My husband, Xenios, suffered a stroke on Dec. 1, 2015

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Maria
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My husband, Xenios, suffered a stroke on Dec. 1, 2015

Post by Maria »

Xenios suffered a stroke on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 2015. He is home now, but is visibly shaken by the experience of being totally dependent on God and medical care while he recovered from a tiny clot in his speech center in the brain.

I first noticed the stroke as his speech was noticeably different. He was speaking Swedish or the sing song dialect of Swedish, his childhood language. I told him to speak in English as I could not understand him. He then raised up his hands and shrugged his shoulders as if confused, and spoke more gibberish. Next, I asked him if he wanted me to call 9-1-1. He reached over for the phone and twice tried to dial 1-1-9, but hung up when he was obviously not successful. What would he say anyway if he had dialed the correct number? I asked him to stand up and walk. He did. I asked him to look at me, but he glanced away. His face showed no sign of a droop or any asymmetry. A second request to look at me was followed by a sorrowful look and more gibberish.

So, I asked him to sit down again, and told him that I would pray with him. I anointed him with the Sign of the Holy Cross with a cotton ball filled with the holy oil from the Hawaiian myrrh-streaming Iveron icon of the Ever-Virgin Mary from Hawaii. Even though this oil was over two years old, it was still fragrant and liquid and the oil was seeping from the plastic bag -- a miracle in itself. This anointing took about a minute and seemed to calm him down.

Next, I dialed 9-1-1. Then Xenios stood up and walked over in an attempt to talk with the 9-1-1 operator, but realized that he could not speak, so he let me continue. I told Xenios that the paramedics would be here in five minutes, and that I was gathering things and putting on fresh clothes.

Anyway, after praying with Xenios, he was able to be more responsive, so a miracle was unfolding before our eyes. He was now saying, "I" or "yes" at the beginning of most of his sentences.

As soon as the paramedics came, he seemed to be momentarily confused. Then I noticed that he was walking around the house, disconnecting appliance cords and gathering his key chain. Use of the hands to disconnect cords to appliances is a form of expressive communication. He was getting ready to leave the house and he knew what he was doing. These signs showed that he was continuing to improve.

While he had remembered to put his keys in his pocket, he had failed to get his wallet with his ID cards, and had lost his cell phone. This activity shows again that while he had receptive communication and could understand what I was saying to him, he did not have full expressive communication. Nevertheless, he was gradually improving even without the tPA.

I grabbed his hand and led him to the front door mentioning that the paramedics were waiting for him. Xenios was a little reluctant, but as soon as I opened the atrium door and he saw the paramedics, then he walked quickly to the front gate, pulled his keys from his pocket, unlocked and swung the gate wide open, and then stepped outside to greet the paramedics. Simultaneously, he said his first complete (expressive) sentence to them, "Thank you for coming so quickly."

The paramedics looked at me and then at Xenios, and said, "Who needs help?" I mentioned that my husband was having difficulties, and then Xenios hurried over to the wheelchair/gurney and sat down. When they asked him his name, he spoke gibberish. When they asked him is birthday, again he spoke gibberish.

When they asked for his health insurance information, I realized that he did not have his ID, so I went back into the house to retrieve it. When I came back, we all headed for the ambulance.

In the ambulance, more questioning and a brief physical exam revealed that his heart was okay, but showed signs of stress, his blood pressure was elevated, and his pulse was rapid. The paramedics ruled out a heart attack, but made the preliminary diagnosis that he was having aphasia, most likely from a TIA or stroke.

This is a sample of one of his communications with the paramedics. Remember that initially, he could not speak any English at all.

Question: When were you born?
Xenios: 19X5 Correct
Question: When where you born including month and day?
Xenios: 19X5 Correct
Question: Month of your birth?
Xenios: 19X5
Question: Day of your birth?
Xenios: 19X5

  • 19X5 has been used so as not to reveal personal information in this post.
    Xenios knew that he was giving the correct year of his birth, but he could not respond correctly with the month and day.

