Home > Blog

“Safari Sally,” Bonzo’s very own dog trainer, came today. When she first came, Bonzo didn’t really like her. I understand why; she was GOOD. She laid down the law, and when she saw Bonzo pull one of his stunts, she stopped it.

Anyway, she came again today, and she suggested that Bonzo was “digging out our house” because he was hot. “I don’t think so,” said Ben. “I think he just likes to dig.” (Bonzo has dug a two-foot hole underneath our porch.) Sally suggested purchasing a wading pool for Bonzo to cool his feet off in. Here it is … and here’s Bonzo’s reaction to it! (Goodness gracious!)

[Edit: the right movie is FINALLY here! Enjoy!]

Greetings from Orangeburg, SC! We’re here for our friends’ wedding — Erin and Matt. However, GETTING here was quite an ordeal.

We started off at 8:30 am. Stopped at a Starbucks, got the DIA around 9:30, and found no parking. No sign telling you to look elsewhere, nothing. But no big deal; we simply went to the eastern side of the airport and found a spot. We arrived late, but made our 10:30 flight nonetheless.

One of the benefits of waiting so long to get tickets is that we got to fly first class. I LIKE FIRST CLASS. Your seat is big. Basically, that’s the only benefit you get on a domestic flight, but it’s a good one. (Free booze, too, but I can’t have any — it interacts with Coumadin.) At the end of the flight, I thought that “This wasn’t so bad!” and that we’d be in Columbia no worse for the wear in about three hours.

But no … we wouldn’t be anywhere but stuck in O’Hare. Our flight time came, but there wasn’t any gate information posted. After FINALLY finding someone to ask, we learned that our flight had been delayed a half hour. Then ANOTHER half hour, then another, until the finally gave up and cancelled it. We did manage to get on the next flight, which departed at nine o’clock and arrived at twelve. MIDNIGHT. Sigh. But we got to sleep in this morning, which was nice :)

Today we got to visit with Ben’s parents and enjoy some BBQ. MMmmm, barbeque. I love barbeque. We also admired the toilet in the shed, which Dad had installed recently. Exciting, eh? But that’s the way I like it — nice and quiet :)

Greetings. Yesterday and today were, admittedly, much better than Monday. Monday SUCKED. Oh well.

Yesterday I just stayed at home and did housework. I cleaned the kitchen, did a load of laundry, trimmed some weeds in the yard — that kind of stuff. Boring as it sounds, it was a good day.

Today I had therapy. Speech therapy was good. I told Melissa about the book I just read (”I’ll Carry the Fork”, by Kara Swanson), and she asked me to compare and contrast Kara’s head injury symptoms with my own. “Well,” I said, “she had a lot of memory problems, which I don’t have –”

“Excuse me?” Melissa interrupted. “You don’t have memory issues?”

“No, my memory is fine,” I assured her.

“Your memory is NOT fine. That’s why, when you come in, I ask you what you’ve been up to since I saw you last. That’s why I make you write down what happened in each chapter of every book you read. [Oops!] To exercise your brain.”

“Oh.”

Depressing as it is to have memory issues, it’s very … interesting. Melissa explained that memory is tied very closely to attention, and that my attention isn’t very good. This I believe! I can’t pay attention to anything for very long, and I get easily distracted by strange noises and sights.

I started explaining about my trials and tribulations with the Department of Education to Melissa, and she jumped on the chance to watch me write an email. “Oh great,” I thought. “Another writing assignment that I’m going to struggle with.”

But … it wasn’t that hard! I did it! I had a little help from Melissa, but I wrote it myself! I was pleased, and she told me what a good job I’d done. Much better than my previous writing assignments, she said. It was SO good to hear that I am, in fact, improving :) I asked her what the big deal was; I write in my blog nearly every day. Apparantly, writing something in which you’ve got to stick to a single topic that you don’t get to pick is much harder. I don’t understand why that is, but it seems to be true. So don’t think that just because my blog is Pulitizer-prize quality that I’m all better yet :)

After speech therapy, I got lunch and then went to PT at cardiac rehab. I HATE cardiac rehab. Everyone there is about 40 years older than me and they know NOTHING about strokes, but they seem to want me to learn about angina and heart attacks and stuff. I want no part of that! Today, I asked my therapist Beth about exercises I could do at home. She recommended using an exercise ball to strenghten my abdomen. “But don’t put your head lower than your heart!” she warned. “Why not?” I asked. “Am I going to have another stroke if I do that?” “Well, no …” “Then why not?” “It wouldn’t be prudent.” What the ?@$*? She also told me not to go jogging. (Not like I’ve got enough energy to do something like that, but it was fun to ask.) GRRR. Recovery is SO SLOW!!!

However, Ben comes back today, and that is very good. Woo-hoo! :)

My goodness, yesterday was quite a day.

I started off at nine (nine AM) at Cardiac Rehab. It turns out my appointment was at 1:30 in the afternoon; I’m not sure why my calendar said nine in the morning. It was EARLY. Anyway, they saw me around 9:30; I entered a big room with two televisions blaring and sat down with my therapist. The thing about cardiac rehab is they care about cardiac stuff, which is rather annoying. I learned what my “lipid levels” (cholesterol, etc) are, what’s “wrong” with my diet, when I can come to free lectures given by the cardiac center’s dietician, etc. My homework is to answer a survery about heart conditions; “If you have angine that will not go away you should (a) drive to the hospital, (b) call 911, (c) take vitamic C, or (d) go hiking.” I figure (b) call 911 is the right answer, but what the heck is angina? Why would I need to know that now — in 35 years, maybe, but right now? I’m not going to have a heart attack, am I?

