aanaruk

Stroke Survivor - male
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Blog Entries posted by aanaruk

  1. aanaruk

    Eleven Years!

    By 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!
  2. aanaruk

    A Major Change!

    By aanaruk,

    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!
  3. aanaruk
    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!
  4. aanaruk
    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
  5. aanaruk

    A great weekend

    By aanaruk,

    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
  6. aanaruk

    A few days later

    By aanaruk,

    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
  7. aanaruk

    What a year!

    By aanaruk,

    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