’ve still got bruises all over my arms from their searching. They took THIRTEEN VIALS of blood to send to the lab for tests. They also took a CAT scan of my brain to check for an earlier stroke, which they said was positive. As soon as they announced that, I knew exactly when it was: three weeks ago when I had trouble finding words. My mouth was lopsided and my personality mellowed out, too. Ben even said, “It’s like you had a stroke, but that’s only for old people!” Because I’d had a previous stroke, they couldn’t give me the quick, reverse-the-symptoms medicine; instead, they gave me Heparin.

They gave me some other tests, too: ultrasounds of my carotid (sp?) arteries and heart and an MRI. I was pretty good until the MRI, which freaked me out a little. It’s claustrophobic and they had to turn off the Heparin IV, and I couldn’t move any of my right side by the end of it.

At that point it was 5:30. They transferred me to a room in the upstairs of the hospital, gave me dinner and a bedpan, and let me chill a little. Paula, who’d stayed with me until then, headed home. Ben arrived around nine; he’d been giving a demo in Massachusetts and flew home as soon as he could. That night was rough; I couldn’t move my right side, but it was getting spasms and driving me nuts. They gave me one Ambien, which didn’t work, and then a second, after which I FINALLY fell asleep. The dreams were crazy, though; a herd of giraffes gathered to make my bed, snakes connected me to the IV, etc.

That was the worst of the symptoms, however. When I woke, I could move my right foot well enough to go to the bathroom. My mom flew in and it was great to see her, and Ben’s Uncle David showed up to look after the dogs. Wednesday I was doing so well that they discharged me, with orders to go to therapy and see the doctor in a week.

I’ve come a long way since then. I can walk almost normally now, and my right hand lets me type, albeit a little bit slowly. My biggest problem is aphasia — I can’t think of the right words to say. I don’t mind if I can’t walk, but to have my brain not work right is embarrassing.

The doctor called yesterday to say that all my blood tests are negative. That’s good — the cause isn’t something strange in my blood, so I stopped taking my twice-daily injections and started some aspirin. However, it leaves a big mystery to solve: how did a 24 year old girl get a stroke? I’ll have to undergo some more tests, including sticking a tube with a camera down my throat to look for holes in my heart.

I’ve had a lot of visitors, calls, flowers, movies, and food delivered to my house this week, and I’m so grateful for them. For now, please know that I love you all — the reason I’m not writing back is because typing is slow, my handwriting’s bad, and my ability to speak on the phone isn’t great, especially when I’m tired. But I DO thank you, from the bottom of my heart :)

Yesterday was a bad day; I woke up in the middle of the night with stomach cramps (the usual — I don’t know what they are) and dreamed that somebody messed up my FAQs, blamed it on me, and then gave me stomach cramps. I went to work for about an hour and half and then headed home; it hurt! I spent the rest of the day in front of the TV, happy that a fever isn’t one of the symptoms of my stomach pains but rather frustrated that stomach pains AT ALL are part of the problem.

Today was much better. When I got home, I discovered Ben had forgotten about his dinner items :) Too bad — so we went to Neopolitan’s and had some goooood pizza. Then, of course, to the supermarket, where we bought just about EVERYTHING we could possibly need in the next couple days.

It snowed on the mountains yesterday, and I took a picture of it but it got ruined by the camera. :( Here’s what we THINK we should be seeing — if the colors were here! Perhaps in a couple weeks!

I had some energy when I came home from work, and dinner took 2 hours to cook (it was beef and noodles and it boils away at low heat), so I went to Ace and bought nails to affix the lights on my shelf. Wha-la!

It really feels like fall now. The high in Boulder today was 64; in Nederland it was probably in the fifties, although I didn’t see it get past 45. It smells like fall outside. Now all that needs to happen is for the trees to change!

For graduation, my parents gave me an IOU for a bookcase to put my rocks in! I had a hard — and fun — time choosing it. Did I want it to be a coffee table? A table behind our sofa? A bookcase?

Ben and I thought about it for a while, and then we went to the rustic moose and saw their vertical bookcases. We were mighty impressed with those, and when we looked at who made them, we thought “I should’ve known!” It was Bill Ragland, who also made our dining table and bedframe. I called Bill up, gave him the dimensions and let him know what we wanted, and he started building.

Around 6:30 this evening, Bill Ragland came over. Wow … it turned out even better then we’d hoped! I still have to put the lights in (that’s why it’s so dark right now) but other than that, it’s fantastic. Stay tuned for more lighted pictures!

I accidentally left my sisters out of my last entry. Oopsie :) Hopefully they don’t mind too much … they were the most important people at my wedding! Here’s our picture:

This morning at church Ben and I got to play the guitar! We … well, *I* stank. Fortuantely, with three other guitars and a piano, you couldn’t tell :)

I cleaned out the garage this afternoon; oh boy! We had a spare bag of concrete that we needed to throw away. I couldn’t lift it (80 pounds and somewhat off-weight), so I got Ben to help me. He helped me turn it over — did I forget to mention that the top was broken? — into a garbage bag. We tried to pick the bag up but it broke and sand from the concrete went EVERYWHERE. Half an hour later, we had it all vacuumed up into the trash can and took it to the dump. I do not recommend trying this solution for YOUR concrete.

Fall’s coming! It’s still warm, but I can feel the temperature start to drop and the leaves are starting to change. They’re mostly green, but certain branches and trees are changing around here. We’ll keep you posted!

Unfortunately, I have no new pictures to offer you! However, surely you will recognize the Caltech crew at our wedding. Stand-by; there’ll be more pictures shortly …

We had a rainbow at 7:30 in the morning on Tuesday!

Also, I made a wedding gallery! It’s here. Enjoy!

I didn’t feel all too terribly tired after my third week of work on Friday, but I guess I was, because I’ve sure been sleeping a lot! Ten hours last night and a two hour nap. Hopefully I can fall asleep at bedtime :)

Ben and I went on an expedition to find a good swimming spot for the [rambunctious] pups this afternoon. We found one just west of the summer road where the creek runs around a big outcrop of granite and away from the road. Chaco was his usual stick-chasing self and Bonzo is making great progress learning to swim — once Ben throws him in, that his. Nevertheless, he seems to enjoy it!

Hopefully the dogs will take a nap now :)