Dan took delivery on his new Tesla on Tuesday. Our friend, George, drove him to Austin, where he picked it up, and then he drove it home to Temple. He's having a lot of fun with it. I plan to get behind the wheel soon, myself, but want to test it out in an empty parking lot before I take it for a road test.
One of the follow-up appointments, after my stroke, came on Monday, September 12. It was for the implantation of an Implantable Loop Recorder (ILR). It was a simple procedure, where the doctor numbed a portion of my left chest area, made a small incision and inserted an device (the ILR). The photo below is of a to-scale model of the device, that the company representative, who was there to program the device, gave to me. It is about 1/8" thick.
The purpose of my hospital stay was to undergo various tests to try to determine the cause of the stroke, but no cause was identified during those three days. One common cause of a stroke is a blood clot. The purpose of this ILR is to continuously record my heart rhythm and electronically send to the doctor any arrhythmia it records, since certain types of arrhythmia can cause blood clots. The battery in this device is good for close to 5 years, according to the company that produces them, and I will probably be host to it for that long.
The only down-side to the ILR is that it communicates, by Bluetooth, through an app on my iPhone, which I must have turned on and near me at all times, 24 hours a day. When I see the doctor, next week, who will be running a check on the device, I will ask him how strict I need to be about that.
Way back in May, for Mother's Day, Chris, Kelsey, Clara and Robert sent me a gift certificate for five people to participate in an escape adventure at Great Escape of Central Texas, in Killeen. I rounded up four friends to join me in this exploit, and scheduled it for July 29. The escape room that I chose was "The Lost Tomb of Anubis," (an ancient Egyptian tomb).
Of course, if you've read my previous post, you know that I had a stroke on July 26. During my hospital stay, I was determined not to cancel our up-coming, fun girls' day. After all, I kept telling myself and everyone else, the stroke didn't leave me with any on-going symptoms. However, once I was released from the hospital, a great fatigue set in, and I had to admit that I wasn't up to escaping an Egyptian tomb! I called Great Escape and they were so accommodating about letting me cancel with a full refund. A couple weeks later, I rescheduled our same team for Friday, September 2.
The five of us - Kay, Jan, Amanda, Stephanie and I - met for lunch at Clem Mikeska's and then car-pooled to Killeen. We had one hour to try to escape the tomb, and though we came VERY close ... we failed. It really didn't matter, though, because we had such fun working together in trying to solve all of the puzzles.
I probably never would have done something like this, had it not been for that Mother's Day gift from my kids and grands. So a big "thank you" definitely goes out to them. 💕
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| L to R: Kay, Linda, Amanda, Jan, Stephanie |
Dan and I had such a fun few days last week, spending one-on-one time with Grandson Robert. He will turn 13 in November, and I can hardly believe he will be a "teenager!" I was present at his birth, and it seems like that was just yesterday. He is changing so rapidly now. He's as tall as I am, and is such a joy to be around. I really wished that we could have had a few more days with him, but everyone's schedules are so busy, especially with school about to start.
We did a few fun things while he was here. A new shave-ice place, called Bahama Buck's, opened near our house, so we took him there for a treat.
Later that day we went to the movie theater to see "Minions - The Rise of Gru." Though I loved the original movie, "Despicable Me," I didn't think this one was great. But it gave us something to do together, so was well-worth the time.
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| A selfie of Robert and me, waiting for the movie to start |
On Friday we went to Waco and visited the Mammoth National Monument. It is the place where, in 1978, a mammoth bone was discovered by a couple of fellows who were searching for arrowheads. Since then archeologists have been excavating the site and have discovered a treasure-trove of mammoth fossils. The dig is on-going, and visitors can come to see the site. It was really interesting and something that Robert seemed to enjoy a lot.
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| Dan and Robert looking down on the dig |
We found a great place for lunch, after leaving the Mammoth Monument. It was a car-themed restaurant. Robert, like his Grandpa, is a car enthusiast, so this was a perfect place for a hamburger.
After lunch we headed to the Dr. Pepper Museum. Dr. Pepper was first made in Waco, Texas, in the 1880s. The museum is full of old Dr. P advertising, and interesting facts about the history of Dr. P and soft drinks, in general. I think the highlight for Robert, though, was enjoying a Dr. Pepper ice cream float at the end of the tour.
