We Are Human: Sick, Dying, and Depressed
 

This is me right after I had my brain tumor removed:


https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1327588954


So handsome!

I was pretty easy to spot in a crowd for awhile.

Glad all is better, and you Probobly stuck out like a sore thumb lol

Not sure why but the first thing I thought after seeing this was "I wonder what your superbowl plans are.."

Also I have another friend who had a brain tumor removed. He wears a lot of seersucker. Probably unrelated, right?

Zombie! Its a trap!

Hmmmm, I dont see whats the matter. I think you will blend in just fine!

Admin on another site was driving on the 401 when all of a sudden he blacked out and hit the gaurd rail. Police on site charged him with DUI etc.
It happened again.
It happened at work.

He would just be fatigued all of a sudden and pass out.

After some scans they found a tumor in his brain, one they cant cut out. He is medicated, it is shrinking in size. Once the tumor started to shrink he changed, his personality, way he spoke and carried himself all changed. His wife and him divorced, he changed friends etc. He actually seemed a lot better.

Either way, cant mess with the melon. I am glad you are ok.

Wicked staples..ouch! Do the staples grow out or do they pull them out? Did it all hurt? How did you find out?

Thanks. My mouth is still a little crooked (like Elvis when he raised the corner of his mouth) but it might have been that way before.

I think they were put in with one of these but I was unconscious and looking the other way:

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1327605748

And they came out with a set of these:

https://www.miataforumz.com/attachme...ine=1327605748


Oh, HELL YES! Everything hurt for weeks. I couldn't lie down because of the pressure in my head from the swelling in my brain. I couldn't sit up because tightening my neck muscles to hold my head up put so much pressure into my head that it felt like it would explode. I didn't have the balance or stamina to even stand up on my own. I had to get help sitting up. I had to be propped against someone and nearly carried to be walked to the bathroom every time after they finally removed that damn catheter. This went on for days.

They had me on steroids to keep the brain swelling in check, but they made my heart race and along with the pain made it even more difficult to sleep. I had a container of oxycodones I was eating like skittles and it still hurt really badly. I was so afraid of running out of those little guys and finding out just how bad it really was.

I was badly and suddenly weakened by the surgery and went from being able to run and lift weights at the gym to having to have someone bathe me. After several days I tried to brush my teeth but couldn't. I couldn't stand and definitely couldn't lean over because of the pressure in my head. I was on my knees with my chest against the sink to prop myself up. I had to stop a couple of times to catch my breath because I got winded just brushing my teeth.

Brain stuff is weird to fool with. I had absolutely no idea it could effect me the way it did. For this reason I would never go without a rollbar and definitely wouldn't use it without the padding.

I had two really weird, bad, sudden onset headaches when doing some heavy lifting a couple of days apart. They left me on the floor. The second one scared me so badly I went to the emergency room. I thought I was having an aneurism. They saw a growth on the PET scan and then did an MRI to verify. They said "Yep, there's something in there."

I'm sorry to hear this but I'm glad you are ok. Good thing you went to get it checked. I'm sure alot of people would have ignored it, only for it to kill them.

My nan recently had a stroke and it can do some really weird things. They thought she was going to die but after 3 months she is out and can go through her normal life pretty well. It is amazing what the human body can go through.

Yea, the brain is crazy. My very independent grandmother also suffered a stroke. They did some scans and said her brain was like cheese, full of holes and that she would like never recover. She had her stroke 3 days after I got engaged, she was super pleased but as you can imagine that ruinned any engagement parties. lol... ie: 0, not talked about ever etc.
She was stuck in a hospital for a year, rotting. It was odd. We would visit and she would hold my now wifes hand and always check for the ring. She couldn't talk, she was in pain. I actually spent that last few months hoping she would stop suffering. The said she restroked a few times while semi recovering. It was a disaster I will tell you that.

My family spent thousands commuting. My mother was a disaster. My sister who was literally on a plane ready for departure was escorted off the plane as we caught it just in time, she was moving out west.

You never know. As you get older you realize how fragile things are like the heart, the brain, kidneys and eyes. I remember being 17 and being semi retarded on my BMX, or getting into fights. I look back and think wow, how lucky was i.

Now I have a son. A pressure to be healthy is here. I eat like ---- so I am trying to change that.

Glad you are ok. The brain is almost magical, friggen epicenter of your body.

