Category: Strength

Clean-up in Aisle Four

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Dave drove me down to the local gas station again for some groceries. We had two things on our short list: bread
and cookies. So, I thought I could handle that.

Since we don’t do our normal grocery shopping there, but it’s closest to our house, it’s the best place to attempt to desensitize myself to stores again. My first trip last Friday, wasn’t good. I felt pretty awful by the time we got up to the counter and we only got ONE thing! I wasn’t looking forward to going again, but know I HAVE to if I’m ever going to be able to live a normal life again…because I seriously doubt Dave is going to want to do grocery shopping the rest of our lives! LOL

It wasn’t too bad. Mostly because I think we went earlier in the day and I hadn’t done a lot at the house prior to our visit. I got our two items and wandered a little bit until my eyes started to feel icky and my head started to pain. I always have Dave stick close by me in case I get sick to my stomach or want to pass out. I didn’t, so that’s good!

I felt pretty lousy when I got home though and had to lay down for some time and rest my eyes. I had the shakes and of course right after we got home, the home nurse called to see if she could come by in 15 minutes! Sure…why not! Bring it all on! LOL

It wasn’t  bad though. I felt okay the rest of the day, but then not last evening and had to take some more pills to help me sleep….it didn’t help, but I eventually got to sleep.

Today, I’m wicked tired. No explanation other than not sleeping well, but I cannot keep my eyes open. I’ve been reading, from the message board, that tiredness can drag on for a long, long time. So, I should pretty much expect that to just hit me at times. I guess this was one of those times. So…I slept.

I did it!

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Okay…so it’s not rocket science and didn’t require a tremendous amount of physical exertion, but I made my trip to
the gas station/grocery store. Dave drove and stuck with me in case I started to feel ill and needed to run out. We went in for two things: orange juice and ice cream.

I zeroed in on the ice cream, Dave picked it out, then I walked down to the orange juice. Luckily I kind of had an idea of where they were, so that wasn’t too difficult, but I did start to feel icky. Sick to stomach, eyes funny and headache right smack dab in the middle of my head. I still don’t feel that great, but I did it and was able to go into a store.

We might go back in tomorrow for a short visit again until I can feel better for a longer period of time. Dave may get all of his stocking stuffers this year from the gas station/grocery store! LOL

I know going into a gas station/grocery store isn’t a big deal, but it was to me. Not sure I’m crazy about how I feel at the moment, but I need to continue to get over this issue with stores. I’m depressed it didn’t go better though and disappointed that the short amount of time I was in the store still affected me that way.

Thankful

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For the obvious reasons, I’m extremely thankful at this year’s Thanksgiving.

I’m thankful for:

✤ Surviving my ruptured brain aneurysm.

✤ That God guides the hands of my neuroradiologist during
surgery.


✤ My employer and co-workers for showing their support.


✤ My family’s love and constant support.


✤ Dave, for being by my side every day  of my 20-day hospital stay, as well as putting up with me at home 24/7!


How about you?

Some Ideas

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Yesterday was a rough day. I did far too much the last two days with the trip down for the MRI/MRA and then two visits and the store on Wednesday. I felt horrible Wednesday night and almost all of yesterday with bad headaches, VERY tired and some other lingering effects that I was told the Vicadin may be causing.

My nurse visited yesterday and she may have shed some light on a couple of things. Apparently some of the symptoms I have displayed the last couple of days with the double vision, confused vision, headaches and nausea, may simply be caused by 20 days in the hospital and two weeks as home!

She said it’s quite common for folks who haven’t had a lot of stimulation outside the hospital or home to experience exactly what I did. Even the hair loss. Obviuosly, I’m not washing my hair on a daily basis just yet because it really poops me out, so there will be an accumulative effect on the days I DO wash my hair. Makes far more sense.

I will still ask my Dr. on Tuesday about all of these things and hopefully he can tell me what I should and shouldn’t expect and what is and isn’t related to the surgery, so I won’t freak
out…which I am KIND OF doing until I know better.

I feel better today and hope to get out for some fresh air later as Dave said he’ll let me boss him around in the garden to button it up the for winter. I hope we’re still speaking to one another when we get back in house! LOL

Also, the occupational therapist came yesterday and she gave me some other good advice for everyday-living type of things for therapy.

A lot of people, including all the folks from Health Reach and on the message board, say that with this kind of situation, depression is not uncommon. Great! Just what I need for the
holidays! Hopefully, with the help of my fantastic psychologist, I can avoid that trap.