January 19 2009

Update January 19, 2009

I continue to grow more normal and there have been several major changes in my life. I no longer fear falling nor am I concerned about something falling on my head. I am probably as normal as I was before my Aneurysm or as I tell people, "I am normal for me". The only change is I am now on Blood Pressure Medication. Sometime in early November my blood pressure shot up and I now wonder if this may be the result of Neuro Storms. For the past 8 years it has always been in the 130/80 range but in early November it elevated into the 150-160... range which of course is unacceptable, especially for a person my age recovering from an Aneurysm. November 13 my primary care physician put me on 50 mg a day of Metoprolol. He wanted to not just lower my BP but to also lower my heart rate and this was his drug of choice to do both. After three weeks of no improvement, the dose was increased to 100 mg a day.

November 18th I saw my Springfield physician, Dr. Michael Workman, who did the coiling on September 10th and had a cat scan to see how I was healing. I really like this doctor. He appears to be young enough to be my son but he has me convinced that he knows his stuff. He is to the point but not too serious. Almost dying is serious enough, I don't want or need someone reminding me of it at each visit and Dr. Workman doesn't do that. Everything looked good and I am to return in March of 2009 for an Angiogram. If I clear that, then I will not return again until 2011. After this visit I was permitted to return to all normal activity including work and driving.

December 2008 was very busy for me. Since I had met my deductable and Dr. Workman gave permission, my primary care physician wanted to make sure there were no other problems. Because Dr. Workman had recommended I attend a sleep study, December 3rd I spent my night at WRMS Sleep Center. I was made aware of the results on December 31 which indicated I was marginal, but because of my age, weight, and my wife complained of my occasion snoring, I was put on an APAP machine which I received from a local provider and began use of on January 12, 2009. December 9th I had a colonoscopy where they found and removed one small non cancerous polyp. I had passed a full physical in November with flying colors but because of my Aneurysm, my stress test wasn't done until after my November visit to Dr. Workman and anticipating his approval it was scheduled for December 10th. There must have been some concern because my primary care physician conducted the stress test personally and there were three other nurses present. I walked for eleven minutes and still had some steam in me when my physician ended the test. The last stress test I had was in 1992 and that was done only by a technician with the doctor later reviewing the results. The results of this stress test were excellent but I need to eat less and walk more and that has always been my case.

December 23rd 1/2 tab of Hydrochlorot was added to my blood pressure medication because I still wasn't showing the improvement needed. This combination had an almost immediate impact bringing my BP down into the 120/60 range. I continue to recover, I have experienced no headaches but I do have an occasional twitch like someone is driving a spike down into my brain. Sometimes the area where they drilled the hole through my skull and put the drain tube in will itch or hurt briefly but all of this is child's play when compared to the pain I experienced September 9th.

The last week of December, my father, who was an Alzheimer patient but still living at home had moved towards the worst and wasn't expected to live much longer. He had stopped eating and drinking so we all knew the end wasn't long. I had visited him and my mother December 20th and at that time my father was able to setup but it was clear he didn't know who I was. He would only node or smile when I would speak to him. Now he was bed fast and rarely would wake so on December 30th my youngest brother flew in and he and my niece visited with me before traveling on to my parent's home. I suspect because I anticipated my father's passing, on December 30 I had a headache that lasted for two days. This was my first since my Aneurysm and it did concern me. I suspect it was stress causing my headache so as instructed by Dr. Workman I took Advil but it didn't seem to help. Since I had been instructed to avoid all unnecessary stress as much as possible during my recovery and nothing is more stressful than the death of a family member and a house full of relatives, I decided to stay away during this time. My mother was very supportive of my decision which certainly eased my stress considerable and my headache finally went away about 3 hours after I learned my father passed away on the afternoon of January 1, 2009, sadly on my oldest brother's 59th birthday. I felt badly for brother, but my father was 81 years old at the time of his passing, had a good life and told me last year while he was still in some of his mind that he was ready to go meet Jesus so knowing these things all help some. By the time I attended my father's funeral on January 5th followed by a family dinner at his church I was feeling much better with no additional headaches. The headache I experienced certainly wasn't of the Aneurysm type, it felt much more like a stress related headache but anything that drives up my blood pressure can be harmful during my recovery period so I try to be a good boy and do as I am told. Since I am not prone to headaches and because my physicians told me that while I was allowed to return to normal activity but avoid unnecessary stress, there was a lot of concern by my family over how I was doing during this time. I don't like to be the worried over so so this bothered me a bit but by controlling my stress, I got through it as well as anyone can get through losing a parent. Of course in my father's case, I had lost him more than a year ago and his passing was more of a blessing than a loss, still such is always difficult. I have some very nice recent memories of him and things that just he and I experienced and that too helped.