aanaruk

This week (just passed) marked my eleven year anniversary into my third life ( I was born, I was Baptized, then I survived!) As I do every year, I send an annual note of thanks out to the four hospitals and four teams of doctors, nurses, therapists, lab workers etc that had anything to do with my recovery. Here is this year's (much shorter than normal) diatribe! Hello all! As always it is hard to believe its been so long. Eleven years and a day since I began this tremendous post AVM rupture journey. As I recall for you every year (usually on 5/18 - I missed it this year - for a good reason) I suffered an AVM rupture, was operated on by the good folks of Dr. McVicker and team at Swedish, then foisted off on three rehab hospitals. You guys remain in my thoughts and receive my prayers of thanks daily! I missed thanking you on the anniversary this year (yesterday) because Chong and I were on travel looking for a retirement home in Douglas County Colorado. Anyway - not a long diatribe this year, but thank you for my life!

Hello Anybody who happens to see this! Well, it has happened. About five and a half months ago on Friday the 13th (of November 2015) I left work for the last time, I turned 66 in October so eligible for 100% social security. After a massive hemorrhagic stroke in May 2005 it was miraculous I was able to work this long. The last year was great with four trips to the UK, one to Sweden and one to Australia. I'll miss the travel, but from now on travel is with the two of us. We're going to visit three national parks this summer, then fly to Korea this fall. Much of our military career was spent in Korea and we've not been there since 1990 so we're excited to see how its changed. We're also planning to take a trip to Denver soon to see if we want to move back there for our retirement. We plan to do a lot of concentrated grand daughter spoiling (we have three) just because we can! I owe our ability to have these choices and to enjoy our retirement to Dr. John McVicker and his emergency surgery team (and the Swedish Hospital ICU team), to the rehab folks at Porter Select hospital, to Dr. Weintraub and his therapy team at Craig Rehab hospital (all in Denver) and to the folks at the community re-integration therapy team at Moss Rehab in New Jersey. Thanks all for your support!

Thank you, Sue!

Wow! Its been another few years. I still stop by and read the newbie posts every couple of months and I even responded to the "100 things you don't know about me" post that Steve started quite some time back. Boring guy that I am, however, I could only come up with thirty some responses! Since my last entry, my wife and I have moved again (either our last or penultimate move) and we are now in Texas. Funny place for an Eskimo to land isn't it? Well, I'm also half Arkansas hillbilly so I guess that helps ... It has now been a little over ten years since that fateful night I woke up in my hotel room suffering a hemorrhagic stroke. Life and normalcy have been continuing and I remain thankful to God for my life, my family, my friends, my recovery, and every thing he has given us. Our grand daughters continue to make us proud in all they are and do. Ages now? 16, 13, and 2. The 13 year old came to spend two weeks with us this summer and we took her to Vegas to see David Copperfield (what a great experience!) then the Grand Canyon. What a majestic and awe inspiring place to experience. Most importantly we were able to spend two great weeks with such an inspiring young lady. Now living in TX, we are about a five hour drive from our two year old Grand daughter, though we've only made that trip a couple of times we hope to do it again soon. We're also about a 12 hour drive from our older two grands. We haven't done that yet, hopefully we'll be able to do so soon. All this rambling is my long hand way of saying life after stroke can be great! Thank you to all my doctors, nurses, and therapists (and their entire teams) who made this possible!

just recently moved (back to TX) Now living in Wylie and working in Richardson. Hopefully we'll stay here through retirement! Axel Anaruk, hemorrhagic stroke May 2005.