When asked to clinch his fist, he gave the high five signal, so even his hand signals were affected by his aphasia, but that is not surprising as we communicate with our hands in sign language, and naturally use our hands as we speak.

When asked to squeeze the fireman's hand, Xenios could not do so, but held his hands up in a high five.

When asked to touch the fireman's hand and then touch his own nose, he tried, but could not do the sequence correctly as he would only give the high five signal. After showing him the correct response about three times, he was finally able to follow the commands. Again, this showed that he was gradually improving in his expressive communications.

At the hospital, after the CT scan, Xenios was placed in the ER where more intense questioning was done to determine what he could do. He remained in the hospital bed where they had him sitting up. He was asked to raise his hands and legs, one at a time, and to hold them for a count of ten. These tests he passed with flying colors. However, in trying to describe pictures and read words, he had difficulty. One young nurse was laughing at his responses, but was quickly escorted out.

When the doctor touched him on his shoulder, told him that she knew that he was trying, but that it was difficult, he had tears in eyes. Blood tests were done to determine if he would be a suitable candidate for the tPA wonder drug, which was administered within the appropriate two hour window. Then his improvement was dramatic, and within three to four hours from his arrival, he had normal neurological tests. With the administration of tPA, which acts as a blood thinner, he was admitted and transferred to the ICU for a period of 24 to 48 hours observation.

In the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Xenios and I shared with the nurses about the Hawaiian Iveron Icon, and how our Lady the Theotokos had directed his healing. They took down the website information and want to visit this icon when it next comes to the Los Angeles area.

Xenios remained in the hospital for four days (Tuesday afternoon through Friday evening): 48 hours in the ICU and one day in Telemetry. He did not get much sleep due to the constant monitoring, beeping of the machines, daily blood tests, and constant stream of tests, which determined he had had a minor stroke (with a tiny blood clot in the Wernicke's area of the brain), and a small hole in his heart. The Wernicke's area is one of two speech centers of the brain.

The hospital released him on Friday night, and he is now resting at home doing light exercises such as walking around, and trying his hand at cooking his favorite food, which is much better than hospital fare! Release is a cause of celebration!

Please keep him in your prayers as he will need surgery in the next few weeks to mend the hole in his heart and to check for any further signs of blood clots.

Lovingly in Christ,
Maria

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner.

Archimandrit Nilos
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Re: My husband, Xenios, suffered a stroke on Dec. 1, 2015

Post by Archimandrit Nilos »

With my prayers for Xenios.

Matthew
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Re: My husband, Xenios, suffered a stroke on Dec. 1, 2015

Post by Matthew »

Amen, May God help Xenios to make a full recovery.
By the mercy of God,
Matthew

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Barbara
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Re: My husband, Xenios, suffered a stroke on Dec. 1, 2015

Post by Barbara »

Maria,

How agonizing this horrible experience must have been for both of you !
I am really grateful, though, that you told us the whole story so that we could live through it firsthand.

Always do that, so we have the full picture. Such a close call sounds so scary anyway, but worse when one can't follow the narrative vividly as you allowed us to do here by your great description of each stage of the events.

I could almost see the paramedics shrugging and wondering which of the 2 adults was the one to be taken to the hospital due to the efficacy of your anointing with the Hawaiian Iveron Myrrhstreaming Icon's myrrh. That is a remarkable sub-theme by itself.

He was released from the hospital at the end of the day of the Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple, perhaps a connection or some help from the Heavenly Queen.

Is the surgery procedure for sure, then ? If so, it must be a major open-heart surgery needed to seal up that hole.

Let us know all the details as you learn them about that and his general recovery. Best wishes to you both !!

Agios_Irineos
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Re: My husband, Xenios, suffered a stroke on Dec. 1, 2015

Post by Agios_Irineos »

Prayers for Xenios and for you as well Maria.

Matthew
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Re: My husband, Xenios, suffered a stroke on Dec. 1, 2015

Post by Matthew »

I am glad that he is recovering well. Thanks be to God. I will continue to keep in you both in prayer.

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