Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Medical

My mother had some kind of medical event this evening, resulting in confusion and badly slurred speech. Fortunately, my wife thought to call the paramedics, and they're both at the hospital now while my mother's being tested to see what it might have been. Stroke's what comes to mind, though a TIA's also possible.

I'll post something when we know more.
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Two hours later. No good news, but some minor news -- a CAT scan shows no bleeding in her brain. Xray hasn't been read yet. They're still at the hospital.
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More negative results -- the Xray (not sure what was xrayed) didn't show anything. They're going to admit her, and tomorrow do tests for cardiac function, also check whether her carotid artery flow is restricted. She still can't talk, though she can mumble, and you can make a stab about what she's saying. So I guess the bad news is that this might be permanent, the moderate news is that if so its likely addressable with speech therapy, and the good news, such as it is, would be that nothing's obviously and ongoingly (is that a word?) wrong. Other than the obvious.
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The next morning -- my wife tells me that they did in fact call this a 'small stroke', though the phrase TIA wasn't used. That's encouraging.
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We just spoke to my mother. Her speech has improved. She's not terribly coherent -- she sounded as if she'd been drinking, which she thought was funny -- I think the last drink she had was in 1954 -- but she can usually make herself understood. This is promising.

6 comments:

Sweeti said...

I'm soory to hear about your mom, I hope she'll be ok.

Cerulean Bill said...

Me, too. She had some degree of speech ability. Not much, but not totally absent. I'm hoping thats a suggestion that things aren't as bad as they could be. No way I can think this is anything but serious, though.

Unknown said...

I'm sending good thoughts your way, hope your mom gets well soon.
Take care.

Cerulean Bill said...

Thank you, Shannon. She'll appreciate that.

Angie said...

I'm glad your mom is doing okay!

Cerulean Bill said...

Me, too, Angie. Thank you.