Saturday, February 8, 2014

Stroke of More than Luck

Two weeks ago today, after becoming temporarily blind in one eye the night before,

Stop: Okay, if you become blind in one eye, you don't assume it's a migraine. Okay, keep reading.
  
Man O woke up with what he thought was a slept-on arm. Numb and all. That was before he realized he couldn't talk right and leaned when he walked. I realized his face was drooping. The theme song from the old show EMERGENCY started playing in my head. I loved Randolph Mantooth and Robert Fuller. I have a thing for dark haired dudes. Ahem.

Stop: Do not allow your husband to climb back up the stairs to get dressed before driving to the ER. Keep him in his pjs. Call 9-1-1. We were fortunate to be near the hospital but still..back to our story.  

A few months ago, I was in the hospital for stroke-like symptoms. Ultimately found out it was a bad drug reaction. BUT... We had to sit through stroke education FOUR times. Why, do we have to do this over and over, we asked ourselves? It was so boring. Guess what happened and guess what we remembered.

Find information about strokes here.


Strokes don't just happen to old people or overweight people. The type of stroke ManO had is the rare type that affects less than 5% of the population. Usually caused by trauma, it involves an artery splitting.  No, I didn't try to strangle him. No, it wasn't whiplash. It just happened spontaneously. A first warning sign was that blindness in one eye, caused by loss of blood flow to the optic nerve. And then the facial drooping, arm weakness and speech difficulty.

Well, ManO was in the hospital so long that I fixed his meals to look like this at home.



Didn't want him to go into shock by having all his food on one plate. But do you notice anything? No, absolutely no leafy green veggies. None! Why you ask?

Stroke survivors are put on blood thinners to prevent clots from forming and causing another stroke. Warfarin (brand name Coumadin) is actually descended from rat poison invented in 1948. Yup, same thing, lower dose. There are newer ones out there but the type of stroke ManO had made the doctor go old school on the meds.

But the way it works is by disrupting the body's ability to absorb Vitamin K, thereby thinning the blood. SO, a person on it can't eat foods with heavy levels of the vitamin like dark green leafy veggies, cranberry juice and mayo. Note: if you eat exactly the same amount of Vitamin K every single day, you can keep on it but most folks know what a hard task that is when added to getting well so they go with the ban instead.

Now ManO didn't cry a river over a ban on brussel sprouts and asparagus (my favorite veggies). But he balked at a dry sandwich. Turns out soybean oil is in everything like corn is! And soybean oil is highly concentrated Vitamin K, as is canola and sunflower.

I didn't want to make my own mayo using raw eggs so I searched and searched until I found this:

      
It has all sorts of other ingredients I can't eat but it made ManO happy.

Then I realized ManO doesn't eat organic peanut butter. He eats Jif. Guess what regular Jif has in it? Fortunately there is another Jif with palm oil instead.



Hopefully ManO will only have to watch his vitamin K levels for a few months. His symptoms are improving. But I am looking for all the carrot and green bean recipes I can so he doesn't get bored.

But it doesn't really matter what I feed him. What he needs most is love and, believe me, he gets it!

The best medicine is a "gentle hug" from a three year old.


So, what about you? Have you lived through medical emergencies that turned your life upside down? Have you had to give up certain foods due to allergies or medical conditions? Can you even imagine giving up leafy green veggies?
  

29 comments:

  1. So glad he is on the mend!

    I researched coumadin thorough because my father is on it and he still has a salad a day. The key is as you mentioned to maintain the same dietary habits. So the salad a day won't affect his coumadin levels as they are adjusted to his blood levels. It's when he decides to venture outside of his normal eating pattern that the INR levels jump.

    Praying for continued healing for Man0

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    1. Thanks. It is that it. The consistency! If he were going to be on it permanently, there is no way he could go without the greens. I look at this as a way to make him miss asparagus. Or at least the variety of it!

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  2. I can give up leafy greens because I don't eat any!

    Great post. Lots of info. Thank you for sharing the story.

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    1. What? No collards, turnip greens, mustard greens, kale, etc. But but but!

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    2. We don't even have those things here unless they're in a can! (NOW you can see why that would be easy...)

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  3. Well done Julie, and well said. DS had a febrile seizure and we had to call the ambulance because he didn't respond to us. That was a terrible day. But give up foods? No, haven't had to do that. My mother loved, loved grapefruit and had to give that up (I don't know if it was because of Coumadin though. I know a lot of people who are taking that, by the way). So I try to eat some for her.

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    1. Lots of meds and grapefruit don't mix. I love grapefruit. Isn't it interesting how so many things interfere with medicine? It's a wonder we can eat anything.

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  4. Wow -- so glad that your ManO is recovering. That must have been quite a scare. And thanks for the information.

