Dana's Stroke & Recovery

For those coming to this link from FB- sorry, for some reason FB wouldn't let me post this as a note as usual. So after trying a couple of times I decided to do it this way to update you on Dana while I had a minute.

It has been confirmed by medical records that Dana suffered a neurological stroke after his heart surgery. The next morning after being taken off of the respirator (after being on it for over 12 hrs) the nurse asked us and we noticed that the left side of Dana’s face was drooping and I wondered to myself if Dana had suffered a stroke, but he soon started moving his hands and feet and we were more concerned with his breathing and his left lung. A month ago when we went back to the surgeon I asked him about things that were bothering me such as Dana would ask me the same question over and over, couldn’t remember simple things like what he ate for breakfast a couple of hours later, etc. asking if this was normal after this type of heart surgery. The surgeon said “no”. It made me wonder if that was why Dana has had so much trouble with his left lung. Dana has problems with reasoning and thinking things through. If I don’t watch him carefully, Dana will give himself a shot of insulin even though his sugar is in the low 40’s or like a couple of weeks ago Dana said that when he walked down our dead end road by himself (something I thought perfectly safe) that he stopped in at the one neighbor’s place that had a weight bench set and lifted 160 pounds of weight just to see if he could do it- when he was only to lift no more than 5 pounds. Talk about freaking me out and causing a major panic attack! So I have to constantly be on guard with Dana every minute that he is awake (like when my kids were toddlers) and keep patiently explaining the same things over and over to him.

With Dana’s sugar constantly swinging- even though I am keeping him on a strict diet- and driving back and forth for over an hour to his cardio rehab twice a week, I have become stressed out and physically exhausted until I have begun having physical problems again myself . I struggle try to keep up with paying all the bills, taking care of the chickens (Dana’s hobby) and our dogs, do basic housework, and wash. Each day after taking Dana to his rehab I am down the next day not able to do anything, which limits the number of days that I can do all my work. It has also taken an emotional toll realizing that the husband I knew before surgery, who was always the take charge guy is not the same one now- instead our roles have switched and I have become the mother to Dana. At this point all the doctors say is that we must just wait and see. I’m not complaining as I am so grateful to have Dana- happy that he is able to get up and walk around and use his hands. I just ask for continued prayers in this long recovery process.

This has also been very frustrating for Dana as he hardly ever was sick and always such a strong person physically to now be so weak- most days he still takes a couple of naps a day saying that he feels like a ninety-year-old man- instead of bouncing back quickly- and some days he cannot concentrate enough to read. Instead of always being on the go, Dana now is housebound much of the time- heat and humidity still cause him to have trouble breathing- and on good days gets depressed because he can’t do more. Meanwhile I try to focus on the positive, every chance I get I putter around outside in my flower beds during one of Dana’s naps to help reduce stress, and take each day as it comes. I’m sorry I’m not able to keep you all updated more with so much going on right now. Thanks so much though for all your prayers and support!

dorcas