D-Dimer, I Hate You

On Friday, I spoke with a technician from my Hematologist's office about the results of my Anti thrombin and D-dimer blood tests. I have to go in every 3 months to make sure everything is looking ok. I went in May and everything was fine but on Friday, my result for my D-dimer was "peculiar" as the tech put it.

Usually I speak to my doctor about my results. I'm not sure why the tech called me. I'm pretty annoyed at a normal D-dimer result is less that 245. Mine is 349. Eek. This freaks me out especially because I don't know what the hell it means and the tech couldn't tell me (lawsuits). She said I should come in at the beginning of September for an appointment with the doc so I made an appt but still I would like an explanation of what the number means and what, if any, I can do to bring it down.

I have been on edge all weekend because I don't know what it all means! The internet has not been my friend in this instance. Everything I look up is wordy and scary with words like thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.

D-dimer tests are ordered, along with other laboratory tests and imaging scans, to help rule out the presence of a thrombus. This test may be used to determine if further testing is necessary to help diagnose diseases and conditions that cause hypercoagulability, a tendency to clot inappropriately.

I don't want to wait until September 1st to see what is going on. Can't someone call me back now?

100th Post!

Yay, it's my 100th post!
Thank you so much for continuing to read about my journey and becoming more aware about strokes in young people. You never ever know who may need your help. You're educated!

With October and November fast approaching, I've started to think about whether or not I want to have a Strokiversary Party for my 1 year. Of course many of you may think this morbid or weird, but if you know me, this is par for the course. I'm happy to be here!

I'm thinking I may have a small quiet dinner...maybe with all things Vitamin K (sushi and green tea!) and cranberry juice! We can't forget cranberry juice. (Was pretty much forbidden to drink it while being on Coumadin/Warfarin) Does this sound weird? I really think I'm going to do it. I'm pretty excited about my 1 year Strokiversary. Nowadays, I've been replaying in my mind everything I was doing last year around this time. I keep trying to pinpoint exactly what I was doing. You should try this. I'll probably start to do this more in October leading up to the end of the month. I know that right around this time last year, I was very stressed at work and the tension kept building and building all the way through October.

I still don't know exactly and precisely what caused my stroke but I know my stress at work had something to do with it. Of course, I am typing this as I am at work haha. Clearly someone is not bothering with getting stressed out too much these days!

For now, let's just laugh at my mock party menu.

Vitamin K Party Menu!

Appetizers

Sushi-mad ill rolls

Spinach Salad with Green Peppers and Garbanzo beans

Roasted Cauliflower from Whole Foods

Main Course

Pesto Chicken or Fish with Asparagus and Broccoli

Cauldron of Callaloo Soup with Crab and Dumpling
Falafel on a bed of Wilted Greens

Desserts
Butter Rum Cake
Bailey's Chocolate Cake

Drinkies

Cranberry Juice Spritzers

Green Tea-Hot and Iced

A bevy of alcoholic beverages 

Setback?

I recently went the lady parts doctor to make sure the plumbing was working as one should do once a year and started to talk to my doc (who is FIERCE btw, her name is Dr. Audrey Buxbaum NYC) about whether or not I would have difficulty conceiving because of my stroke.

She told me I didn't have a lot of options in terms of birth control, because of hormones, I can never take anything with estrogen ever again...everrrr. She did offer me several options without estrogen including something called Para Gard. This is an IUD free of any hormones, zippo 0% hormones, nada nothing. Sounds cool right? I don't know. While I am not a fan of IUDs at all, this seems to be my only option. It pretty much looks like a T wrapped in copper...ew. Copper s actually naturally found in the body which is an interesting fact. I'm just not sure I want additional copper in my body from something in the shape of a T!

I was talking to a friend yesterday about IUDs and she said that in Canada, you can't even get one unless you're 35. This definitely does not point me in the direction of getting one of these. What more is out there for stroke vics who want BC and can't take anything with hormones?

