Rowan · Shadowwolf

It's been almost two years since I entered anything here. Sorry.

I started seeing a therapist about 2 years ago because of an eating disorder (bingeing). She diagnosed me as having ADD, and I started taking meds.

In about November or December of this year, my therapist told me that she wanted me to see a neurological psychologist because I have not responded to her treatment or to any of the combinations or dosage changes of my ADD meds (i.e. I still eat like it's my last day on earth. Hey--someday it will be, okay?)

The new doctor, Dahmer-White (easier than spelling "neurological psychologist" over and over) saw me in late January for a six-hour day of testing. There are no machines that can give an accurate picture of any brain damage and how it affects you, but how I perform on the tests can give her a very good idea of what, if anything, is wrong with my brain. She also got a copy of a MRI done April 2, 2004 (the day afer I had my stroke). By the way, I had a stroke 7 days after Amanda was born. According to my neurologist at the time, most of the young women who have a stroke have recently given birth.

There has been some damage from the Arnold-Chiari malformation that I was born with, but most of my memory and self-control issues have gooten worse in recent years.

I scored in the 95th percentile on the tests that analyzed the left side of my brain (yay me!). I scored in the 45th percentile on the tests that analyzed the right side of my brain. The MRI showed her that the stroke occured on the right mid parietal-temporal lobe. It was a small stroke, and she said that I was lucky that it wasn't bigger because I could have ended up with some serious visual-spatial processing problems. Of course, if I had, we would have known that something was wrong and I would have gotten some rehab.

She was surprised and a little upset that I had not been sent to the stroke rehab center at St. Peter's hospital (which was also the hospital where I had been sent the night I had the stroke). I didn't know what to look for, and I wrote off my problems as exhaustion from taking care of a newborn and a four year old. Who wouldn';t be a little scatter-brained?  After that, I was able to compensate for the most part (remember that 95th percentile score I got on the left side?)

But I still have feelings of being a failure (can't remember much sometimes, can't control my impulses, can't finish anything I start, overwhelmed easily--you know, indications of right-brain damage.) Sometimes I feel very small. 

Fortunately, even though it has been almost eight years, stroke rehab may still be able to stimulate the right side to work more (through the wonders of neural plasticity--look it up, it's fascinating).
 
So Dr. Dahmer-White suggested that I stop taking the ADD medication (in steps, which I am doing) and start taking a mood stabilizer, which I am also doing, in steps.  At some point, when all of the paperwork involving the tests is finished, she will make a referral to the Stroke Rehab Center, and we will see what can be done.

Maybe there is still hope for me.

I have now gone through 3 weeks with plugged ears. On Tuesday, instead of going to an urgent care center, i went to a real doctor (mr GP, Dr. Luteyn). She said that I was still sick (running a high temperature--not quite a fever, 99 point something). She said that the doctor who prescribed the amoxicillan ="didn't do (me) any favors". The dosage was way too small. She wrote me a new prescription that brought out the big guns (she asked if I liked to eat yogurt. I do now). She also prescribed a sinus med that should help with the tubes in my ears. I am still plugged up, but it's only been a day.

Mom went into the hospital last week for a dialysis surgery. She was not affected by the anesthesia this time, but was very week and depressed. She cannot even feed herself. The doctors decided that she would be released on Monday to go into a nursing home for physical therapy. However, on Monday, she began hallucinating. I talked with her this morning. She was better, and said that the problem was a lack of salt in her body. They were going to start a saltwater IV. Dad just called and said that the person I spoke with this morning was gone. The nurses couldn't get an IV started and Mom is now incoherent again. Dad believes in the power of prayer, and asks that everyone out there-of any religious persuasion-please pray for her.

Last week, while waiting to get new prescription for ADD meds, I got bored (that's the ADD part) and started to organize my wallet. I discovered that my driver's license did not expire on my birthday in 2011, but on my birthday in 2010. Whoops. The WA DOL website wouldn't let me renew it on-line because it had expired over 60 days ago. I was instructed to go into the Lacey office. chordam7 drove me there and we settled in for a long wait because the website said that the average wait time was 40 minutes. I took the visual test, forked over $35, posed for my picture, and received a paper copy within 15 minutes walking in the building.

On the way home, CHord noticed that his car was handling weird and discovered one of his tires was low on air. He pulled into a gas station and filled it but there was something wrong with the stem, and air came rushing back out. There was a tire store across the street (really!), so we went there. The tire was hissing like Hugin at flea dipping time.