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| The actual artesian well that provided the water for making the original Dr. Pepper |
On Saturday I had to deliver Robert back to his family, and I've been missing him ever since.
Sometimes something happens out of the blue that makes you realize how fragile life is.
For me, that happened on the morning of Tuesday, July 26. I was sitting in the living room, reading from my Amazon Fire tablet, when I started noticing a strange visual phenomenon. Off to the right perifphery of my right eye, I started seeing bright, jaggy lines in neon colors. At first I thought it was a reflection in my glasses from something behind me. But there was only a wall behind me, and when I took off my glasses, the little lightning bolts continued. I really didn't think too much of it, and continued reading.
A few minutes later I went to my desk to continue with a computer project I'd been working on for several days. I worked on it for 30 minutes or so, and then - very suddenly - the right side of my face (including my tongue), my right arm, and my right leg all went numb. It was very scary. I immediately thought, "Am I having a stroke?" so I went into the bathroom next to my office and looked into the mirror. There were no drooping face muscles, and I was able to smile naturally, but I was still all tingly and numb. I went back to my desk chair and thought I'd shut down the computer program I had been working on, but I was kind of confused and couldn't think how to do it. So I went into the bedroom, where Dan was finishing getting ready for the day. I was unsteady and kind of reeling as I walked in there. I sat down and said to Dan, "Sonething's really wrong with me!" And then I explained what was happening. He took me to a comfortable chair in the living room and asked me some questions, then said he was calling 911, which he did. In about 10 minutes the EMTs arrived at our house. They spent a while evaluating me. By the time they were done, I was feeling perfectly fine again, thought a bit shaky. They said it sounded like a TIA (mini-stroke), and that I really needed to go to the ER. Although they offered an ambulance, I chose to go in our own car, with Dan.
We got to the ER about 10:30 a.m. and spent all day there. I was taken back a few times, - once for an EKG, once for a CT-scan, once for blood work - but always returned to the waiting room. I was finally taken to an exam room around 5:00 p.m. I was comfortable, lying on the bed while I waited. I hadn't had a bite to eat all day, so the nurse brought me a dry turkey sandwich, which took the edge off my hunger. Finally a doctor came in and, like the EMTs, said that I may have had a TIA, and that he wanted to keep me in the hospital over-night, for observation and tests. There wasn't a hospital room available right then, so I stayed in that ER exam room until 10:15 p.m., when they took me up to the neurology floor and settled me into a very comfortable room for the night. I didn't sleep much. Of course, the nurses were coming in every couple of hours to take my vitals or to draw blood, but mostly, I think, I was just dealing with an adrenalin-high.
On Wednesday a parade of individual doctors and teams of doctors came and went, each of them running me through "stroke tests," which I always passed with flying colors. I didn't appear to have any symptoms remaining from the event, which strengthened their theory that I had experienced a TIA, not a full stroke.
Later in the day I was taken for an MRI (brain scan) and and MRA (artery scan). The MRA showed no blockages in my arteries. The MRI showed one small infarct (injury or death of tissue resulting form inadequate blood supply). It only showed on one of the MRI "slices" and was very tiny. It looked like a small BB on the image. However, because of this, my "event" was no longer considered a TIA, but an actual stroke, though a small one. By definition, I was told, no brain damage happens with a TIA.
The day ended, on Wednesday, before they were able to get me in for an echocardiogram, so I had to spend another night in the hospital, and we hoped that the echocardiogram could be scheduled on Thursday.
Around 2:00 p.m. on Thursday I went for the echocardiogram, which ultimately showed a well-functioning heart. My doctor came in around 5:00 p.m. to tell me that he was going to discharge me. Discharges are not quick! It was more like 8:00 p.m. when I went home with Dan, who had been there for me throughout this experience.
The adventure isn't over completely. I have a number of follow-up appointments with a few doctors. At one of those appointments, we will discuss whether or not I should have an ILR (Implantable Loop Recorder) implanted beneath the skin in my chest, to record the electrical activity of my heart. The primary doctor I had at the hospital didn't seem to think that was necessary, but the neurology team recommended it. We shall see.
I am also on a couple of new medications. All of these precautions are to reduce the likelihood of having another stroke in the future.