Then I got to attach four electrodes to myself so that they could monitor my heart while I worked out. These electrode pads, contrary to the nurse’s reassurances, DO NOT COME OFF. AHHH!!! It’s like you get to implant four snaps into your body for good. Who wants to do that?

The guy on the treadmill next to me was a talker. Which is good, I guess, because then you can talk on the treadmill, but this guy was a walking medical encyclopedia. “I’ve heard the Swedish Hospital in Denver has a very good stroke program,” he told me. Yes, I was thinking — they probably administer TPA. If you can get to treatment within three hours, TPA reverses the effects of the clot. However, if you’ve had a stroke in the past, it’s very dangerous — and each time I’ve been to the hospital, I HAVE had a previous stroke. (BCH is a “stroke center”, too.) I tried to tell him this, but he wasn’t listening. “All I’m saying is that if I had a stroke, I’d be going there. Maybe they could get me in on a trial or something. I heard they can dissolve the clot and make you feel better …”

After cardiac rehab, I met with Melissa. We’re working on my voice. My diaphragm is apparantly weak (in fact, my whole trunk is weak) and so it’s hard for me to talk loudly. We do a lot of embarrassing exercises and Melissa points out that I won’t be able to control my dogs or my future students if I can’t speak firmly. Which is true, I confess, but it sucks to hear her say it. Also, she told me to get a notebook to write down my list of things to do. She said that it’ll improve my memory, my schedule, and my handwriting. I think it’ll suck. My handwriting STINKS. My memory is fine, if you ask me. I hate making schedules.

I went to the post office to mail a belated Father’s Day present for my dad, and the women at the desk made fun of my handwriting. “Oh, look, Linda! Isn’t this the smallest zip code you’ve ever seen? Could you tell me what it says, dear?” I wanted to crawl into a hole.

When I got home I just wanted to watch TV. I recorded the movie “Signs” last night and I watched that. It’s about an alien invasion. [Spoilers ahead -- skip to the next paragraph is you haven't seen the movie yet.] Mel Gibson is a reverend, and his wife is killed six months ago. He’s completely lost his faith. Then, it turns out that his wife’s last words end up saving the life of his children when the aliens come to get them, and he believes in God again. Is there a purpose like that to my strokes? Am I going to, somewhere say a year from now, notice that somebody’s having a stroke and be able to care for them? Or will it just be like it is now … sucky? Because right now, it is ever-so-sucky.

I finally went to bed around ten. I opened my bottle of sleeping pills to find only one left — then I promptly dropped it on the floor and Bonzo gobbled it up. Geez louise. I have another bottle, but it’s somewhere in the kitchen, which is a mess right now. I couldn’t find it. Bonzo’s fine, by the way; it didn’t seem to affect him. He did puke in his crate early this morning, but it seemed to be grass, not the pill, that was causing his stomach upset.

I hope today is a better day!

We’re going to Hawaii!!! Ben made our travel plans yesterday. I am SO excited. We’re staying at the Hana Sunrise Hotel, which Ben picked after hours of looking around on the internet for someplace quiet where we could sit on a beach. It sounds perfect … people describe it using words like “peaceful”, “sanctuary”, “quiet and relaxing”, etc. Woo-hoo!!! We leave July 31st.

I’m trying to take Adderall again. I’m hoping that as my brain gets better, it will start to work again, but so far it’s kind of hard to tell. It hasn’t given me any of my desire to read and write back like it used to. However, I HAVE been a little more energetic. We’ll wait and see …

I turned 25 on Sunday. Ben made my weekend very special; after “Cars” on Friday, we drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park on Saturday. It was BEAUTIFUL. No, we didn’t go hiking; that’s too tiring. Instead, we drove along Trail Ridge Road (and got tired anyway). Built in the 1930s, the road is the highest in the country – up to 12,000 feet. The views are AMAZING.

On Sunday, we woke up early and went to church. I had to play the flute with the choir, and to my relief and surprise, it sounded good! (I’ve been having trouble since my second stroke.) Then, Ben took me to Boulder; first, we got some lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, and then we walked along the river. And THEN, we got a massage — oh boy, that felt GOOD. THEN, we got an ice cream cake! It was a good day!

Today, Tuesday, was slightly less good, though. The dog trainer came over around ten, and Bonzo behaved. Which is good, but he’ll be bad for me tomorrow, and I’m not sure I can handle it. I had nothing to do the rest of the day. I was bored and lonely. It sucked.

Today Ben took the afternoon off and took me on a date. It is SO nice to have him HOME! (He’s been gone for four days.) Unfortunately, it looks like he may be going to Moscow soon so I’ll be without him again :( :( But we had fun today!

The World Cup started today, and we kicked things off by watching Germany beat Costa Rica 4 – 2. The match was shown in high definition, and the scoring was great! It was fun to watch. We’ve got another 200 hours or something queued up to record.

We went to see “Cars.” It was GREAT!!! (Good job, Martin! Thanks for your email, and sorry for my non-response; I’m getting around to it, albeit slowly.) After that (we went mid-afternoon), we walked around the mall. Nothing too exciting, but I got another dress (and it FIT!!! A size 4!!!) and drooled after the Mac Store offerings. I enjoyed being “out on the town” with Ben.

Take care … :)