The man there did some work that involved kicking the tire and hitting it with a hammer (among other things). Whatever he did, he fixed it. CHord asked him what the charge was, and the man said $5. So, if you ever need tire work done--this seems a good place to go:
Rodriguez Tire Shop ‎

1302 College Street Southeast
Lacey, WA 98503-2333
(360) 491-4107

Robin

Dad just called. Before he and Chris left for the hospital, the doctor called and said that Mom was doing much better and could go home. When Dad and Chris got to her room, she was incoherent and kicking her sheets off. The doctor was paged and came quickly. He doesn't know what is wrong, because her blood tests show that the anesthesia is out of her system.

She is being moved from the sixth floor (with a high patient to nurse ratio) to the second floor, where she will have more intense nursing attention. They will probably put the dialysis line by her heart tomorrow at the hospital rather than doing the surgery in Lakewood on Monday as planned. They will do one, maybe two dialysis treatments in Madigan. The doctor and Dad are concerned about this change.

Dad will keep me updated, and I will do the same for you.

I got a call from Dad last evening. I was cooking dinner, and I remember it very clearly. I was sliding a tray of Parmesan chicken into the oven when I thought I heard him say, "Your mother had a fatal dialysis session today." That scared me--I don't know what a fatal dialysis session is, but I know the word fatal. He repeated himself, "a failed dialysis session". Well, that better--not good, but better. There was a problem with the fistula and her circulation, so they performed some surgery on her to try and correct it. That didn't work either. So on Monday, the doctors are going to put a tube into her chest for all future dialysis.

Dad said that she was home, but that she wasn't making a lot of sense. He believes that it was "twilight sleep" (an effect of the anesthesia they used for the surgery). He said that he would keep me up to date.

I got a call from Chris later that night. He and Dad were following a vehicle carrying Mom to Madigan Hospital. He said that he thought she was doing better because sometimes she would give a lucid response to a question, but she also was still lapsing into another state. It had been nine hours since the surgery, so they were taking her to the hospital for an evaluation of her mental state. I pointed out that if her kidneys are working properly, they can't get the anesthesia out of her blood. He agreed and said that it was up to her liver (and that has been affected by the diabetes too).

Dad called this morning and said that Mom spent the night in the hospital. He was going to have some breakfast and then he and Chris are going back to the hospital. He will call me back later, and hopefully let me talk to Mom when she gets home.

I will let you all know too.

A local radio station played "Vanz kant danz" yesterday and it has been very popular with my kids since then. I first saw the video in the 1980s when my brother showed it to me (God knows where he found it). I tried to find it on Youtube. They have the video, but instead of John Fogerty singing the song, they had some classical piano music. The consensus is that Saul Zaentz had it removed. I was able to find the original video on MySpace. http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=4387459

I also found a site with some facts about the song:

The closing track on Centerfield, this was originally titled "Zanz Kant Danz" to refer to Saul Zaentz, Fogerty's former boss at Fantasy Records, who famously tried to sue Fogerty for plagiarizing himself (specifically his Creedence Clearwater Revival material, to which Zaentz held the rights) in the song "The Old Man Down The Road" from the same album. The song is about an unnamed street dancer and his sidekick, a pig trained to pick people's pockets as they watch the dancer do his stuff. The pig, originally named Zanz as a dig at Saul Zaentz, "Can't dance, but he'll steal your money - watch him or he'll rob you blind." When Zaentz threatened Fogerty with yet another lawsuit, Fogerty changed the pig's name to Vanz.

The video for this was the first ever filmed entirely in "Claymation." It was produced at Will Vinton Studio, named for the inventor of the clay animation technique. Unfortunately, unlike other groundbreaking music videos such as a-ha's "Take On Me" and Dire Straits' "Money For Nothing," this one failed to garner much public notice.

Another song from the Centerfield album, "Mr. Greed," is also thought to be a musical salvo by Fogerty in his long-running feud with Zaentz, which lasted until 2004 when Fantasy Records was bought out by Concord Records, who restored Fogerty's rights to his CCR material. (thanks, Joshua - Twin Cities, MN. for all above)

About a half hour Alexander walked in the house (his last day of school was a half day). He had the most horrible look on his face. My mommy instincts took over as I went over to hug him, "What happened? What's wrong?" (who do I have to kill?)

He is tall enough that I can pull his head onto the top of my shoulder and he cried on it. "What is it?"

"School's over!"

Oh. I had no idea he liked school that much. I know that he was in Orchestra and Chorus, so I assumed he had friends, but he never talks about it. I asked him what he will miss the most, and he said "The teachers, I guess."

I know that he enjoys learning, but he seems to hate it when I try to teach him something.

He seems to feeling a little better now.