I am so thankful to God that this event left me with no residual damage at all. And I'm looking at it as a wake-up call. My doctors all agreed that I have no restrictions on activity now, except for the fact that I will be low on energy for a few weeks, as my brain tries to heal. Yesterday, Friday, I went to lunch with three "gal-friends" and it was such a joy to get back to some normalcy and to experience the love of these good friends.
ALASKA, THE LAST FRONTIER
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| Photo by Clara Judd. I chose this as the best photo of our entire trip, due to the color, the depth and the symmetry. |
Clara turned 16 in December - and she's still as sweet as she always has been. So I wanted to take her on a big trip, to memorialize this point in her life. I decided that Alaska was the place to go. Her family history includes four prior generations who lived there, starting with her great-great grandparents, Ivan and Rose; her great-grandparents, Bob and Margaret; her grandparents, Dan and Linda; and her father, Chris, for the first five years of his life.
On Wednesday, June 15, I drove to Houston, where Clara lives, and spent the night there so that we could leave from the George Bush International Airport on Thursday, at 7:05 AM CDT. Chris arranged for a "cushy" chauffered ride for us to the airport.
We took off on time, both of us pretty sleepy still, since we had gotten up around 3:00 AM CDT. Clara managed to catch a few winks on the first leg of the flight, from Houston to Seattle.
We had a long time between our flights in Seattle, but finally boarded our plane at 1:40 PM PDT, and arrived in Juneau at 3:12 PM ADT. We had a bit of a time adjustment to deal with, since there is a 3-hour difference between the Texas and the Juneau time zones.
We were met at the Juneau airport by a long-time friend, Mike, who was loaning us a car for the week. (It was the next morning that his wife, Kathy, texted me to say that Mike had tested positive for COVID soon after we had arrived. And, yes .. I had hugged him at the airport. But what was done, was done.)
We were also met at the airport by Tom, the owner of the place we were renting while in Juneau - Alaska Northern Sands (AKNS). He led us to the address on Fritz Cove Road, and we were thrilled with the ocean-view room that would be our home for the week. The Property and the landscape were amazing. The only down-side (and I'm really NOT complaining) was that it was down many, many stairs from where our parking spot was. Normally that wouldn't have been a problem, but I was still dealing with back pain, so I had to take the stairs very slowly and carefully, and poor Clara ended up having to schlep all the heavy luggage down (and, later, back up) the stairs. She was a trooper, though, and never complained.
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| Some of the landscaping at AKNS |
| The view from our room |
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| Clara quickly made friends with Denali, a 16-year old house dog |
Below are photos from some of the places we went and sights we saw.
MENDENHALL GLACIER
The Mendenhall is a glacier about 12 miles from down town Juneau. It is one of 38 glaciers that are a part of the 1500 square mile Juneau Icefield, and the only one that can be driven to. In the winter the lake freezes over and local Juneauites ice skate on it.
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA SOUTHEAST (UAS)
The UAS campus sits on the shore of Auke Lake and is home to quite a bit of Alaskan art, including some totem poles.
DOWN MEMORY LANE
In 1973 Dan and I bought our first house, a 1200 square foot house on Jerry Drive in Juneau. We moved in not long before I gave birth to our first baby. Back then ultrasound was not used to determine the sex of babies, so we decorated the nursery in our new little house in gender-neutral greens and oranges. As it turned out, that baby was born in March of 1973, and was a boy ... our son, Christopher, who is Clara's daddy. I wanted Clara to see her dad's first home, so we drove by and took a few pictures.
Another place with early memories for Chris was the pizza parlor that we occasionally ate at. In fact, Chris teethed on the pizza crust from Bullwinkle's Pizza Parlor. Clara got to have pizza at that original one, in downtown Juneau, as well as a newer one out in the Mendenhall Valley.
I took Clara's picture here, at the Brotherhood Bridge location, with the Mendenhall Glacier in the background, because I remembered taking Chris' picture in that same spot when he was a toddler. Here are the two photos. Now there is a fancy fence, whereas back then (about 1975-76) there was only a guard rail, on which Chris is leaning.