How long ago did this all happen?

my great aunt had a stroke 2 days before i graduated high school. they didnt tell me till after the graduation was all said and done, needless to say i was pissed but understood. shes in a stroke specific nursing home and doing much better now. (btw shes in her early 70's) she can talk but only say a few words but knows what she wants to say and get disappointed when she cant get her thoughts out.
My grandfather had a series of heart attacks, a stroke and a lung collapse in about 6 months. the doctors gave him a month, that was 2 years ago and now he comes and kicks it in the garage with me frequently.
all and all bad stuff happens the healing is comes with time and keeping the patient's hopes up, when they give up its all over. :sad2:

primary reason I started eating better, lost 30 lbs, and started gaining muscle. I want to be around for a long time for my wife and future kids. also she doesn't seem to be at odds with having a hot husband who is ripped*.


* this is future ripped, not presently ripped.

Everytime I hear a story like this it breaks my heart.

I'm not a believer in god but it really did seem like a miricale what happened to my grandmother. They said her stroke was in the top 10% worst strokes they've ever seen.

They basicly said she should be dead already when she went in, and offered to give her an operation that may keep her alive but she would be a vegetable. In the end we decided to not do it and let her do her own thing.

I believe it was three months after her stroke she was released from the hospital. My grandfather thanked the doctors and they were crying as well as the rest of my family in joy. I'd guess she is about 90% of what she was before the setback.

They said they've never seen anyone recover like she did. She is walking talking and doing almost everything she used to, just not quite as good.

I'm thankful everyday that I still have her with me.

It really was a hard time for me because I am very close to her, and really want to share my highschool graduation with her.

Drepessing thread all of a sudden. Strokes and Alheimers are a bitch I will agree. I've seen enough of them. On the flip side, here is some sexy photos of me to get this back on track.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-4...0/DSC_0821.jpg

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-1...0/IMG_0340.jpg

Moved to another thread I guess, that makes sense.

I work in a non-trauma ICU here in Portland. We're also a major stroke center for the NW. So I see a lot of strokes, over doses, ICH, SDH, and SAH. That's Inner Cranial Hemorrhage, Sub Dural Hemorrhage, and Sub Arachnoid Hemorrhage.

The main thing to remember is that any and all nervous tissue HATES being squished. That's why it hurts to hit your "funny bone", as you're actually pinching your radial nerve that goes past your elbow into your wrist. It's also why Rick's friend experienced a personality change, since the swelling in his brain from the tumor was squishing his brain, shutting off or changing certain aspects of it. This is what brain bleeds do, and why burr holes are used to relieve pressure. Keep the pressure on long enough and the nervous tissue will die.

just kinda curious, you going on to become a doctor?

Nurse. There's no money in being a Doc.

?, but ok. keep doing what your doing man, i think you guys run the show for the most part anyway. i have a deep respect for what your profession does, and imo you dont make enough for it.

My son has spent most of his 4 months of life in the hospital. Nurses do run the show. They make or break your experience and are the front lines. I am greatly indebted to many of our nurses for their guidance, counsel, and care along the way. We've also fired one or two for their lack of the above care. There are some from the NICU we still update my son's status on. My sister is finishing up her masters to be a NP and had me thinking about this very thing last week.

Study hard Curly and don't forget that the patients are looking to you for help. The doctors don't reach into people's human side like a nurse does. [EDIT] While in undergrad she worked in the ER before going to a Renal Care Facility to be a dialysis tech. After graduation she stayed there as one of the nurses. It's hard to visualize, but my baby sister will soon be the Boss Lady Chief Nurse! [/EDIT]

My GF is a NICU nurse, I'll pass along your thanks. She has an amazingly hard job. When it's good, it's really good. But when it's bad, it's really really bad.

I agree about the bad days. I couldn't emotionally handle it. She lived with me while finishing up undergrad and would lose patients every so often. Dialysis takes time to perform and you get to know these people, but they don't always live. Her bad days were really bad. The worst days are when she would learn about one of her young patients passing away. I still choke up thinking about those stories and she lives it everyday. How one can develop coping skills for all the death and sadness yet still befriend new patients is an amazing gift these nurses have.

I guess my mom is lucky to have worked in labor and delivery most of her nursing career. Although I think for a bit she worked in what ever area it is where they put babies that are not doing so well. And I'm sure whenever there is an issue with a baby it's not great either. But I still think that area is probably a whole different game vs caring for sick people. I could never do it, so I respect those that can.

Life is short, live it up.