Heather - "Stop and Smell the Roses"
May 30th, 2020 started off being a beautiful day with my family in Colorado Springs, CO. We had enjoyed a relaxing and adventurous week-long RV getaway with our teenagers and were headed back home to quarantine in Kansas. We were 7 hours into the trip home when the entire left side of my body suddenly went limp. I attempted to speak but I couldn’t find the words I wanted to say, and the sounds I managed to utter made no sense. My husband was driving and asked me if I was joking. Our daughter saw the left side of my face drooping and yelled “dad, she’s not joking”!
As a registered nurse, I had a good idea of what was happening, but I couldn’t believe my thoughts. I was only 44 years old and in very good health! When I could finally put my thoughts into words again, after what felt like an eternity, I was able to finally say “I think I just had a stroke”. I refused to call an ambulance and asked my husband to just get me home to our local hospital. He did the right thing to refuse my request and (very quickly) took me to the nearest hospital on our route. The world was on lockdown due to the recent outbreak of COVID and therefore I had to get into the ER by myself and leave the rest of my family behind. I still felt very weak, and lightheaded and the entire left side of my body was numb and tingling. I walked up to the reception desk and mumbled the word “stroke”. I was in a wheelchair and was whisked away to a room within seconds. A stroke alert was called overhead and I had a room full of nurses, lab and radiology techs, and a physician by my side within minutes. My lab work and the CT of my brain all came back normal. I was sent home and was told to follow up as soon as possible with a neurologist.
On Monday morning, I went back to work like nothing had happened the night before. I didn’t feel well, but I needed to catch up on work from being on vacation the week before. I called to make a neurology appointment and was told the first available appointment was in four months. Thankfully with a lot of persistence, I was able to get an appointment within two days. I saw a neurologist and he suspected that I had a TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack) and to schedule an MRI of the brain to get a better look.
The following morning, I was sitting at my desk in my home office and I started feeling very sick, many of the same symptoms were coming back and I was so scared. Thankfully my husband was working from home and he rushed me to KU Medical Center ER. After many hours of blood tests, another CT scan, and an MRI, I was told that there was a small spot on my brain. The ER physician didn’t feel like he could accurately give me a diagnosis without consulting with a neurologist first, and they wouldn’t be in until morning. I was admitted to the neurology unit around midnight and the first thing my nurse did was give me information about surviving a stroke. Someone clearly knew something I didn’t! There was no chance of me sleeping not knowing for sure what was really going on, so I did a lot of praying that night.
I had a team of doctors and residents in my room first thing the next morning. Apparently, there were even more students and residents at the nurse’s station listening in via Zoom call (social distancing) because they don’t see this particular situation every day! It was confirmed that I had a stroke in my right frontal lobe. The big question now was WHY? I had imaging to check that the blood vessels in my neck hadn’t been dissected and blood tests to check for unusual clotting factors, all of which came back normal. The last test that I had while in the hospital was an echocardiogram with a bubble study. I was injected with bubbly saline through an IV to look at the blood flow through my heart. The bubbles didn’t go where they were supposed to go, indicating that I likely had a hole in my heart. While I wasn’t happy about the results of that test, I was happy to be closer to having a diagnosis and finally getting discharged home after being in the hospital for three days.
The testing didn’t end there, I was later scheduled for a transesophageal echocardiogram (TEE) which is a more detailed scan of the heart. A camera was inserted down my esophagus and the cardiologist was able to see my heart structure in more detail. The TEE confirmed the presence of a Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO). A PFO is an opening between the two upper chambers of the heart that didn’t close after birth, as it normally should have. About 25% of the population has a PFO, though most will never even know it!
A referral was made to an interventional cardiologist to discuss the closure of the PFO. He talked through the risks and benefits of closure and informed me that the evidence to support closure was increasing and he thought it was worth doing, given my age. For the first time in several months, I was finally able to find a sense of peace that I knew exactly what was going on and there was a treatment plan. The surgery would offer me closure – not just physically but also mentally. I was desperate for the peace of mind it would afford me and my family. The night before my surgery, I went out on our back porch and enjoyed every single moment of the most incredible sunset I’ve ever experienced in my life. It was as if God was telling me that everything was going to be ok, HE instilled the highest sense of tranquility upon me.
