Keep Doing What You're Doing

After my experience at Walmart, I was definitely motivated to get back to my workouts. I continued my new routine of coffee, exercises, and my walks. It only took a few days, and I had worked my way up to three laps at a time, but I was still having to rest on the spools.

My appointment with the neurologist came up first and again it was a video call with the same neurologist I had the video conference with while still in the hospital, shortly after the stroke. We had to drive to a different doctor’s office that was set up for video call.  I sat in front of a large computer screen, and the neurologist came on and said, “This is a follow up for Casey. Casey?” she asked.

I responded, “Yes, Ma’am.”

She looked at me with big eyes and got very excited “Wow, you look great. I didn’t recognize you from our last visit.”  We talked for a while and she started testing me. She finished up by having me stand up and walk away from her and turn around and come back and do different movements while standing. She had me sit back down, and with a great big smile she said, “You just made my day. I don’t get to see these types of improvements very often; in fact, I can’t remember the last time. Keep doing what you’re doing because it’s working.”

They had me finish with a quick, simple physical check, height, weight, bp and heart rate. They took me to a small room for the physical; when the lady walked in with her mask and white coat, I could feel it, an uncontrollable rise in heart rate and blood pressure and anxiousness. No amount of concentration or deep breathing could control it.

She said it was probably nothing, just something called ‘Whitecoat Syndrome’ and for someone that had experienced what I had, it was understandable. She offered medication, which I refused, and I quickly got out of there. Again, one down but still a long way to go.

When we got home, I had my daily update with my dad. He was sounding better and he wanted to make plans to come down and see me. That would be nice; going up to see him wasn’t a possibility yet. So, I told dad anytime he was ready, we would pick him up at the airport.

My next appointment was closing in. It was with my personal doctor; I wanted to talk to him so I could decide whether to stay with him or not, but honestly, I just wanted to give him a piece of my mind. We called to make sure he was going to be there; for this checkup we wanted the doctor and not one of his nurses.  They assured us that he would be there.  When we showed up, he was not there. So, I had a long talk with his nurse practitioner and told her my story. She was visibly shaken and very apologetic and assured me that if I would have gotten ahold of her, she would have tried to help me. I liked her but I told her we had come to this visit to decide if I wanted to find a better doctor or not. The fact that the guy couldn’t bother to show up made our decision easy. She totally understood and started giving us names of doctors that she trusted. My physical turned out fine and we left with names of doctors to interview. I was a little upset that he didn’t even show up; I would have liked to give him an ear full.

Zach took me to my next appointment that was with the physical and occupational therapist. We checked into Via Christi. We started by walking through a temperature scanner; if you passed you were guided by rope lanes to a person behind glass checking IDs. Once I proved who I was, we were given directions on how to get to the physical therapy room where I waited for my turn to go in for testing. Again, I sat and watched as others waited and came out from the exam rooms. It gave me pause, and I was so thankful I was recovering the way I was. I felt very fortunate.

When it was my turn, a young therapist came out and took me back just looking at me. She finally said, “I read your files, and you are not what I expected,”

I just smiled and said, “We have been working hard at home.”

She responded, “I would say so, good for you.” She tested me through an agility course, some light weights and some flexibility tests. She just looked at me and said, “If I hadn’t read your file, I wouldn’t have known you had a major stroke. Keep doing what you’re doing, there is no need for you to come back to see us for physical therapy unless you just want to.” She sent me on to the occupational therapist with a warning, “Keep watching your diet and keep doing your exercises because a large percentage of stroke patients have a second one.” I responded that my stroke was caused by covid not other health issues and she said, “Yes, but this is so new, the research is not in.” Well, that was comforting.

I thanked her and went to the occupational therapist that ran me through more tests that I passed easily.  Then she brought out the wooden block with holes for the metal pins and explained the rules, I looked at Zach and smiled; this was the one I couldn’t finish at rehab. I think she said passing was finishing under 30 seconds and the fastest had been 15 seconds. I finished in 18 seconds and she just smiled. She said, “You have done great and there is no need to come back unless you want to.” She was very impressed and told me to keep doing what I was doing.  As Zach and I walked back to the jeep with big smiles, we talked about future training activities; we gave each other a big high five and laughed. Now, next week is the big one, speech therapy.