WHAT WE LEARNED

Basically, what it boils down to, is that we just missed out on Christmas and spent five days and a bazillion dollars in the hospital for...well, for nothing.  John received no treatments of any kind while he was there, no therapy, and no medications other than the ones he was already taking, and, after undergoing a half-dozen outrageously expensive tests (CAT, MRI, EKG, TEE, Carotid Artery Sonograms, etc.), the only thing they came up with was "He had a stroke."  Well, I hate to tell you this guys, but we knew that much before we ever walked through your doors!

I suppose it's good to know that his carotids showed no signs of plaque build-up, and they saw no abnormalities in his heart that could have caused the stroke, and that he recovered so well that he has no restrictions on his activities.  Still, if they can't tell me exactly what caused this one, how on earth do we keep him from having another one?  One that might not be nearly so kind?

There is one good thing that came out of this though.  I think John is a lot more afraid of ending up like his dad than he is of keeling over from a heart attack, so even though by-pass surgery wasn't enough to make him change his ways for long, maybe this will be.  If not, it appears that I now have two strong compadres who have stepped up to the plate, to relieve me of some of my nagging duties.  When we got home from the hospital, we discovered that the kids had taken it upon themselves to rearrange the furniture down in the Man Cave. His leather recliner has been relegated to the corner, and his exercise bike has taken its place in front of the TV, but that wasn't all.  Lex bought a program and installed it on his computer, which will cause the screen to go black whenever he's been sitting there for more than an hour, and Austin gifted us with two of his favorite "Clean Eating" cookbooks!  While my hubby would have been majorly pissed had I taken it upon myself to do any of this, he thinks it's kinda funny and sweet that they cared enough to go to all this trouble.  I shoulda put them in charge of nagging years ago!

Now, this is not to say I wouldn't rush right back to the hospital if he showed any signs that he was having another one.  In fact, this time I wouldn't wait around for his cardiologist to call us back, and I wouldn't bother driving him all the way to Austin myself.  I'd dial 911 right off the bat and have an ambulance get him there as fast as they possibly could, for you see, the one thing we did learn was that, when it comes to strokes, time is of the essence.  There is a special medication that they can administer, to help minimize the damage, but only if they get to you within three hours of the incident.  After that it's too late.  So let me pass on to you what at least 4 or 5 people in the ER tried to press home with me:  When it comes to any kind of one-side-weakness, slurred speech, or any other symptoms that might lead you to suspect a stroke, you are NEVER over-reacting if you call 911!