    My daughter had encephalitis...that was very scary and she had a long recovery. Anyway, afterwards she developed allergies to various foods and sensitivities to others. Very life altering experience.

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    1. Wow. I am glad she is okay. Our bodies sure to do respond to stressors in different ways.

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  5. Grapefruit interferes with high blood pressure medicine. Julie, you did a good job telling the story. Jim asked if Marty had been taken in by ambulance and I said no. Now I guess we know that you are supposed to call for help.

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    1. We are so close to the hospital, we got in the car, in part because when we talk to medical professionals, they say "Go to the ER" rather than call 911.

      Now my daughter's boyfriend works on a stroke floor at another hospital and fusses about 911.

      We were fortunate but with him being on blood thinners now, I would call 911 because we don't want him to bleed out and EMTs have ways to keep blood pressure up. Eek. The things we have to think about.

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  6. Scary. Luckily so far no food allergies that I know of but a friend if mine is in a quilt group with a woman whose hubby almost died from eating lettuce! The allergy became severe suddenly since he'd previously had lettuce without problems, she follows his same restrictions saying she doesn't want a trace if stuff he's allergic to reaching him
    Susanna

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    1. Yep lettuce. Forgot what's in it but he's allergic to nearly everything and some he's never had problems with the wham he can't breathe.
      Susanna

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  7. That's really interesting about coumadin. My dad took it for years and I was not aware of any dietary restrictions. Of course, he probably didn't care... By the way, one of my sisters developed an allergy to lettuce after she had her gall bladder removed. Who knew?
    So glad Man O is on his way to recovery. And thanks for the helpful info. I hope I never need it...

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    1. What is it about lettuce? And since a lot of folks don't care about spinach, I imagine there are plenty of folks for whom it was just another med to add!

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  8. I'm so glad you and Man-O are on the other side of this emergency, and that he's well on his way to recovery!

    Because my husband works in a hospital, we've been aware of the progress in stroke treatment - wonderful progress! - and are familiar with FAST. But when my mother-in-law had a stroke in September, it really hit home. It's good to be educated about the warning signs!

    I'm usually the calm one in a medical emergency. Whatever the emergency, I usually remember the first aid, to judge whether we need to call 911 or not, etc. But then afterwards I have to take a while to recover.

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    1. Yep, we instituted the when the patient takes a nap, you take a nap program. Whew!

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  9. I'm so glad he's okay and that you called 911! Sounds like you're doing a great job feeding him. Interesting facts about the veggies and mayo!

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    1. Also meant to say I would miss the greens terribly. But you do what you have to do.

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    2. I think he is already missing broccoli!

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  10. Like everyone else, I'm so glad ManO is recovering.

    I can very much relate to this, Julie. When Richard had his cancerous kidney removed in 2011, they discovered a blood clot on his lung. He was on Warfarin for 6 months. Yes, he had to avoid the leafy greens, but I never heard about the mayo. Not a big deal for him, I suppose, since he tends to prefer mustard. Still..

    I'm so glad you knew the warning signs. Sounds like God had your false alarm for a reason. One of those things that, in retrospect, makes you go, "Thank You, Lord, for paving the way."

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    1. Thanks for sharing your own story, Mindy, and glad Richard didn't have mayo withdrawal. We were talking tonight about those things that make you sit up and take notice. God was definitely in these details.

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  11. Julie, thank you SO MUCH for the update on ManO. My thoughts have been with you since you posted about it at Seekerville. My DH had a heart attack a bit more than a year ago. I drove him to the hospital ... I had a vague idea what was happening but was also trying to convince myself I was over-reacting. Wrong. One thing about it ... Life can throw you some curves that make you reevaluate.

    Thanks for the info about soybean oil. I had no idea!

    Delighted that ManO is doing well!

    Nancy C

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    1. Thanks, Nancy. It is amazing how we convince ourselves things aren't as bad as they really are, just to keep a grip. Hope your DH is doing okay.

      Yep, those curves are always in our future! Thank goodness God gives us the strength to handle them.

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  12. So glad that your ManO is doing well!

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  13. Oh my stars, I'm so happy to see him looking wonderful.... and to know he's home.... and that you've turned off the SNOW MACHINE.

    Wait.

    That wasn't YOU???????

    :)

    The hurdles we face as we get older can be scary. Thank you for sharing the sensibilities of this, what to watch for, and the FAST acronym.

    And God bless you both.

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  14. What a scary time for both of you! I'm glad he's recovering well. Best wishes to him!

    My DH had an unexpected emergency triple bypass a number of years ago, and we overhauled our diet to minimize nasty fats after that. Fortunately there are lots of alternatives, so we haven't suffered. He's on Lipidor, and not allowed to have grapefruit, which he loves. Earlier this year he had further cardiac work and is now also on a blood thinner, but hasn't been told to limit anything, although I tend to not have cranberry juice in the house anymore.

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