Easter Sunday

For Easter we were suppose to be in Houston with my in-laws. Well, as you can imagine that didn't happen! We at least were not at the hospital anymore! Jack, Karol, and Jason came down from Norman to be with Jordan and me for Easter this year so at least we were with who we originally planned to be! Even though we didn't get to celebrate Easter traditionally like we do with going to church and having a big Easter Dinner, we were especially thankful this year that we were both here to celebrate together Jesus dying for our sins so that we could have eternal life with Him. It's amazing how a scare like Jordan had puts life into perspective for you. We have done some research on what happened to Jordan, and almost 50% of people that have the kind of brain bleed Jordan had die. Most of those who die have the bleed due to an aneurysm or other vessel malformation, so it shows how very lucky Jordan is to be here! We are so thankful that he is still here enjoying life!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!!

Our Scare This Week

Well this last Monday we had quite the scary evening and next 24 hours! Monday night Jordan was working out and said he felt something pop in the back of his head. He then experience the "worst headache of his life," as he described it. I took him the to ER because I remembered earlier this semester my professors saying that description of a headache is often associated with a stroke. The next few hours were the scariest ones of both Jordan and mine's life. They took him back for a CT scan. It took about an hour before they did this, and that hour was awful. He was in excruciating pain, sweating insane amounts, shaking really bad, vomiting, and then he stopped talking to me altogether. They describe the type of headache Jordan had as a Thunderclap headache because it reaches maximum intensity in just a few seconds. They also described it to us as a feeling like a brain freeze for about 24-48 hours straight. Every time he vomited his head would turn really bright red because he already had increased pressure in there from the brain bleed. The ER workers really thought he was just dehydrated, but once they saw the CT scan results, they were all over it. They hadn't yet told me anything, but I knew a something was horribly wrong because they rushed him into a room and a zillion people were coming in and out. They were asking me a ton of questions because Jordan wouldn't talk at this point. They brought in seizure pads to cover the bed rails which was scary too!

So the diagnosis was a perimesencephalic non-aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage. Basically, he had a small brain bleed in the brainstem area due to a popped blood vessel. The first night he had a CT scan, a CT angiogram scan, and an MRI. If you've had an MRI before you can imagine the agony it was for Jordan with an excruciating headache and all the clicking noise it makes. It lasted for about 1 1/2 hours. They transferred him to Zale Lipshy ICU that night, where they finally got his headache down just a tiny bit. The first 24-48 hours there was a lot of monitoring to make sure he didn't continue to bleed or go downhill. Thursday, he had an angiogram to determine what caused the bleed. It turned out it was due to a popped blood vessel, which is the best thing. Other possible causes are an aneurysm or other vessel malformation. He was in ICU until Friday, then a regular room until discharge on Saturday. It took a while to find a combination of pain medicines that work pretty well. The headaches won't go away soon, but they are just trying to manage them to where he can do something because right now he can't really do anything. He even has trouble watching a full movie or TV show because it's tough to focus.

It's been rough since we got home from the hospital. We've had a hard time controlling his headaches. It's incredible how much it's affected him. Lights must be off. Sounds low. The TV bothers him after a while. He has been sleeping most of the day. He's so weak, it exhausts him to get up and go to the restroom. The nausea has returned some so we are trying to get that under control too.

Doctor said no work for at least 6 weeks probably. It will take that long for the headaches to begin fading and for him to be able to do a full day's worth of activities. He has a long road ahead of him I think.

This day he was feeling a lot better so he was getting up to use the restroom.

This is the incision from the angiogram. Everyone kept asking me how big it was so I thought I'd take a picture. This is on his upper, inner thigh. This test was the good news test that told us no aneurysm and no brain surgery! They insert a catheter in the femoral artery here and route it up to his brain. He was sedated but still awake. For 6 hours afterwards, he had to keep his leg perfectly still, couldn't raise his head, or strain for anything so it wouldn't start bleeding.

Here's my snuggie that I lived with all week. It was absolutely freezing on the ICU floor and especially in Jordan's room because he was hot. This was my best friend, along with some of Aunt Nett's blankets that she makes.When he was feeling better and didn't mind having his picture taken. I didn't take any pictures of him when he was really bad the first 48 hours or so because he was so miserable and light bothered him. Plus, you wouldn't have wanted to see what he looked like!

Major definitely senses that Jordan doesn't feel good. He has been right by him since we've been home. So sweet.

Woops!

Haha I guess I cooked that pizza slice enough huh?!

A few weekends ago we went to the Texas Hill Country Wine and Food Festival in Austin. Jack and Karol met us there and Jason was there Friday and Saturday morning. We had a blast and will definitely go back next year!We drove to Driftwood winery, which was about 30 minutes outside of Austin. This was the view from where we were sitting drinking our glass of wine. Gorgeous! It's hard to tell from the picture but the vineyards are visible from this point.

Jordan and I at Driftwood winery.
Jack, Karol, Jordan-Driftwood Winery
Karol and Jordan
Jordan, Karol, Jack at the Texas Hill Country winery and food pairing event. Saturday we went to this wine and food pairing event. There were 6 Texas Hill Country wines that we tasted. All 6 owners of the wineries were there to tell about their wines. The food they paired the wines with was awesome too!

Sunday was the big festival. They had tons of samples of different wines, food, beer and a few liquors. It was one of the best festivals we've ever been to!

Swap Meet

I had the pleasure of going to my first swap meet a few weeks ago! Nanny and Grandad were at the swap meet in Chickasha, OK selling some of Grandad's old model-t parts so my dad and I drove up there to see them (it's only a few hours to there opposed to 5 1/2 to Amarillo to see them). It's kind of hard to describe-there's just a bunch of parts everywhere! This swap meet was mostly auto stuff and it had to be preWWII (I think I'm remembering that correctly). To someone like me, it just looks like junk but to Grandad and the others out there it's stuff they need for their hobbies. Grandad had already sold a bunch of stuff by the time we got there. It was really good to see Nanny and Grandad! Here's a list of some funny, neat, or odd things my dad and I saw:

• A man with an unusual hat: The visor part was normal, but the part that goes over your head was fake spikey, highlighted hair! haha


• We saw lots of people with signs attached to them reading something like this: Wanted-1864 blah blah or whatever part they wanted. It was pretty funny.


• We saw some really neat old, redone gas pumps. They were in fantastic shape and cost about $25,000! I found this picture on the Internet just to show you what I mean. Similar to this but the ones at the swap meet were a lot better looking.


• A sign that read: Public Swimming: Whites Only. We couldn't believe there was still stuff out there like that and that someone was selling it!

Nanny and me

Grandad's trailer full of stuff to sell

Dad, Nanny, Grandad