TAKU GLACIER LODGE
We were in for a treat when we boarded a Wings Airways seaplane and took off from Juneau's Gastineau Channel for a flight over five of the glaciers of the Juneau Icefield and landed on the Taku River, in front of the Taku Glacier Lodge, which is on the national Register of Historic Places. The air was untypically hazy, because of smoke from forest fires in British Columbia and the interior of Alaska. We had plenty of time to wander around the wilderness property and to shop in the gift shop before we were seated for a meal. Everything on the menu is made from scratch in their kitchen. The highlight of the meal is the wild salmon cooked over an outdoor alderwood fire. Clara isn't a fish-eater, but they also offered chicken. The Lodge staff lives there for the summer season, returning to Juneau when the tourist season has ended. I really enjoyed hearing about the history of the lodge. Mary Joyce was a pioneer adventurer who helped run the Taku Lodge in the 1930s. Later she moved into Juneau, and was living there when I was growing up there. I remember her, so it was most interesting to hear all about her amazing life.
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| Our pilot |
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| Clara, sitting on a bench, looking at the Taku Glacier from the Lodge |
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| Grilling the salmon |
GLACIER GARDENS
Dan and I lived in Juneau from 1971-1978, the first time. We moved back in 1998, after spending 20 years in Oregon. During that time we were away, a couple named Steve and Cindy Bowhay began designing and operating Glacier Gardens. The lower gardens include an atrium and the beautiful upside-down flower towers. Visitors can board a rainforest shuttle to climb a steep, winding 2-mile path up the backside of Thunder Mountain. The driver/guide describes points of interest along the way. At the end of the path is a platform where visitors can take in views of Juneau, Douglas, Auke Bay, Admiralty Island and the Chilkat Mountains.
Clara and I enjoyed our time there and learned a lot about the natural rainforest of Southeast Alaska.
TRACY ARM
Perhaps the most scenic tour we went on was by boat, to Tracy Arm, a fjord near Juneau, with the face of Sawyer Glacier at the far end. During the most recent ice age, the fjord was filled with active glaciers, which carved the steep mountains that line the arm. The ice left deep gorges and beautiful waterfalls in the majestic mountains. The farther up the fjord we went, the more floating ice we encountered. Near the glacier face, lots of harbor seals - moms and pups - were resting atop the icebergs. Because their natural preditors, the orca, can't get into the opening of the fjord, the harbor seals take refuge in it.
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| Gulls sitting atop an iceberg |
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| Bald eagle near the face of the glacier |
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| Mama harbor seals and pups |
OTHER WILDLIFE
Though we have good memories of them, neither Clara nor I got very good photos of the other wildlife we saw, which included humpback whale, orca and black bears. We especially enjoyed the bears. We saw three yearling bear cubs, romping and playing in the wetlands near Vanderbilt Hill. My local friends told us that the mama and three cubs had been there last summer, as well, and had returned this year. Most people in town were familiar with these three cubs.
FRIENDS AND FAMILY
On Sunday, after church, Clara and I were invited to join several of my old friends for lunch at Mi Casa, a local Mexican restaurant. My good friend, Kathy, had arranged this get-together, but, sadly, wasn't able to be there since she had been exposed to COVID (and later tested positive). These were the ones in our lunch-bunch.
One of the visits I was greatly looking forward to was with Liz and Louise, my long-time family friends, Liz having been my 6th grade teacher, and Louise my third grade teacher. It was a joy to get to see them once again.
And the most special visit was with my Uncle Bud (Mom's brother) and his wife, Ardyne, and daughter, Lisa. He is now living in the Juneau Pioneer Home and getting excellent care. I was so happy that Clara got to meet him, since he is her great-great-uncle.
BACK HOME
We flew back home on an over-night flight, arriving back in Houston early on Thursday morning. Kelsey picked us up at the airport, and was wearing a double-layer mask, because Chris had tested positive for COVID, and she didn't know if she might be infected as well. She kindly offered to get an Uber ride for me if I was concerned about the virus, but I chose to ride back to their house with her. I didn't go inside ... just picked up my car from their driveway. Kelsey took both Clara and Robert to a hotel, and they stayed five nights there, trying to avoid contact with Chris. (She went, daily, to check on him and to take care of Thor). On their last day at the hotel, both Kelsey and Clara tested positive. That meant that Clara and Robert are not going to get to go to church camp at Bandina, which was a sad development for both of them. Although I do have a cold, I've tested negative for COVID.
