Time to Say Goodbye

Time to Say Goodbye
Time to Say...
Time to...
Time...
...
Not yet!

The bottom line dear readers is that your Humble Blogger suffered a massive stroke Sunday September 9, 2012 about 4:05 pm in the middle of a large crowd at our church St. Odilia's Fall Festival.  Loving wife Rose was just beginning to play her mandolin with the 13 person "Ice Cream" band in the music tent. I was about to take digital videos of their performance. 

Observers reported that I was shaking and thought I was having a seizure. I remember being very careful to not drop my expensive digital camera. Surrounding parishioners prevented me from falling and set me first in a chair and quickly into a wheel chair someone found. A summoned, shocked Rose was soon at my side, while a Festival going Internist Dr. T. questioning me about symptoms. ( I reported that I couldn't walk and had trouble speaking and focusing with my eyes but never lost consciousness.  The left side of my face and lips felt numb.  My trouble speaking originated on the left side of my face). Lynda S. called 9-1-1 and an ambulance rushed Humble Blogger and loving wife Rose to the  trauma center at nearby Regions Hospital. A diagnostic CAT scan with dye provided a diagnosis of "Acute Embolic Basilar Artery Occlusion"  i.e. there was a blood clot about 1 cm in size at the base of my brain clogging the bifurcation of the artery!  Time was of the essence to prevent brain damage which would occur 3 to 5 hours after my stroke.

Humble Blogger with wife Rose on 9/9/12 at 6:26 pm in the Regions Hospital ER.  This time was about 2 hours and 20 minutes after my stroke and a short time before treatment with tPA to dissolve the 1 cm blood clot.  At this point I couldn't walk nor talk very well.  We have the obligatory smiles on our faces but grave concern lies beneath!

Children from both our families were now at the ER( summoned by Rose's daughter Deanna)  to help make a decision to inject a 10% solution of the clot busting drug "Tissue Plasminogen Activator" (tPA) into my arm to begin breaking apart the clot.   I was moved quickly from the ER to surgery where a tubular sheath was inserted into my right femoral artery in my groin area.  The end of the sheath outside the artery had a one-way valve so arterial blood could not spill out.  By this time I already could speak normally because of the tPA injection previously in the ER!  Through that sheath a catheter was inserted by a Neuro Interventionist and snaked to the location of the clot and more tPA was injected to continue dissolving the clot. The tPA catheter was removed and another was inserted which had a suction action to remove the entire clot!!  I was moved to  the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) for a day and was moved to a regular room for a day. Humble Blogger and loving wife Rose headed home at 4:30 pm Tuesday 9/11 just about 48 hours since I suffered my stroke.

Daughter Julie and son Joe text on their iPhones while visiting their Humble Blogger Dad on Monday 9/10/12

After effects of the stroke include some peripheral vision loss in the 9 to 12 o'clock position of both eyes (as I look at a clock on the wall). This was confirmed with an eye doctor administered  "Visual Field" test on 9/25/12. The vision loss is thought due to a small blood clot at the top of my brain which could not be removed. With both eyes open I can see from side to side, which is very important for driving. The doctors predict that my peripheral vision will return but Google is not so sure. Minimizing future stroke risk means that now I am taking Coumadin to prolong blood-clotting time (as I was following mitral valve repair 6 years ago)  and Simvastatin to lower blood Cholesterol.

The title of this Blog is appropriately: "Time To Say Goodbye"  A twelve year old,  Grace S, flawlessly sang the Italian version "Con te partirò" at St. Odilia's Fall Festival about an hour before I suffered my stroke.  There wasn't a dry eye in the Music tent. Only later did I realize that the English translation of the song was "Time to Say Goodbye" even though the literal meaning of the Italian title is "I leave with you".  Some information on the song from Wikipedia is given below. 

["Con te partirò" (literally meaning "I leave with you") is an Italian Classical crossover song written by Francesco Sartori (music) and Lucio Quarantotto (lyrics), for Andrea Bocelli, who first sung it at the 1995 Sanremo Festival and recorded it on his album of the same year, Bocelli. The single was first released as an A-side single with "Vivere" in 1995, topping the charts, first in France, where it became one of the best selling singles of all time, and then in Belgium, breaking the all-time record sales there.  A second version of the song, sung partly in English, released as "Time to Say Goodbye", paired Bocelli with English soprano Sarah Brightman, and achieved even greater success, topping charts all across Europe, including Germany, where it became the biggest-selling single in history. That version alone has now sold more than 12 million copies worldwide, making it one of best-selling singles worldwide.]

The song has several interpretations. The three most common are: 1) There is a new love in the man (or woman's) life and now it is time to "say goodbye" to all that's been done before the other entered into his (or her) life.  2) Either the man or the woman in the song has died or will soon die and is (or will be) no longer available to the other except in mind and spirit. 3) Both the man and the woman are now old and no longer able to do the things that they did in their youth. Interpretation 1) allows the song to be used in weddings however a title of "Time to say Goodbye" does not fit a wedding's theme where the bride and groom are supposed to stay together! Interpretation 2) allows the use of the song at funerals.  This is where I would classify my almost fatal stroke!  Rose was almost a widow and kids were almost without a Father and Grandfather.   I haven't processed the full impact of my near death yet.  When I get some ideas, I be sure to let you Dear Readers know!

Finally, dear readers a Haiku:

Time to say goodbye
Time to say goodbye (not yet!)
Time to say goodbye