He's home!!!

Well, it's been a harrowing weekend for our family! On friday morning, Kris woke up with a mild headache. A bit unusual as he only gets headaches once a year or so, but he took some Ibuprofen and got in the shower. Suddenly, he got a massive headache that went up his neck and into the back of his head. He got out and laid down on the bed. He couldn't even hold still, he was in so much pain! He threw up 4 times in 45 minutes. Having migraines myself, I began to ask the typical questions but found that he had no sensitivity to light, sound or smell, nor was the pain on one side of the head. He was speaking quite slow and sounded like he had a thick tongue. I called my mom and my mother-in-law (thank you both so much for talking me through it and helping me!) who both agreed we should get him to the hospital. Then, 45 minutes after it had begun, it was over just as suddenly. Good...but bad. I called Kris' doctor to see what I should do and they told us to get into the ER. So we did. At first, there wasn't too much concern and we were told that the chances of someone under the age of 30 in good health (as, until 4 weeks ago, Kris is) having a stroke is only 2-3%. Regardless, they began running tests. The CT was normal, no bleeding! Yeah! Lumbar Puncture (spinal tap): some blood evident in fluid, though results deemed inconclusive since they had to do it twice when the first one was in the wrong spot, possibly nicking a small vein in his spine. Then they did a CT-A, a CAT scan with dye injected into the veins. Low and behold: a blood clot in the transverse sinus vein at the base of his head. We then spent another hour and a half waiting to see if they were going to do surgery or not. In the end they decided not to (yeah!), but he was admitted to the Neuro Acute Care unit at 12:30 in the morning, a full 12 hours after we had arrived. He was on Heparin to get his blood thinned as well as all the heart monitors and compression boots. The neurologist told us that he was "at very high risk for a massive stroke that would have been debilitating or possibly fatal." Thank heavens we went to the hospital! He likely would have had that stroke a day or two later. And--never thought we'd say this!--thank heavens for that accident 4 weeks ago! If not for the accident, he'd never have broken his arm, and if not for the immobility of his arm, he'd never have had any clots in it, and if not for those clots, we'd never have questioned the headache and taken him to the hospital. There is a family history of clots and we are convinced that if not for the events of the past month, we would never have known the potentiality for something so serious. In the end, that accident very well may have saved his life, whether now or in the coming years. But now we are aware of it and it can be taken care of and managed. His blood is now thin enough that his doctors let him come home Sunday! A total surprise for both of us, as we'd been told just the night before that he wouldn't come home until Tuesday or Wednesday at the earliest! Wow! We couldn't be happier! It is scary to think just how close I came to losing him. They never could explain what had caused that headache. We know that it was the Lord letting us know that something was wrong and we needed to get help.

Anyway, thank you to our Father in Heaven and His infinite plan and for the knowledge that there is a bigger picture and He understands all things; thanks to our incredible families, who took kids at a moments notice and spent hours with us at the hospital; thanks to those kids who got shuffled off without any explanation and were good and happy to be on their own little vacation, and the one who was a trooper to wait out the entire 12 hours with us, even sleeping in his car seat! Thanks for the many prayers and fasts and calls and visitors! It helped us both more than you know! We are so grateful to have such wonderful family and friends!