Tom's stroke

Aug 07 2008

So I got in the house after the MILI training today and no sooner had I let the dog out the back door than there was a knock on the front door. It was my wonderful friend Emmett. He told me my husband, Tom, hadn’t been feeling well at work and that he was here to take me to Tom at the hospital.

I wondered what I was going to blog about. Tonight I just have to have someone to talk to. You are it.

Tom had a stroke. There was Emmett saying things would be fine and the voice mail Tom left me on my cell phone, saying he was fine. (That’s me and technology–I had the phone with me all day and it was turned off…) But you never know if you are being told the truth in cases involving the hospital. "Let’s just get her here and then give her the bad news face-to-face".

So I got to Fairview Southdale and found my daughter, Jessica, and Tom’s friend & colleague, Rick, were waiting–had been waiting for over an hour and a half. Tom was having an MRI. Rick told me of Tom at work--his drooling and slurring of words, of the sparkle that was missing from Tom’s eyes and voice, of the paramedics being called, over Tom’s protestations. But told it in a way that was funny and real and spoke of Tom.

When Tom finished with the scan, I saw that the left side of his face was not quite matching up with his right. Particularly his mouth was not responding on one side. Other than that, he looked quite himself. And he is! I have just left him–and his roommate–on the 5th floor. He is ready to get out of there. But there is the echocardiogram scheduled for tomorrow... He had a heart attack 3 years ago and I hope the medical professionals take a real good look at everything tomorrow. Tom is a good man and I will miss him tonight and for the next few nights. I can’t imagine any more than that.