Stroke Recovery Update

I have been working hard and it is paying off.  I am now wwalking  without the walker or the cane .  I washed a load of clothes and folded them.  I am using both hands to type this so I may have a few typos, but the more I type the better the left hand will get.  It just shows that determination and believing that you can will go a     long waytoward reaching a goal.   It takes hard work and keep thinking  

I think I can.Ithink I can. I will!!!!”        “Being strong-willed is not enough, however. You also have to be hard on yourself. Someone who was strong-willed but self-indulgent would not be called determined. Determination implies your willfulness is balanced by discipline.”
― Paul Graham        

Armor for Survival

Let me love

       though love

             may go unrequited,

An empty heart

       is much heavier

             than a stone.

Let me have faith,

           though faith

                be often blighted,

Without it

       we are not

             strong enough

                    to walk alone.

A Detective Hunting the Culprit, or a Patient in the House TV Series Show?

I feel just like a detective on a hunt for an allusive culprit, or maybe one of those patients on the Bones Series who has some physical disorder that is a challenge to identify.  House, where are you.  I could take your personality if you can figure out what is going on with my body.  Here is where we are at so far:

I went to the urologist on Friday.  I got an all clear there.  

However, the roller coaster continues with ups and downs and it goes round and round.  I have been taking my antibiotics.  Sunday was a great day, Monday was a good day. Today, I felt lousy.

Today, I went to the neurologist.  Ruled out post polio syndrome. Very good!

Thursday, I go for a Doppler ultrasound imaging, which uses sound waves to check blood flow and measure the thickness of my carotid arteries. 

If that is an issue, we tackle it.

The next step will be to see an immunologist to see if I have developed an auto immune disease that could have been due to exposure to chemicals when we inventoried the house after it had burned.  After we had finished, we found out they could not demolition until a Hazat team came in to clean up the hazardous materials.

However, I had a nice surprise this morning.  I received an email that said I was a feature on the front page of the My Generation – Boomer Edition

Published by Boomer Life Media  May 29, 2012.

http://paper.li/BoomerLifeMedia/1311452367 which linked to my book video.  That was very nice of them to do that.



What a crazy ride, but I am charging full speed ahead in spite of the little rocks in the road.  I hope you are doing the same!

What next?  I haven't a clue...but, I will keep you in the loop if you want to visit back to check.

I have also received another invitation for an interview.  I let you in on that once it is all ready to go.

The Saga Continues...

AH3DEJRZ4EXG

My life has always been a series of challenges and I'm psychologically-prepared but this is the biggest challenge of my life. ~ Ronaldo quotes

On Monday, I took my last dose of antibiotic.  I wasn't feeling great, but a lot better.  I went to work that morning, and that afternoon to my doctor's appointment.  I told the doctor that I felt I needed additional antibiotics because the infection had not cleared up yet in my stoma.  My doctor is not a pill pusher, so I did not get a refill for the prescription.  Blood work was run before I left to test.  She added another blood pressure pill that would help retain potassium rather that deplete it. 

On Tuesday, I went to work once again. I was not feeling very well.  By noon, I was really having trouble breathing.  On Wednesday morning, I felt awful.  I was still having breathing problems.  That afternoon, I received a call from the doctor's office telling me that the bacterial infection in my body had reared its ugly head again.  The doctor had called in a prescription for the antibiotic with the instructions to take if for ten days. 

This morning about 2:30 a.m., I had a very severe asthma attack.  For a while, my husband I thought he was going to have to call the ambulance to take me to the hospital.  I finally got it under control with oxygen and my inhalers not to mention concentrating on not panicking, and work on purse breathing.  Eventually, I was able to lie down and dozed off for a little sleep. When I woke up at 7:30 this morning, I had another round with the asthma.  It was not quite as bad as the earlier attack, and with the same routine; I was able to get it under control.

Tomorrow, I have an appointment with the urologist.  Tuesday, I have an appoint with a neurologist to see if the breathing could be related to my round with polio I had at the age of four. 

The only thing I am sad about is that Saturday is my husband and my anniversary, and I know that I will have to cancel the dinner date we had planned to celebrate.  However, we celebrate every day we have together, so the dinner date can wait. 

In my own words: "...with love, faith and guts, I will not fear tomorrow, nor tomorrow.  I will live each day as if it were my last, and give as much as I am able.

Watch for an update...and, if you can do something that will help another person, do it!

 

Life is a Like a Roller Coaster Ride!

What a week it has been.  There have been so many ups and downs that my head is spinning.  It began when I got home last Friday.  I wasn't feeling well and I started having chills.  I checked my temperature and I was running a low-grade fever.  This continued all weekend, and by Monday I was ready to go see my doctor.  She sent me to the lab to get some blood tests run to check what was going on.  On Tuesday, her nurse called saying that my  C-Reactive Protein was very high and so was my erythrocyte sedimentation rate which indicate inflammation in my body. 

So on Wednesday, I went to see my doctor again.  She wanted to rule out some things, so I had a chest x-ray, some more blood work, tested for the flu (even though I had had the vaccine), and nothing was discovered.  She recommended that I check into the hospital for a CT scan of both the upper and lower body, and have extensive blood labs run.  I agreed because I was tired of feeling so bad, and I wanted to get back to feeling like myself again. She prepared the admissions paperwork, and sent them to the hospital.  I went by my house on the way to pick-up some toiletries and other things I needed for a hospital stay.  Then we proceeded to the hospital to check-in.

As soon I was in my room and the nurses found out that I had an Indiana Pouch, they all wanted to know about it and to see the stoma opening in my navel.  I ended up explaining how it was created, and educating them about bladder cancer and the different types of pouches. 

 

As soon as I went through the initial checking in with the nurses, the poking and prodding began.  No water, no food until after the CT scan with and without contrast. In the meantime, they took plenty of blood.  I think that first time was about six test tubes, that evening two more, and this morning about four more.  I was hooked up to an IV with potassium.  The next thing was the wires on the chest so they could monitor my heart and blood pressure.  Finally, about six that evening, I went to radiology for the CT scan.  When I returned to my room, I was allowed to eat and drink. 

This morning when the doctor on call came by, he said that everything looked okay in the CT scan.  The blood labs this morning showed that everything seemed to be correcting itself on its own, but he was putting me on an antibiotic to try to make sure that whatever it was cleared completely.  They had no idea what is going on with my body, and where I am picking up a bacteria that is causing my problem.  At least I was able to educate a few more people in the medical field about bladder cancer and cystectomies.  "The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another's, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises." ~ Leo Buscaglia

When I arrived home, there was a letter from the Midwest Book Review telling me that my book had been reviewed and could be found in The Reviewer's Bookwatch in the May issue on Burroughs' Bookshelf.  This is what Mr. Burroughs' wrote, "When life throws everything at you at once, you just have to keep trucking. "Traveling a Rocky Road with Love, Faith, and Guts: Bladder Cancer, COPD, Caregiving, Polio, and More" is a memoir from Sylvia L. Ramsey as she shares her journey to facing cancer and many other ailments, and how she found the strength to overcome them all even stronger. "Traveling a Rocky Road with Love, Faith, and Guts" is a fine addition to any health-related memoir collection."  What a nice homecoming from the hospital!



What this roller coaster of life will bring next, we will have to wait and see!  Stay tuned.

Fire on the Rocky Road Today

It was bad enough that our biological clocks have to cope with Monday, but mine got topped with a fire where I work.  We are getting a new roof, and one of the roofer's pick-ups was backed up to the building.  Something in the bed of the pick-up caught fire.  The bed of the truck apparently contained a lot of flammable material because it burst into flames.

I was in the ARC when one of the workers and one of my co-workers came running in looking for fire extinguishers.  At that time, I had no idea what was on fire or how bad.  I showed the man where the fire extinguisher near my office was located.  Everyone was rushing around frantically.  I peeked out the window to see how bad it was, and I saw that the flames at that time were bursting forth about three to four feet above the bed of the truck.  I knew that we needed to call the fire department, so I ran to the front office to tell the assistant director what was happening, and that we needed to call the fire department.

You can see the back end of my car
 just on the other side of the truck.

I was going to go tell the Dean, and about that time the fire alarms went off.  Everyone in the building evacuated.  The fire trucks began to arrive, and by that time the flames were really engulfing the truck.  We heard a small explosion. The black smoke was boiling up in the air.  Someone said to me, "Isn't that your car sitting close to that truck?  Shouldn't you move it?"  I handed my keys to a personwho volunteer to try, and they took off toward my car. (I knew that I could not get in the smoke because of my breathing problems.) They were back in just a moment or two telling me that it was too hot to get near the car much less get in it and move it. 

We stood and watched while the firemen finally got it out.  The truck was black and gutted.  It is amazing that the gas tank did not explode.  There was a gas can in the back of the truck as well and it had made it through the that fire as well. 

My car appears to be okay, but it has a lot of soot on the roof. The fire chief is sending me a copy of the report today, and I am going to contact a business that specializes in convertible tops to see if it needs to be replaced because extreme heat does damage them.  I called my insurance company in the event I needed to get it replaced.  I learned a long time ago that you should always call your insurance company when something happens to just be on the safe side.   

One thing about it, my life is never dull!

http://www.amazon.com/Sylvia-L-Ramsey/e/B002BMJ5NI/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1326569308&sr=1-1

Book Launch for Traveling a Rocky Road with Love, Faith and Guts in Full Preparation Mode

I have been a busy lady.  The book will be available on Amazon sometime next week, other channels later on.  I guess all of that takes time, but not the time is growing near, I am scrambling to get ready for the launch.  I have a press release ready, and will soon have another professional review. 

It is getting more difficult to find bookstores any more other than Barnes & Noble.  I saw today where one that is downtown Atlanta closed their doors today.  It is sad. 

I am going to have an author reception/presentation and book signing at the Elks Lodge here in Augusta, on March 24th.  I have been working on my invitations and poster for that event.  I have put together a power point presentation and recorded a sound file to possibly use for a video.  I have been working on a mailing list for invitations.  If you live close enough and want to come, just drop me an email, or post in the comment section so I know how many goodies to buy.

In addition to all of that, I haven't forgotten about passing it on to others in the field.  I set-up and scheduled a few interview posts for my other blog.  I still have a lot to do before the day is over.  My youngest son will be flying in tomorrow for a couple of days, and I want to spend time with him. 

Whew!  It has been a day, a week and a couple of months!  When writing, getting a book ready for publishing, promoting and finally preparation for its launch is somewhat like riding a roller coaster, but who would miss out on the experience...especially when it is all for such a good cause.