You folks are impressive! I'll try to get a couple: 1. I am part yupik eskimo and part arkansas hillbilly 2. I served in the USAF from Feb 1969 to June 1994 (enlisted 1969 to 1981, commissioned 1983 to 1994) 3. I was a Chinese linguist, then an intelligence officer. 4. I have lived in 21cities/towns in 11 states and four countries 5. My wife and I have two sons and three grand daughters. 6. I will retire for the third time sometimes in the next five years. 7. I completed an MBA about six months before having a hemorrhagic stroke. 8. I like to fish and hunt. 9. I've given up hunting due to mild hemi-paresis and low proprioception. 10. I hold a commercial SEL pilot's license 11. I have one living brother and one living sister 12. Our youngest brother passed away in 1995. 13. The United States has had 12 Presidents in my lifetime. 14. The "state in which I was born did not become a state until I was 10 years old. 15. I dislike CA because people there spit on me and other military members during two of my tours of duty there. 16. I love the cold but can no longer live in cold weather due to its affect on my skin. 17. One of my Aunts had a husband who was a state Governor for 12 years. 18. I met a moonshiner in the ozarks on a back road. He was driving a wooden wagon pulled by two mules. 19. I played in the orchestra in elementary, junior high, high school and college. I played violin in elementary through high school, viola in HS, and bull fiddle in HS and college. 20. Although I've lead singing in church service, I've got a horrible singing voice. 21. I've preached in three different congregations. 22. I've attended four different colleges. 23. I attended three different elementary schools, two junior high schools and only one high school. 24 I have flown in Grumman goose, PBY's, DC-3, DC-4, DC-6, DC-8, Connies, Boeing 720B's, Boeing 707, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, 777, DC-9, MD-80,L1011, MD-11, Cessna 150, 172, 182, 207, Piper Cub, Piper Cherokee, Piper Comanche, Piper Arrow, and T-41. I piloted Cessna 150, 172, Piper Cherokee, Piper Comanche, Piper Arrow, and T-41. 25. I cannot accept the platform (in total) of any political party. I am slightly conservative. I have voted for republicans and democrats. I try to find an honest politician for whom to vote but feel there may be none left. 26. I don't know for certain where we will go to retire, but it will likely be TX, the front range in CO, or western WA. 27. I believe phones are to talk on, not to use for picture taking or going on the internet and texting. 28. Tweets are misnamed. They should be called twits. They after all come from twitter, not tweeter. 29. I have been in at least five earthquakes over 5.0 30 I have been through three typhoons, two hurricanes, and had a funnel cloud pass over my backyard. 31. I was a Star Scout, a senior patrol leader, a junior assistant scoutmaster, an assistant scoutmaster, a scoutmaster, a den father, a cubmaster, a committee member, all total in 4 packs and 6 troops in three countries. 32. I love to read. 33. I have been an elite level frequent flyer on four airlines. 34. I have been in 47 of the 50 states. 35. I think thats about all. Axel. Hemorrhagic stroke 2005

Its been a long time since I visited StrokeNet. In that time My wife and I have moved to PA (from CO), taken new jobs, and moved into a Townhome. Life goes well. I wake up every morning and find myself still breathing each day! Though our current home is only 50 or so miles from where we lived when I had my stroke, we have not made it back to see our friends and neighbors more than perhaps 4 or 5 times. Of course in the meantime we've established new friends and neighbors! Anyway, I just wanted to put up a note and will now wander off to newbie posts to see who is new on the board! axel

This last weekend was one of our 3 day weekends. My facility has a 9/80 schedule which means we can take every other friday off. Kinda nice! I sometimes use that off day to visit Craig Rehab Hospital where I did my post stroke in-patient rehab for about 2 months. Nice to see the folks whom I credit with helping give my life back. This week, however, I chose to do some internet job hunting instead. Applied to one or two positions. Time will tell if anything comes of them. The one company that contacted me late last week hasn't gotten back in touch, but I expect they are interacting with numerous candidates. I rather hope I hear from them as they are OEMs of some really good "stuff" in my line of work. We use their products, and I expect quite a few other large defense companies do as well. Yesterday afternoon, our two grand daughters came over to spend the night. They go back to school in 3 weeks so my wife wanted to take them school clothes and supplies shopping. Its always great to have them around to spoil. I'm afraid they didn't enjoy the sleepover too much, though. Two or three pretty violent thunderstorms ripped through from about 8pm until 11pm or so. They just don't like the flash and noise. My wife ended up consoing them and calming them down. One of our grand daughters has persistent asthma, though has surprisingly not had too many flares since moving to Denver. If any of you have family, especially kids, with asthma, let me recommend my daughter-in-law's website as a helping resource. She runs a website called theasthmamom.com which offers a discussion forum, advice etc for parents of children with asthma. Well, enough rambling for now. I hope all goes well for everybody out there. axel

