2 weeks

"It's been 2 weeks since my artery dissection and stroke. I've been back to the ER 1 time this past week for left sided head pain. It ended up just being a migraine, but with my "colorful history" anything weird or painful in my head gets an emergency visit. The pain medicine I have does a pretty good job of taking most of my headaches away. 
I'm now up to 11 medicines! Good thing I have some wonderful friends and family who help me keep them all organized.
I get very tired super easily. My neck is getting stronger and less sore everyday so I haven't been using my neck brace. My balance has already improved some but I still struggle with coordination with my right hand. My speech is 95% normal. I forget or struggle to get words out occasionally, but I hide it pretty well. I can only do one thing at a time right now and forget things more easily and get overwhelmed quickly. My right pinky and ring finger are still 'along for the ride' but I'm working on getting them to pull more weight. It's amazing at how I can type with only 8 strong fingers and 2 very weak ones!
Going from being independent to being dependent on others for almost everything has been a hard transition for all of us. Everyday we're getting better at it.
We have so many wonderfully amazing friends who are helping us out. Our family is grateful beyond words for all the help and yummy meals we've received the last 2 weeks. Johann has been able to work almost completely normal tax season hours because of so many people giving up time with their families to be with the kids and I.
Everyday I feel my self getting stronger, but it's going to be a long road until I reach my 'new' normal.
THANK YOU for all your prayers, good thoughts, yummy meals, organizing our life, driving the kids around, driving me to appointments, spending time with us, keeping our house clean, keeping us in clean clothes and our life moving forward and all the other many, many, many things I know people have done for our family. We are doing as well as we are because of all the wonderful people in our lives!!"
Facebook Post February 20th, 2014 5:01 pm