Posted 11/7/22
Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. -Proverbs 4:23
Howdy folks. 🙂 Another day in paradise. 🙂 Hoping and praying your week is going smoothly. Got my vote done this morning early and hopped on really quick-like to give a needed update: Mom seems to be having some TIAs lately. If you are unfamiliar, this is what it is according to the Mayo Clinic:
“A transient ischemic attack (TIA) is a temporary period of symptoms similar to those of a stroke. A TIA usually lasts only a few minutes and doesn’t cause permanent damage. Often called a ministroke, a TIA may be a warning. About 1 in 3 people who has a TIA will eventually have a stroke, with about half occurring within a year after the TIA. A TIA can serve as both a warning of a future stroke and an opportunity to prevent it.”
We are not 100% sure this is her diagnosis. She is at the point that they don’t spend a lot of time diagnosing things. Basically she just “glitches” for lack of a better term. She goes unresponsive and/or won’t wakey wakey. 🙁 They SEEM to happen mostly in the morning although a couple of days ago she fell asleep at lunch and couldn’t be jostled awake. My stepdad finally got the reboot to take and she woke up with a normal BP and blood oxygen. She breaths heavy, but not erratically. We kind of assume it is a TIA because she has Vascular Dementia to go hand-in-hand with her Alzheimer’s (called Mixed Dementia). She struggles with blood flow in her brain.
So, what do we do? Nothing. She has strict last directives and doesn’t want heroic measures, just pain management. They could put her on blood thinners (which actually don’t thin the blood, they really just make the blood less clotty), but even that isn’t super useful where she is. She, at the last time I saw her record, gets a half aspirin like many folks do, so that serves the purpose as best it can do with the compromised brain she has. So what do we do? Not much…just love on her before, during and after a glitch and try hard to find a cure for this stinking disease.
🙁
Just a bonus tip…. The warning signs of a stroke…a big one, if you will…are easy to remember (From the primary advocacy website):
F.A.S.T. Warning Signs
Use the letters in F.A.S.T to spot a Stroke
- F = Face Drooping – Does one side of the face droop or is it numb? Ask the person to smile. Is the person’s smile uneven?
- A = Arm Weakness – Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
- S = Speech Difficulty – Is speech slurred?
- T = Time to call 911
I was fortunate to be able to speak on TV again locally this weekend. Here is the interview 🙂 Thank you to KY3 and Liam Garrity!
Have a great week. I hope to have time for more posting soon. My life is toooooo busy right now. 🙁 I need a vacay badly, but a cure would be infinitely cooler…
#EndALZ
Another brain MRI from my October 20th clinical study. This one is pretty trippy. 🙂 Now you also see why I don’t shave my head completely. 😉
Here are some more good readings on the topic:
