Married Life

Will and I are married, and I have become one of the authors to this blog, mostly because I spend everyday with him.  First off I'll try to unlock the mystery behind our love story.  I have known Will for five years, in that time we have dated seriously on and off. I admire no man more than Will and so when he had his stoke I came to see him.  Whenever I was with him I felt a peace.  A peace I had never felt before.  After months of this feeling I realized there was something more to the relationship, something eternal.

We're now married.  I feel like the luckiest girl on the earth.  I call him my miracle.  Not only because his life has been preserved, but because I am married to such a good man, one I can trust with everything I have and am.  There world doesn't seem so daunting with him by my side.  The next entries will be more about Will's health.  I saw fit, however, to introduct my piece of this story, and look forward to interacting with those following this blog.  Thank you for your love and support.  It means more than you know to both Will and I.

Summer E. Clarke Blackhurst

Winter's Storm, Summer's Wind

As many of you who have followed the blog know, I, Will's Mom, like to write poetry. Before the wedding, Summer approached me about doing some poetry for the luncheon. She suggested Elizabeth Barrett Brownings, "How do I Love Thee." My friend Nola VanWagenen, who accompanies my poetry on the violin, suggested the theme song to "Somewhere in Time" as background music. I thought they fit beautifully together.

I don't want to be compared to Browning, but I decided I needed to put into poetry some of my impressions of the year of the stroke as it pertained to Will and Summer. What I came up with I titled, "Winter's Storm, Summer's Wind." Nola heard it and immediately thought of "When You Walk Through a Storm Hold Your Head Up High...and You'll Never Walk Alone." It was the perfect song for the occasion. Thanks to all of you and your constant prayers in his behalf, Will has not been walking this difficult journey alone. I felt it would be appropriate to share with you the words to the poem. While Summer has been the wind, you have been spirit in the wind, the enabling power of grace, working behind the scenes to give both Will and Summer the strength, courage and determination to keep going.


Winter’s Storm and Summer’s Wind

When winter’s blast unleashed its cruel stroke,
And Will from thirty turned to be thirteen,
Much of his hope lay dead, yet there awoke
In him a realm made clean by suffering;
An inner kingdom in whose pathways ran
A heightened sensitivity to love,
A shredding of the carnal, natural man,
A wakening to insights from above.
It was a world where broken, wounded things
Intensified in him a wondrous awe,
Which wedded woundings to awakenings
As with new eyes he recognized and saw
Not but the surface, he beheld the depths.
He knew the pain and grief of sorrows born.
Unbidden tears welled up where once he’d slept
Unmindful of another’s cause to mourn,
Insensitive to open wounds which wept.
But now no more was kept from him the gift
To see another’s pain, and know of ways to lift.
Will’s stroke has grown in him that Flowing Fount
On whom all men rely for hope to rise;
Its Living Waters navigated mounts whose storms
Would sunder souls, and claim captivity the fate of their fair prize.
Will’s soul was rescued from captivity
As someone dear to him unleashed a surging gale,
A mighty wind whose hopes and humorous cheers,
Like to a billows, now blows out the folds of his deflated sails
And makes once more his destination clear.
It is the wind of love which fans the flame
Of one small candle yearning to burn bright.
A Summer wind, whose warmth and empathy
For Will’s ischemic stroke, diffuses in its wake both truth and light
Against the night of Will’s Gethsemane.
Will’s stroke brought Summer’s angel to his side,
As breath of mercy, warm with radiant beams.
Now is she his, his helpmeet and his bride,
The sweet fulfillment of his fondest dreams.
We who beheld this tale of love unfold,
Did with our eyes a miracle behold.

Wedding Day Jitters

Will's goal of getting married on December 30th came within a hair's breath of being foiled. He and his fiance were at the temple in plenty of time, but they had come without their temple recommends and marriage license. They thought the had them with them. They knew they had them somewhere. But where? What to do?

They called Summer's brother Dell and asked him to comb Summer's apartment. He did, but to no avail. He said a prayer and kept looking. Still no luck. He finally decided to get in his car and go to the place Summer had gone when she left her apartment. As he was driving out, he noticed some papers on the ground. He ran over them, thought, "could those be the documents I'm looking for?" He backed over them again and got out of his car to examined them closely. They were the very things he was looking for, riddled with tire marks and clearly the worse for wear, but also clearly identifyable. Summer had put them on top of the car for safe keeping as she was loading other things, forgotten that they were there, had gotten in the car, and driven off.

