[walks, no recent runs]
So they set me up in the ICU in a special unit for brain injuries and strokes. That was going pretty smoothly until I started getting some serious body aches in my upper torso. I could hardly move. I figured out I could move if I did it very slowly. (I learned later this is one of the side effects of statin drugs which are part of the post-stroke regime.)
I wasn’t very interested in eating. I didn’t have my glasses and my hearing aid had run out of battery. So mostly I just took naps and watched the people coming and going from the room. Sometimes I would watch things out the window.
My wife tells me that my verbal mumblings sorted themselves out in a rapid shift along the way. I assume this was concurrent with the “clot-buster” treatment I received.
That takes us through Wednesday and mostly through Thursday when they decided I was out of danger so I was moved to a regular ward. (I don’t completely remember, but I think in that transfer I was moved with a wheelchair and not riding a bed through the halls.)
I was awake in the early hours of Friday and walked a lap of the unit. The nurses hanging around didn’t see to be upset that I was out and about. But by the time I finished that single lap I was happy to get back to bed.
Later I Friday I did some more laps.
Eventually the decided we were in good enough shape to go home. After the exit information they produced a wheelchair again and I was delivered to the car at curbside.
We drove home and I helped carry all of our luggage into the house.(Back to being a useful member of the community!)
Speaking of wheelchairs, a year or two ago I remember helping push people around in wheelchairs, the older suspended-seat kind, and they were all the extra-wide version. The wheelchairs in this latest venture were much more like a slightly more comfortable version of an tubular metal wheeler you’ll see at an airport: much more upright, taller, slimmer profile.
Since returning home I’ve been doing OK. I am getting more strength. Also my muscles aches aren’t not as pronounced. I still am stiff and have some pains, particularly if I have a sudden sneeze or something (shudder!). I may try to see if a different statin formulation might work better for me.
I still have some hesitation in speaking.
Also I have had some strange dreams recently.
And I think my hearing has gotten noticably worse. My tinittus, ringing, has gotten stronger had some addition elements. Basically I hear something like motor noises all of the time, like a refrigerator running, or a fan motor running. It used to be more like a cicada noise.