A Week of Highs and Lows

My blog is about sharing – always has and always will be. I love to share my thoughts about projects and my perspectives on stamping. Along the way, you get to know a little bit about how I think and what I think about. I don’t dive into my life outside of stamping too often, but today I want to let you know a little bit about what has been going on this past week. The past seven days have been filled with some extreme highs and some pretty heavy lows.

The High

Last Monday was my one year anniversary with Stampin’ Up! How time flies! I am so blessed to have met so many wonderful people during my first year here. You have opened your hearts to me and always make me feel so welcomes. Anyway, as I was settling in to write my blog entry on Monday night, my attention was lulled away by The Theme from Downton Abbey (that’s my phone’s ringtone). A strange number appeared, but I answered anyway (that’s not like me). It was Andrea from Stampin’ Up! headquarters, and she asked me to be a presenter at the Regionals event in St. Louis for the upcoming weekend – to give a ten minute presentation about a project or workshop idea. I was already planning to be there, so why wouldn’t I do that?!? What an honor! I immediately went to work on my project ideas and drafted the entire presentation that night while I was sleeping. Before you get too excited for me (you’re really so kind like that) – I’ll start by telling you I didn’t make it to St. Louis so the presentation never happened. That brings me to the low…

The Low

Before I get to my low of last week, I need to give you a snidge of the back story: in 2001, I suffered a massive stroke caused by a torn artery that runs between my spine and brain. I was 29. A blood clot the size of a chicken egg blocked the flow of blood in the entire left side of my brain. Against the expectations of the many doctors who saw me in the hospital, I recovered completely – no side effects, no deficits. That’s mostly attributed to the fact that I was, otherwise, very healthy and that I was 29 – young people recover more easily from stuff like that. There’s SO much more to that story, but I’ll save you the details. After that horrific experience, I’ve been very careful to head to the doctor with any strange pains or discomforts.

Over the three weeks leading up to last week, I had four migraines. I’d not had a migraine since 2001 (and had them very periodically leading up to the stroke), so I went to my doctor for a precautionary check-up. He sent me to a neurologist, who sent me for a precautionary MRI. On Tuesday afternoon, I had my MRI. The MRI showed recent blood clots and some other abnormalities they needed to study, so they immediately sent me to the ER and checked me into the hospital. Scary stuff.

I checked in to the hospital on Tuesday evening and spent the rest of my week getting to know a great staff of doctors and nurses at the hospital. I was constantly monitored as I waited for my blood to thin with the high doses of thinners they were administering. It was truly exhausting. I was finally released on Saturday afternoon. While I’ll have lots of follow-up appointments with several specialists over the coming months, I am fine. Still nothing life-threatening here – I’ll just have to take blood thinners to keep my blood from clotting again. I’m very thankful I went in when I did. I possibly wouldn’t be able to tell the same story had I waited.

The Silver Lining

Because I was planning to be out-of-town for the St. Louis trip, I had already planned and scripted my blog entries through the weekend. That’s really good – because the WiFi connection at the hospital was really, really slow and intermittent. BUT I did get some stamping in while I rested in the hospital.

I don’t want sympathy or concern – again, I’m doing really well – so I didn’t want to share any of this until I knew I had come out on the other side. I just felt compelled to share this story with you.

Thanks for letting me share.

Brian