08/27/09 - Gibberish, Potential Medical Causes

Shortly after I put the initial Gibberish post on my blog, I also Emailed what happened to my Physician's Assistant. She is always very knowledgeable and provides an answer. She suggested that I may have experienced a seizure or a TIA. So much for being a trivial event...

From what I have read and what she has told me today, a seizure could coincide with a state of consciousness and its lasting effects (the post-ictal phase) could be when I was unable to talk right.

A TIA (Transient Ischemic Attack) is often a precursor to a stroke. Like a mini-stroke. My receiving radiation to my brain (twice) may have increased this risk.

Neither of those options are especially good, which leads me wonder what's next?

Oh yeah, if I experience similar symptoms again, I should go to the nearest Emergency Room...

08/26/09 - Gibberish

Yesterday evening it seem like I had an episode. Around 5:00PM, I couldn't convey anything long and meaningful during regular speech. I had this happen in the past before two of my hospital visits. Last night was somewhat different because I was able to correctly say a few single-word phrases and act fairly "normal." For example, when I tried to say,"That toy is not for the cat." I would say something like,"do pon red duj gaz." After about 1/2 hour of this, I was able to take about a 15 minute nap and my speaking returned to normal. Strange!

I don't know why this happened. It is very frustrating to know what you want to say, and not be able to say it. It reminds me of being back in inpatient rehab. I didn't have a problem speaking, but my 85+ roommate did. He had a stroke and was trying to recover from it. He was upset when the right words didn't come out. Our mind can do some amazing and detrimental things.

08/26/09 - Quick Update - the past month...

The last month (or so) was full of a lot of surprises for me. Radiation #3 ended on 7/14. I went to Moffitt on 8/4 to get some tests done. Via MRI's, they discovered that the two tumors that were targeted by radiation #3 were destroyed. Unfortunately, the MRI did lead them to find a new tumor on my spine. On Thursday, 8/6, I saw my radiation oncologist and he discussed the new tumor with doctors at Moffitt.

There game plane - since the tumor is small and I just got done with a radiation treatment, they gave me time "off" and are going to image the new tumor the first week of September. My estimate is I will likely get more radiation followed by more chemotherapy...

Having a month of, I decided to go to Pittsburgh. I bought the plane ticket on 8/9 for travel 8/13 - 8/20 (I was amazed it was still affordable - short notice 'n all). Thanks to all the people I saw, those that drove me around, or gave me a place to stay. I have been recovering on past visits, but it was worse on this one (mainly more sleepiness).

I got home late last Thursday evening from the Pittsburgh trip. The following day my former employer had a "Family Day." Long story short, I went. I'm glad I did as it was nice to see former coworkers and see what they were working on.

Hopefully I will elaborate on these subject in the near future,

08/26/09 - Blog Jumbalaya

I like to my keep posts in chronological order, but in doing so, I might delay or completely eliminate an easier post. Well, I have to stop doing that. So my blog will be "jumbled," but it should have more posts... If posts are out of order, they will be dated.