Thursday, July 26, 2012

Gluten Problem plus a Hospital Experience


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Hello loyal follower(s)

Many of of you may of thought that I was full of hot air most of the time, but in reality it was a lot of gas.  It appeared that there was much more gas than "normal", thus Cyndy suggested that I may be Gluten Intolerant.  Sure enough when I removed Gluten from my diet the gas was gone, except when I ate beans, sauerkraut or other similar foods. This means I will now have a new direction in baking,  not as much fun as yeast  based cooking and probably not as tasty, but that's life in the fast lane.

Yesterday I spent much of the day in the emergency room at the neat Brainerd hospital because Cyndy thought I was having a stroke or something.  I really do not have much memory of what went on.  Therefore I have requested that Cyndy write about the experience.


At 10:15 P.M., this past Monday evening, we were watching the news on TV.  Clare sat down beside me to "cuddle" before we went to bed.  In a short while, he was like dead weight.  I felt like I needed to change position, but couldn't because he wouldn't respond to me when I asked him to.  With some pushing, I got him off my body; but, he still wasn't responding to me.  Within approximately 5 minutes, he began to open his eyes, but couldn't raise himself off of the futon couch we had been sitting on.  I finally got him to a sitting position and between the two of us, we checked his blood glucose.  It was 145, and we knew that he wasn't in either insulin shock or diabetic coma.  A while later, I asked him to get up and walk.  He looked like he was stoned;  but, he had had no alcohol in days.  About 1/2 hour before this episode, he had taken 1 Ambien  (a sleeping pill).  But, he had taken that pill and dosage before with no abnormal effects.  His speech was garbled, although he no other symptoms of a stroke.  He still was exhibiting speech and motor inability about 1 hour later, and I decided that it was time to go to the hospital emergency room.  Of course, I did not know where the hospital in Brainerd was or what was it's name.  After searching in the yellow pages, I remembered that it was a Saint something;  and then I found St. Joseph Medical center, called the number, and found out that was indeed the hospital.

Since Clare was very unsteady on his feet, I had him put his arms on my shoulders, and we made it: down the stairs and into the car.  On arriving at the hospital, he was somewhat better, but, still was off in a "foreign land" some of the time, and unsteady on his feet.

We arrived at the hospital about 11:30 P.M.  They did another blood sugar along with other lab work, and a CAT scan of his brain.  That was all normal, but, they decided to keep him over night and in the morning did an echo cardiogram, and an MRI of the brain.  Meanwhile, I arrived home at about 4:30 A.M. and finally fell asleep as the sun was rising.  Two hours later I awoke and went back to the hospital.  He was doing well and was wondering why I had taken him to the hospital (although he had no recollection of the whole incident).  By afternoon, the tests were completed and read.  The neurologist came in to see us.  He said that all the tests were normal and that maybe he had had a idiosyncratic reaction to the Ambien.  Later, the hospitalist said that he also may have had the episode caused by a small hole in between the atria of his heart (patent foramen ovale); that many people had this condition and were totally unaware of such.  And we should only be concerned if it happened again. The did not feel that he had had s stroke; neither did they feel that he had had  TIA. But that he had had enough symptoms of a stroke that it was proper to bring him to the hospital, and to check for both cardiac and brain problems.    He was then released from the hospital to return to normal activity; but, he should start taking a baby aspirin everday.

We were totally impressed with the medical system at Brainerd; and also, were impressed with the facility which had been newly remodeled .  The nursing care and food service was also the best that we have experienced over the past year ( and Clare has had many hospital encounters in the year past).

On a more  positive note;  after the surgery and the cessation of taking the pain pills for nerve  pain my hair began growing in with curls.  Here take a look!






The new but greatly modified  Mr Nut.




















This was the first opportunity for me to see the back of my head.  The wild man from St George Utah.  I was going to get a haircut yesterday but the hospital experience took precedence.  But isn't  life hoot.  



My first new project will be gluten free waffles and pancakes. I hope they will be eatable, I will start with recipes from the internet, and of course change them.

Today I am writing from a Public Library in the Minneapolis area near where I grew up.
À bientôt

Mr Nut












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