I've posted several blogs lately on the advice of my friends on the network. I need to go back to the day that changed our lives and write about it. I'm sure it will be long, but I just need to do this for me.

1/16/11 - Sunday morning, we got up to start our normal Sunday day. Oliver always got up earlier than me, as he liked to study his Sunday school lessons again before church. I got up around 8:00 a.m. We sit in our chairs, drank our coffee and watched the birds. He got up to put his cup in the sink and said he felt sick. Then he sit down and said that he was so hot. He thought he just needed a bite to eat. So I fix him some toast. When he took the first bite, he said I can't swallow. I took his bp and was extremely high, so thought it was just a bp problem, but called 911. Of course it took them over an hour to get here. When they arrived and assessed, they said, probably just his bp so we could just go to our local hospital. However, I insisted they we go to the larger hospital as I just knew it was his heart. Never once did I think of stroke as he didn't have any symptoms that I had read about. We went to the hospital in Charleston, WV. There they sit him in a chair in a room waiting for someone to come in. After 30-45 minutes, I insisted that someone come as he just couldn't sit in this chair any longer. They finally moved him to a bed, where he just laid for the longest time. After assessing him, (knowing he couldn't swallow), gave him bp meds by mouth with water. With the comment that he didn't really have to swallow the water, it would just go down. They also have him some ice cream with the same thought, it would just go down. Of course, he aspirated both. Finally after a couple of hours, I ask could we please get a neuorogist evaluate him as they were going to send him home once his bp was under control. When the neurologist came in, he didn't diagnosis a stroke, but I ask if they would please just admit him overnight for observation. So they admitted him to a floor. Once on the floor, he started vomiting profusely with blood mixed. He was having difficulty breathing. I couldn't get anyone to realize that he was seriously ill. Finally have screaming and throwing a fit, they got the hospital team to evaluate him and then they called for another neurologist to come by. As soon as he walked in the room, he diagnosed the stroked and had him moved to ICU where he was put on life support. Remember they originally planned to send him home if I hadn't insisted they admit him for observation. He was in this hospital ICU for 5 days, then his brain started to swell, so they had to move him to another hospital in the event surgery was required to release the pressure. He was in that hospital ICU for another week, but was downsized to the trache and peg tube. The ICU neurogist kept stating they I needed to consider a specialty hospital. However, I knew this was a step above a nursing home and I didn't want that. The nurses in the ICU unit were wonderful and did all they could to get him moved to the rehab floor there in the hospital. So he was moved to the rehab floor where he received OT, PT and Speech. Once of the reasons I wanted him there was this was the only place close by that used vital stem for swallowing. However after a month of asking at every meeting did they finally admit that they had heard of the vital stem but didn't have a therapist on staff certified to use it. I kept pushing until they got someone from a sister hospital to come by and use it. Of course they only used it a couple of times as he was close to being discharged. During the stay in the hospital he developed pheumonia a couple of times and a hospital germ. If I hadn't stayed with him around the clock, he probably would have died. As he had to be suctioned so much. The nurses only came in when I called for them and when it was med time. I ask them to check in on him just while I went to the cafeteria to get a bite to eat, when I came back, the mucas was eveywhere...no one came in when they heard him coughing and he was right beside the nurses desk. The nurses and doctors are the rehab floor were that great, but the therapist (OT and PT) were awesome. They worked so hard with him and did great. He couldn't even sit up much less walk. When he was released from the hospital, he could stand and walk (very slowly) with a walker. We are now in outpatient rehab at a nearby rehab center, the only one in our area that treats stroke patients. Most rehab centers in Southern WV only treat injury type patients. The therapist there are wonderful with Oliver. They work so hard, but he only gets 45 minutes of PT three times a week. He hasn't had OT for some time now has he has a torn rotator cuff that needs to heal before he can resume OT. Some time down the road will need surgery for the rotator cuff, but doctor doesn't recommend it now as it will hinder his PT and walking with the walker. Our home didn't have a bedroom and bath downstairs so while he was in hospital, I had to have a bedroom and bath built. Talk about tough, try doing this and staying at the hospital at the same time. Thankful for my brother-in-law and two boys that came and stayed on the week-end during the day so I could do this. Hey we both survived. Do we get down, of course. But we still have each other. I worry about my own health as well as I am so afraid something will happen to me and he'll have no one to care for him full-time. Sorry so long, but needed to put this in writing. Judy