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At this time Marti & I are waiting to speak with a neurosurgeon at Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN.
Our adventure started March 9th about 3:00pm. ( I had texted Marti about 12:30pm and she seemed fine.) Her left arm was feeling like it fell asleep, she took an aspirin. Forrest found her on the floor and Sunny came to help. She tried to tell Forrest & Sunny to call an ambulance. She seemed unaware of her surroundings and acted like she was dizzy. She was trying to spin around. She was bumping into things. Sunny held her to try to keep her from hurting herself. Forrest called 911.
The ambulance arrived and took Marti & Forrest to St Joseph's ER in Park Rapids.
Sunny was told to get her medications and catch up to the ambulance at the hospital.
Sunny called me about 3:30pm. He and I arrived at the hospital about the same time.
About the time I arrived she had gotten a CT scan of her brain. It indicated something was wrong on the right side of her brain. It seemed like they were thinking a stroke. At this time she still appeared to be dealing with the symptoms. She was unable to talk and was unaware of her surroundings.
The helicopter flight crew took her to Essentia ER in Fargo ND.
Forrest and I arrived while Marti was being given an MRI. Sunny joined us shortly.
When she came back from the MRI, see was talking, knew where she was and was able to name 5 presidents. There was no weakness on either side. The neurologist thought she had a stroke a few weeks prior.
Her O2 was low, way low, her blood pressure was also low. She was going to be admitted to CCU as soon as a bed became available.
The ER staff was administering O2. They had added water to make it a little more comfortable. Her O2 continued to fall. They started to put larger masks over her mouth and nose. She began to panic. She felt she couldn't breathe. The ER personnel started to use their hands to hold the mask on as Marti tried to take it off.
Between the ER on the first floor and CCU on the fourth floor the panic had grown so much there were 6 people holding her down and she needed to be intubated.
Over the next week many tests were done. They determined her heart was weak, she needed a brain biopsy. In order to help the heart get stronger she needed blood thinners. She couldn't be on blood thinners for the brain biopsy.
They took her off the ventilator and unrestrained her arms about a week after she arrived.
Long story really short. She was discharged March 22nd. They sent her home with a loop recorder implanted under her skin on her left shoulder, an external defibrillator, heart meds and lots of future followup appointments. We arrived home about 8pm. Marti said her leg was starting to hurt. We were back at the ER in Park Rapids by 10:30pm. The ultrasound of her leg showed a very large & serious blood clot in her leg. They put her on blood thinners even though her brain might bleed, put her in an ambulance and checked her into the neurology wing of Sanford Hospital in Fargo.
Now the Sanford Drs. said she definitely has a tumor in her brain. Her heart is fine. The blood thinners were discontinued. The risk of a bleed in the brain was too great. They removed the blood clot from her left leg. They implanted a filter to protect the lungs. I asked the Dr who removed the clot how long would it be before a new clot occurred. His response was a day or two. He was correct . The very next day it was back.
Sanford Drs reached out to Mayo in Rochester. Mayo Drs said to resume treatment with the blood thinners. Blood thinners are the only way to get rid of blood clots. So they sent us home on the 29th with blood thinners, no heart meds, To return in 3 weeks to deal with the brain biopsy.
On the 30th Mayo Clinic called. They could see us in the afternoon on Fri the 31st. We were home this time for about 24 hours. At Mayo, the neurologist showed us the MRIs. She explained that it was not a stroke. The neurosurgeon said if it is a tumor it is not presenting in the usual way. He said it could be something else but no way to know until the biopsy.
We came home Sat. Mayo started calling Monday morning. They said all tests are scheduled for Thur the 6th. If the medical tests are ok surgery is planned for Fri the 7th.
Lots of paperwork to get together and little tie to get them done.
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