VAD CAD Club

Ralph Stalnecker

Ram,
Since my initial chats with you guys, I wanted to share my story so everyone can know me a little better and maybe something in this story will help keep someone else from going through what I went through. Thats the point of it all, right ? That and to share via your club, that we are all survivors!!!!!

Ralph......................

Ralph's story

I'm a 44 year old father of two teen boys. i had been diagnosed early in life with high blood pressure and had been taking medication to keep it in check for over a decade. my famliy doctor had also been keeping my cholesterol in check. however, i did suffer from vertigo and "floaters" in my vision periodically. i was quick to dismiss these episodes as "anxiety attacks"as i can be a very nervous and worrysome type of person.

what happened
the week before my stroke i had been fighting an oncoming cold with particularly bad coughing fits.i'm active with my son's high school band as an equipment mover and chaperone so my weekends were spent on the road for field competitions.i also drove the equipment van.the weekend of oct 20th was much like all the others except a persistent neck pain which advil seemed to take care of nicely. the band finished their show and we were loading when i bent down to pick up an equipment case and my neck pain flared up intensely to the point i saw stars. i managed to get some advil and shake the episode off (little did i know what had happened at that point) we finished loading and i drove back to the school where we continued to unload everything into the band room. when we finished i returned home not giving much more thought to what had happened nor to the "floaters" episode i experienced the day before. i awoke the next morning and did my usual morning bathroom routine i attempted to return to bed but ended up falling out twice(due to left side weakness) this alarmed my wife who quickly callled 911.

EMT's
the emt's arrived and quickly diagnosed my condition. i was shocked when i heard one of them mention possible stroke. i knew things were serious at that point. with my wife's help i was quickly dressed and put into the ambulance. i did a lot of praying during that 10 min. ride to the hospital I was examined by a neurologist in the emergency room who decided my situation was serious after a couple of cat scans and and mri's. I was admitted at that point and put in acute care. for stabilizing and eventually moved to the rehab section.

acute care
i spent 4 weeks in acute care where i began OT and relearned how to do the simple things... i was put through a battery of tests (cat scans, mri's)that also included an angiogram where my dissected carotid arteries were discovered.

rehab
the next 4 weeks were spent in the rehab section where during two daily 90 min sessions i relearned how to walk, balance myself, and do steps. no to mention the painful range of motion stretching exercises. i was in the care of a great team of therapists who never stopped encouraging me and helped me regain my strength, endurance and dignity.i can't say thank you enough to those folks. home coming home for me occurred on dec 21st. what a great christmas present!!! i quickly learned that life was not to be the same. with that little bit of reality, depression began to sink in. not to mention greiving (it's important to do this so you can continue to move forward!!!) for what i had lost.

let me say this again, if you are beginning your home recovery, take time to grieve, get it behind you, and continue to move forward!!

life at home continues to be a learning experience, not only for me(as i learn the boundries of my capabilities), but for my family as they adjust to picking up the responsibilities of the things i used to do.i'm dealing also with my depression (via visits to my family dr.) which is getting better as i get reinvolved with work and society in general (including Ram's great VAD group here who have accepted me even though my dissection affliction is different from vad ),

we are all stroke survivors, here for supporting each other, thanks Ram for providing the means for our socializing!!!!

....ralph

Ralph Stalnecker
Sun Certified Programmer For The Java 2 Platform and stroke survivor
ralph.stalnecker@worldnet.att.net
http://home.att.net/~ralph.stalnecker/


VAD Club - Members Page

Andrea	Anneke Howie	Becky Scano	David Macdonald	Gay Alford

Janet Leblond	Karen Marshall	Kristi O'Donnell	Lisa	Mike Tallinger

Pradeep Pushpavanam	Ralph Stalnecker	Richard Lau	Shawn Jennings	Smita Kana

Ralph Stalnecker Ram, Since my initial chats with you guys, I wanted to share my story so everyone can know me a little better and maybe something in this story will help keep someone else from going through what I went through. Thats the point of it all, right ? That and to share via your club, that we are all survivors!!!!! Ralph...................... Ralph's story I'm a 44 year old father of two teen boys. i had been diagnosed early in life with high blood pressure and had been taking medication to keep it in check for over a decade. my famliy doctor had also been keeping my cholesterol in check. however, i did suffer from vertigo and "floaters" in my vision periodically. i was quick to dismiss these episodes as "anxiety attacks"as i can be a very nervous and worrysome type of person. what happened the week before my stroke i had been fighting an oncoming cold with particularly bad coughing fits.i'm active with my son's high school band as an equipment mover and chaperone so my weekends were spent on the road for field competitions.i also drove the equipment van.the weekend of oct 20th was much like all the others except a persistent neck pain which advil seemed to take care of nicely. the band finished their show and we were loading when i bent down to pick up an equipment case and my neck pain flared up intensely to the point i saw stars. i managed to get some advil and shake the episode off (little did i know what had happened at that point) we finished loading and i drove back to the school where we continued to unload everything into the band room. when we finished i returned home not giving much more thought to what had happened nor to the "floaters" episode i experienced the day before. i awoke the next morning and did my usual morning bathroom routine i attempted to return to bed but ended up falling out twice(due to left side weakness) this alarmed my wife who quickly callled 911. EMT's the emt's arrived and quickly diagnosed my condition. i was shocked when i heard one of them mention possible stroke. i knew things were serious at that point. with my wife's help i was quickly dressed and put into the ambulance. i did a lot of praying during that 10 min. ride to the hospital I was examined by a neurologist in the emergency room who decided my situation was serious after a couple of cat scans and and mri's. I was admitted at that point and put in acute care. for stabilizing and eventually moved to the rehab section. acute care i spent 4 weeks in acute care where i began OT and relearned how to do the simple things... i was put through a battery of tests (cat scans, mri's)that also included an angiogram where my dissected carotid arteries were discovered. rehab the next 4 weeks were spent in the rehab section where during two daily 90 min sessions i relearned how to walk, balance myself, and do steps. no to mention the painful range of motion stretching exercises. i was in the care of a great team of therapists who never stopped encouraging me and helped me regain my strength, endurance and dignity.i can't say thank you enough to those folks. home coming home for me occurred on dec 21st. what a great christmas present!!! i quickly learned that life was not to be the same. with that little bit of reality, depression began to sink in. not to mention greiving (it's important to do this so you can continue to move forward!!!) for what i had lost. let me say this again, if you are beginning your home recovery, take time to grieve, get it behind you, and continue to move forward!! life at home continues to be a learning experience, not only for me(as i learn the boundries of my capabilities), but for my family as they adjust to picking up the responsibilities of the things i used to do.i'm dealing also with my depression (via visits to my family dr.) which is getting better as i get reinvolved with work and society in general (including Ram's great VAD group here who have accepted me even though my dissection affliction is different from vad ), we are all stroke survivors, here for supporting each other, thanks Ram for providing the means for our socializing!!!! ....ralph Ralph Stalnecker Sun Certified Programmer For The Java 2 Platform and stroke survivor ralph.stalnecker@worldnet.att.net http://home.att.net/~ralph.stalnecker/