My mom was amazing with Nicole when she got home. Between the two of us Nicole was engaged every waking second, which, at that time amounted to about 8 hours a day. Dr. Minuk had told us that she would always need more sleep than normal after the stroke. Nicole had lost a lot of weight, she was frail for the first time since I knew her. Cards, board games, puzzles toddler level for a very short time, she wanted more and more all the time.
We went to the Julius Richardson early in January. I loved the place right away. Nicole was going to have some physical therapy to try to alleviate some mild motor damage on her right side, occupational therapy and speech therapy. Three sessions a day for four months. I think we found out just how many lawn bowling friends we had then. Transport was not going to be a big issue for those months. Whenever Nicole was not in therapy she would be with me, working more. She loved the work.
You could see progress every day, if you looked, hard.
She was joyous about therapy. She ate it up.
Right about the end of the month Dr. Minuk called me and asked me to bring Nicole to see him the next day. He would say nothing else.
Into a gown for Nicole, one minute examining her legs. "Has she always had these light blue veins on her legs?" "Has she ever had children, been pregnant?" No to both. He tells us that he thinks he might know what happened to her. He remembers a seminar he attended, something jogs his memory. Dr. Minuk picks up a phone and calls a hematologist he knows Dr. Sollymoss, also at the MGH. We go for a blood test and a visit with Dr. Sollymoss. Next day we knew who the enemy was, antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, a fairly rare disorder to have at her age. Coumadin was the cure. Thin blood, no strokes. She adapted to the coumadin perfectly and has had no issues almost 15 years in. We were scared for a while about the issues associated with coumadin. It proved to be a lifesaver. No more strokes. Without the coumadin it would have been one stroke after another. I got really lucky, indeed.
When Nicole started her therapy in January we set goals, goals they told us she could not achieve. She wanted to be independant, able to travel around using public transport. That seemed a long way away. She wanted to overcome her aphasia and master the brain to tongue connection that confounded her so. She wanted to some day coach lawn bowls again.
The Richardson stretched out her therapy until the end of June. They arranged for more occupational therapy for her at the Catherine Booth Hospital. That would last another year. She eventually passed her tests with therapists following her around the city for days and days watching her to see if she was going to be safe, if she could deal with what she would face out there. She was elated to know she was officially retired. She really liked that part. On her last day at the Julius Richardson I attended a presentation that she gave to her therapists about lawn bowls. Oh, my, how happy that was! She was a bit busted up, a little rough around the edges, but the center and the joy of my life was back.
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