On September 4th, 2020 my husband dropped me off at the KU Heart Institute for surgery. He wasn’t able to stay with me because of the strict hospital visitation policy due to being in the midst of COVID. I told him I loved him with all my heart and that I would see him the following morning. I was prepped for surgery by the most compassionate group of nurses who made me feel so well cared for. In the OR, anesthesia was getting ready to give me conscious sedation and I asked if it was ok if I remained awake during the procedure. I got an “if you really want to” response! A catheter was placed on either side of my groin, one for a camera and the other to deploy the thin mesh umbrella-like device (Amplatzer) to fill the opening in my heart. Since I was awake, I was able to watch it all on the monitor and it was truly fascinating. My cardiologist did his residency at the University of Iowa, and me being an Iowa Hawkeye fan, I knew I was in the best hands. The nurses played the Iowa Fight Song in the OR while they were placing sutures! After the procedure, I had to lay completely flat for several hours to eliminate any pressure on my femoral veins, but I was up and walking the halls by evening time. After having an echocardiogram the following morning to determine the correct placement of the Amplatzer device, I got to go home.
While I was elated to have the chances of having another stroke mostly behind me, there was a long road of recovery ahead. Having a stroke can bring on a myriad of new and unpleasant symptoms. Insomnia, nocturnal panic attacks, anxiety, severe arm shoulder and leg pain, numbness and tingling, sensorineural hearing loss, tinnitus, and vertigo are some of the new feelings I was experiencing. I would wake up in the middle of the night thinking I was dying, I couldn’t catch my breath and was in severe pain for no reason. Thankfully my primary MD recognized this as anxiety, and I was treated accordingly. I was told by neurology that there really was no treatment for the extreme vertigo and unsteady gait that I was experiencing. When I was advised to get a cane to assist with walking, it made me more determined to find answers for treatment. I mentioned it to my cardiologist at my follow-up visit and he recommended vestibular therapy. I spent 5 months in physical therapy doing some of the most horrendous vestibular exercises that made me feel sick, dizzy, and exhausted. The hard work paid off and my therapists helped give me back my quality of life!
A stroke is a brain attack. It occurs when blood vessels in the brain, called arteries, are blocked or burst. The consequences of stroke can be long-term disability and even death. Educating yourself about stroke gives you the power to react and help save a life. Loss of balance, dizziness, vision change, facial drooping, weakness, numbness, headache, trouble speaking, and confusion are all signs of a stroke. Risk factors include high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation (A-fib), high cholesterol, smoking, diabetes, poor circulation, lack of physical activity, obesity, and the use of oral contraceptive pills. Getting emergency treatment is imperative to have the best possible outcome. Time is of the essence.
Having a stroke changed my life…for the better. It has made me a better nurse; I have more understanding and empathy for those suffering from pain and disease. I am a better friend; My friends showed up with meals, gifts, and showered me with love and prayer, and now I am making sure that I take care of my friends the same way they did for me. I am a better daughter; I love and appreciate my parents more than ever before. I am a better wife and mother; realizing that May 30th, 2020 could have been my last day has put life into perspective. I am more present in the lives of my children and husband and value every moment we have together. My husband has been my pillar of strength. Our marriage vows of “in sickness and in health” have been put to the test over the past few years. He has stood by my side on my worst days, celebrated the good days, prayed with me, and prayed over me. I can never thank God enough for blessing me with his existence in my life. It has taken a lot of hard work, determination, and faith to be able to say that I am back to feeling 99% three years later. I feel very fortunate that my stroke was mild in comparison to what could have been a much worse situation. My mom would always tell me to “stop and smell the roses”, and today, I take every opportunity to do just that!
*My stroke was in no relation to the COVID-19 virus or vaccine.*
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