First, Thanks to Asha and Debbie for your entry responses. I appreciate your input. Asha, I thik maybe we've corresponded on Strokenet in the past, probably when I was still living in New Jersey. Debbie - I had thought of consulting, though not of teaching. I do have an MBA so may qualify for some college level courses. I'll have to look into how one goes about doing that. Consulting could be right up my ally as I am an expert (in my own humble mind) in the field of intelligence collection. I'll look into that as well. Since my first entry here I've experienced a couple of positive indications that my resume is being seen. Mostly without positive results. I am now in discussions with one company that may want me to come interview. MAY want me to come interview. Now I get to worry about ... how does one tie a tie with paresis and lack of proprioception on the left while on the road. Could be interesting. I'll not get too excited about those things, however. I think (know) I can successfully interview without a neat tie anyway! Back to teaching: being on the podium is something I've always enjoyed. I taught tech school (for chinese linguists) in the air force, and taught masters level students in the degense intelligence college. Really enjoyed doing both. What a great Idea. Stopping for now. axel

Good day all. Just figured I'd try blogging, something I've never done. As an AVM patient, I suffered a bleed in May of 2005. I was one of the fortunate ones in that I was able to go back to work in about 5 months (Oct 3, 2005). Since that time I've continued to improve in mental continuity, physical condition, etc. Now I feel like I may have hit a road block. I work in the defense industry. I work here because its what I know. I served in the military 25 years so moved to defense when I retired. My job is going away as defense spending declines. I've been actively looking since April. Nothing! I wonder what I'm doing wrong. I'm 60 years old. I'm a hemorrhagic stroke survivor. Do those things gang up on me? Is it I don't know how to write a resume? I don't know. I'll continue to look, continue to work hard in my current job as long as it lasts (through the end of Sept), but I am getting worried. Appreciate the opportunity to rant! I'll post on ocassion for therapy if nothing else! Stay well, Stay positive, Stay healthy! axel

I really like "Terry's statement " ... it's a good thing they did'nt have a stroke because they don't have the brain cells to loose." Although most of my disabilities are subtle, people tend to notice my paresis quite easily thank you very much. I get two types of reactions to my explanation that I'd had a stroke. The first is an unobtrusive offer to assist with ... whatever, and the ever popular "you don't look like it." I have basically taken the tact of not letting people get to saying the last by going into a 30 second explanation of AVM, stroke, and "Lord how I'm glad to be alive!" I have found this thwarts some of the typical responses we get while I've educated somebody without making anybody uncomfortable.

Hello Kathy - You ask an interesting question. One could answer it in any number of ways, but it will, in the end, all come down to you challenging yourself with the question - is this something we need? In the past, I'd have said the question is " ... is this something I need ... " but since suffering my stroke, and being brought back by family, doctors, my wife and God, I have to acknowledge the impact others have had on my recovery. about a week and a half ago, my grand daughters came to visit. Well, so did our son and our daughter in law, but they were just escorts (grandpa grin inserted here). They wanted to see the rocky mountains via rocky mountain national park. I allowed as how that would involve a lot of up and down hill walking, and "grampa's weak left side" just wouldn't allow that. Well after many discussions and maybe even arguments we went anyway. Frankly, I discovered there was more in me than I thought. I managed some pretty steep hills, both up and down, and even managed to walk in some places where the footing was not so secure. That was maybe the best trip I ever took with my grand daughters, even beating all hollow two days when we took them to disney world (pre-stroke). Only you know how much you want to put up with the fatigue factor, but I will say that moving out of your comfort zone sometimes pays big benefits! axel