This summer, I started the blog. I set it up so each new trip report would automatically post to it. Since then I’ve gone back and posted all the old trip reports, starting with 2004. We were still living in the house in Louisville at the start of that year and ended it full-timing in the diesel Bounder. The trip reports are all in one place now. They’re even indexed and searchable if that would ever make any difference. http://steveandjudystravelblog.blogspot.com/ I wrote trip reports before 2004 too. Not every day, but I wrote reports each time we were on trips. Not easy to find stuff that old; I’ve been through several computers in that time, but I’ve found some of those old reports, so I’ll add those too, as I can. What does this have to do with a mercy rule? Having everything on a website changes the dynamics of my trip reports. If anyone wants more control over whether and when they get the reports, they can opt out of the direct emails and get them from the blog instead. Anybody wants off the email list; let me know.
Neurologist
Finished up with the neurologist today. They went looking for brainwaves with the EEG on Tuesday morning at the hospital. It took an hour. We had to get all the electrodes attached to my head. The technician demanded that next time I come back I should come back without all this hair. Guess I made her life difficult. She also told me how she found me. She came out of the hospital elevator at 4 o’clock in the morning. Judy and I were sitting in chairs outside the elevator bank because my room was uninhabitable (think sick people). We said Hi. She said Hi, and walked on by, pushing her machine. A few minutes later she came back.“Mr Taylor?”“Yes.”“I went to your room. You weren’t there. I asked at the nurse’s station and they said you were out for a walk. I asked them “You mean that old white guy that looks like Santa Clause?” and they said “yeah”. She was my EEG technician.This was a more extensive EEG than I’ve had before. Just as I was settling in to fall asleep, she made me hyperventilate. I had to do hyperventilate breathing for three minutes without stopping. I did. Hell of a buzz. Once I got comfortable again, she told me to open my eyes and look at the ceiling. Thus began the strobe-light-torture phase. I think she was trying to break me, but I didn’t crack. I never revealed a thing. After that she let me fall asleep, then woke me up to point out on the screen when I started to doze and when I fell asleep. That was it, except for part where she had to rip off all the electrodes she had stuck onto my head.Got the results back at our visit with the neurologist today at his office. Nothing. No trace left behind. They went looking for brainwaves and actually found some, but no other junk, so the news couldn’t have been better.The conclusion? TGA, Transient Global Amnesia. It wasn’t a stroke. It wasn’t a seizure. It isn’t Alzheimer’s. It was most likely TGA. Probably a tiny bit of plaque broke off into the bloodstream and blocked flow to my brain momentarily. Whatever, he said once it happens, it rarely happens again. I’m done. No further examinations or treatments. No reason to expect a recurrence.It’s all good.
Rocky
Remember Mom’s cat Rocky? It was so important to Mom to get the cat to a good home. Rocky is still alive and well at Becky’s house. She’s eighteen now. Becky’s house ended up being a good spot for her.
Well.
That was a great night’s sleep. Eleven hours uninterrupted. A little catching up to do. It’s good to be home. Home is more than just the motorhome. Home is the community we live in. We’re surrounded by friends. We didn’t ask for any help on Monday. We never got the chance. The coach was taken care of while we were gone. The Trikke got wheeled off to Pete and Kit’s. Annie went to Leon and Sharon’s for a sleepover. More offers of help than we could accommodate. Thanks all. It’s good to be home.
Well..
That certainly sucked. Monday morning I was working with a client in Colorado; talking to them on the phone; talking to Janis in Yuma on the phone. Then, somewhere around eleven o’clock, I realized I wasn’t doing anything and I had no idea for how long I hadn’t been doing anything. I was confused. There were thoughts and partial thoughts flying everywhere in my head, but I couldn’t pull any of them together. I knew who I was and where I was, but couldn’t seem to assemble anything beyond that. I proceeded logically. It might be a stroke, so I looked in the mirror and was encouraged to see my pupils were evenly dilated. That was good. I ate an aspirin. It might be blood sugar. I ate some food. No change. Maybe I should look at the job I was doing on the computer. Couldn’t make sense of it. Maybe some exercise would help shake me out of it. I rode the Trikke around the big pond. Didn’t help, but riding the Trikke takes some coordination and balance. I was symmetrical. Maybe it’s not a stroke. I called Judy. Judy came home from shopping. EMS arrived. All the neighbors came over. I remained confused but stable. Judy drove me to the hospital. I got admitted. The hospital ran every test I can name. Chest X-ray. CAT Scan. MRI. EKG. Carotid ultrasound. Echocardiogram. EEG. Blood vials drawn day and night. All the tests came back negative except the EEG. It hasn’t come back yet. That was a really crummy place to be. All that noise and activity in my head; knowing very little of it had to do with what was actually going on around me. The fog in my head started to lift about dinnertime. By about midnight I was feeling real clarity again. We don’t know what happened. There are technical terms like Transient Ischemia Attack (TIA), and Transient Global Amnesia (TGA) being bandied about, but so far, no trace of anything left behind for diagnostic purposes. No trace left behind is a good thing though. I’d much rather they look inside my head and find nothing, than they look inside my head and find a flaming skid-mark across my brain or something. Whatever it was, it was transient. We don’t know where it came from, what it was, or where it went, but at least for now, it’s gone. The hospital is no place to recuperate. They have too many sick people there. Judy and I walked the halls, sat in chairs in the reception area, and visited all night. By mid-day today we had helped the doctor’s decide that since none of the tests had come back positive so far, we should probably just check out of the hospital, go home, and get some rest. They’ll call us if they find anything. In the meantime, except for being lack-of-sleep goofy, we’re doing well. Judy was awesome, as always, and shepherded me through the process. Now, I feel fully alert again. And, like I’ve said before: It’s good to be here.