WHERE I'VE BEEN AND WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON

 Hello. friends!  I bet you never thought you would hear from me again.  It's been a long (LONG) time since I've been with you.  But there is a reason.

Towards the end of October I came down with some kind of upper resperatory infection.  No voice.  Coughing.  Nasal congestion.  Headaches.  I was a mess.  Well, everyone gets sick, right?

But this lasted and lasted.  It lasted for 6 weeks until I got mostly back to myself.  I was good for two weeks and even got to church once and then . . .

It all came back.  Same infection as before.  This one lasted about three weeks.  I was sick all through the holiday season and was miserable.

Around the end of February I was finally able to get out and about again.  I was attending church and teaching my Tuesday Bible study again until . . .

On Tuesday, March 17th I was getting ready to go to church to teach.  I was even wearing green for St. Patrick's Day and planning what I was going to have for dinner that night.  I didn't know if I would have enough time to make Irish soda bread.   I finished studying my lesson and headed for the powder room before getting in the car to go.  When suddenly . . .

I started feeling dizzy as I went into the kitchen (the powder room is behind the kitchen).  The dizziness got worse and worse.  I had to grab onto the countertop to get through the room.  I thought if I sat down on the toilet I would start to feel better.  Thought it was my blood pressure.  But . . .

When I got to the powder room everything began spinning rapidly.  The entire room was one big swirl, as if I were spiraling down a funnel.  Faster and faster.  All I could see was white and black swirls and I started throwing up.  I grabbed onto the sink and was able to sit on the edge of the closed toilet.  I began screaming Joe's name.  He was upstairs asleep.  "JOE!!!  HELP ME!!!  CALL 911!!!"

Fortunately he heard me and came running downstairs.  He tried to help me, but immediately saw it was not something he could handle.  I heard him calling 911.

It was just a very few minutes until they pulled up at the door.  The medics took one look at me and said they had to take me to the hospital.  And what a time getting me out of the house and into the ambulance.  We have a stair lift on the front steps, so they had to strap me into a chair and then when we got to the pavement get me onto a stretcher and into the ambulance.  The hospital is very close to our house so it was less than 5 minutes until we were pulling up to it.

I spent almost the whole day in the Emergency Room.  All kinds of tests being done.  I had two CT scans of my brain and the ladies doing the test were so kind to me.  I felt badly that they had to lift me back and forth from the stretcher to the test table but every time I moved everything spun and I vomited.

At the end of the day they told me I was staying and got a room for me.  Poor Joe stayed with me the entire time and never left my side.  By this time they had stabilized me and I was feeling better.  There were several neurologists looking at me.

I really don't remember much of being in the hospital.  I was told I was there for four days but I remember just snippets here and there.  The conclusion seemed to be that the viruses that I had in October and January had settled in my brain and damaged it.  And it was going to be a long time to heal.  Months if ever.

And now my computer is about to run out of power so I have to end.  I PROMISE I will continue this tomorrow and tell you more.

Until later,

Kathy