We also spoke about family planning. Now, because of clots, I may not be able to house mini-mes. Pregnancy is a natural coagulant so you can only guess why this would be an ish for me. We all know how I feel about Lovenox, the shot I had to take twice a day. I can't do that again. I'm far too big of a wuss to stab myself in the stomach twice a day again and certainly not for 9 months!

The good doc provided me with the number of a center in midtown. Wait time for an appointment is a month because apparently they sift through cases and see who is a good match for the patient. I don't want a family right now but I'd like to think that children are down the line at some point. You can never be too early in getting all your information, right?

Work After Stroke

Fellow Strokies,

How have you coped with coming back to work after being on medical leave? After recovery, it may be hard to come back into the swing of things. You may not be able to do everything you once did. This can be frustrating...or it can be dumbfounding. Sometimes you may not realize that you weren't as good at doing something and it can take someone telling you that you're kind of sucking for you to pause and realize it.

Have you ever had a moment like that? What does it make you feel like?

Deja Vu

This week was a particularly hard one at work for many reasons including people saying that I didn't work hard enough which was a pretty big jab to me. I sweat and bleed for my job...I mean obviously, I stroked out and this all got me down. I mean down down to the point where I felt sick and then, just when I didn't think I could get any lower, I had an epiphany.

The day I got the phonecall that I had to go to the hospital because I had a stroke, I was packing up some t-shirts to send to some of our field reps. I was surrounded by black shirts and empty boxes. Yesterday, I was surrounded by white shirts and empty boxes. (Wicked comparison btw, did you catch that?) Anywho, as I was packing them up, I was stressed. I was doing exactly what I did before. History was repeating itself. This was definitely an "Aha" moment. I stopped for a second, put down the shirts and again the little voice in my head said, um hello, you did this before and you ended up in ICU. Work is just what it is, work. It's not your life. It's not something that should take you over. Work is work. Live your life. So I stopped being upset for a minute, breathed and remembered everything that happened last November.

Sometimes you have to listen to the voice in your head. You have to stop. Listen to what history has taught you. Deja Vu isn't just Deja Vu as Chopra points out. It's meant to tell you you're on the right path or to make you aware of exactly what you're doing at that moment. It's a tap on the shoulder to make you think. So tomorrow, I'm taking a moment, I'm calming down. No need to always be full steam ahead. Breathe, otherwise as history shows, I might just be back in that emergency room!

I Laugh...

Anyone who knows me is well aware of my obsession with The Golden Girls. I would watch every episode with my grandparents when I was little laughing at dirty jokes not fully knowing what they meant but happy that there was a show out there that could comfort me and make me think that these women were my Aunties. Even today, I hunt online for episodes hoping there is one I missed, a new episode, a lost episode, something I haven't seen before so I could feed my obsession.

As I get older, my friends and I relate to these 4 women more and more. We actually get all the dirty jokes and look try and figure out which Golden Girl we are. As of this year, I'm Sophia (the shortest in the red). I love being able to relate to things she says even though I'm over 50 years younger than her. "Ah, every day you forget something new". I think I laughed for a good 5 minutes yesteray as I saw a re-run.

The same goes for cartoon comedies of today. One of my favorite cartoons is Family Guy. Recently, I saw an episode where the patriarch, Peter, has a stroke which paralyzes the left side of his body (hemiplegia). This epi makes fun of his condition and while I know that is wrong, helloooo, sometimes we need to laugh. What good is anything if we can't laugh at life and experiences? The episode goes on and Peter is seen dragging his lifeless arm and leg through everyday activities. While crass, again, I laughed. At the end of the epi, Peter is cured of his ailments through the use of stem cells.

I guess what I'm trying to say is when your ailments get you down, laugh. It beats walking around feeling sorry for yourself. Ice cream sundaes can only get you so far right?

Stroke Joke

Friend: So your memory is kind of shot from the stroke?
Me: Yeah, it sucks.
Friend: What kinds of things do you forget?
Me: I don't remember!

*Rimshot