Once he had brushed them off, Dell called Summer, who was in the temple just a bit above panic mode. She heaved a huge sigh of relief at his good news and passed the word on to Will, who was outwardly remaining calm but inwardly going berzerk. The word that Dell had found the papers and would be on his way to the temple post haste, was enough to get them both out of range of cardiac arrest. Dell made it in time for the ceremony to proceed with only a minor delay. We are happy to report that things went somewhat smoother after that.

The people at the temple who received the documents looked at them like this was nothing. They had seen much worse. Apparently wedding day jitters are not all that uncommon among people who are tying the knot, not only for time, but for all eternity. A journey of that magnitude could understandably be taken with a bit of faltering on the first step.

Off the Plateau

Will , who had been on a plateau for a while, has been making some good progress recently. He has been working for a humanitarian firm called Globus Relief International in the shipment of medical supplies to devastated areas. His work there is very demanding and his boss is very excited to have someone who is so versed in medical terminology on the team.

He is also working in the Bountiful Temple on Saturdays. He works in the temple cafeteria where all the ladies love him. I know because they call to make sure he is coming. When I assure them he was on his way, they were very happy to hear it. He left one morning before the snow plows were out. It was a scary thing to watch him slip-sliding his way up the ice hill, but he seemed up to braving the storm. It seems to be something he does very well these days.

In our speech therapy sessions, he has been showing remarkable recall. I had him choose a favorite tongue twister and he chose a couple that we hadn’t done since August. (They were not my favorites so I completely dropped them.) I was absolutely flabbergasted when he came out with Fanny Finch fried five floundering fish for Francis Fowler’s father and Does Moses suppose his toes were a rose? When I remember the first time he spoke a sentence in Ohio that I could understand, "Mom, do you have a two?" (We were playing Go Fish.) I realize how far he has come.

His executive function is also kicking in. He bore his testimony in church on Sunday. (The last testimony meeting he would be eligible for the young single’s ward before they kicked him out for being over thirty.) The bishop commented on what a beautiful spirit it brought into the meeting. His fiance, Summer, told me it was short and centered in Christ and all the other testimonies afterward reflected the influence of Will’s testimony.

As the day of the wedding approaches, we are seeing more and more restoration. My prayer currently is for stamina. Will still needs a lot of sleep and the idea of him being able to stay awake and alert for 30 hours straight is still pretty daunting.

Update

It has been a while since we posted on Will's progress so I thought I would share with you some of the things that have been happening. Progress is being made in the two critical areas of recovery: 1- Executive Function and 2- Memory.

As far as memory goes, Will has good recall of events of yesterday and plans for the immediate future. His medical memory remains at a very high level. He gave us a very excellent review of the molecular structure of Omega 3's and Omega 6's around the lunch table the other day.

In Executive Function, he has pretty much taken over his own finances. He keeps an excellent journal and structures his days very responsibily. However, he still tires easily and his speech is slurred when he's tired.

We have decided to remove all timetable expectations pertaining to his residency. When he does return he will return as a PGY1 (Post Graduate Year One). Residency years begin July 1st, so he could possibly go back as early as this July or a year from July, or later. He was disappointed that he would not be able to count the first seven months of his residency, but grateful that he could return when he was ready.

He continues to job shadow a family practice physician on Wednesdays and a neuro surgeon on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. He also works in the temple every other Saturday. His spirits are good. His fiance is largely responsible for this. She is his best therapist as well as his best friend.

We are keeping in close contact with the physicians at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus and appreciate their expertise and counsel as we address new issues raised by changes in the ungoing saga of Will's recovery.

Medical History Form

Will has been asked to write more detailed histories of the patients he sees in the clinic of the family practice doctor he is job shadowing. Because his stroke affected his language skills, he continues to struggle expressing himself with verbal and written language. A form has been created to assist him with medical history taking which could probably use some help.

A SAMPLE HISTORY FORM

1- Patient’s Name_____________
2- Patient’s Age______________
3- Patient’s Blood Pressure______
4- Patient’s Weight__________Height_____
5- Patient’s Temperature_______________
6- Patient’s Signs and symptoms__________
7-Allergies__________________________
8- Medications_______________________
9- Past Pertinent History ________________
10- Events Leading to the problem _________
11- Problem_________________________
12- Diagnosis_________________________
13- Prescriptions and/or procedures_________

Any insights or resources on taking medical histories would be greatly appreciated.