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Come for the Stroke, Stay for the Biopsies

If you want the whole story of how I had a stroke, and then ended up the hospital for a whole week because they thought they found cancer, here you go:

(tl,dr : they found no cancer – and my PSA plug – get up to date on your cancer screenings, and know the signs of stroke:

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The stroke was scary enough – I got dizzy, couldn’t walk right, then collapsed half on the bed no longer being able to move my left arm or leg, or the right side of my face, so my speaking was all slurred too. Steve called 911 immediately and I went to the ER in an ambulance. It happened again while in the ambulance, and went away on its own.

I had a head CT in the Emergency Department, and there were no clots that would have needed extra treatment right away.

For 2 days they did scans and ultrasounds looking for a cause, or if there was more risk or intervention needed but no clots were found (this is good news) I was also put on Aspirin, Plavix, and Heparin shots for blood thinning and reducing clotting.

There was an ultrasound of my heart from the front side, and then one of the back side through my esophagus. I was under anesthesia for this procedure, but it sure left my throat sore and irritated for the whole day. They found no existing clots, or holes that would be problematic.

There was also an ultrasound of my liver and gall bladder, requested because of the results of one my blood tests they did on intake.

They saw some spots on my liver and requested an MRI of my whole midsection, which showed lesions they believed to be cancer originating somewhere else, and then they also found a mass in my uterus. If that sounds scary, it truly is.

That meant I had 2 biopsies needed, but had to wait 3 days for the blood thinners to get out of my system. The liver likes to bleed apparently.

But then, the gynecologic oncologist could not locate any mass inside the uterus at all, and the irregular cells she did find were benign.

She will still do a PET scan to further rule out any problems there. There’s a good chance that those results will also be fine, and then there will be no further action.

The liver cells are being sent to the University of Washington for more pathology. It could be something to treat, monitor, or ignore, but it’s not cancer.

We know that we are super lucky to have this current outcome, and a lot of people get scary health news that stays scary – we have the deepest empathy, and our hearts go out to you.

Thanks to everyone who has been thinking and praying for us this past week 🥰

The second full day I was home, we visited a local farm for their Sunflower Festival. These are a few pictures we took.

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