Our life after the stroke.: Winter fun.

This blog was created to document our experience dealing with Bailey, our 16 year old daughter's stroke. Until September 15th, she was a perfectly healthy, active teenage girl. She is a junior in high school this year. She has a part time job, many friends and a busy social life. She is involved with the marching band, cross country skiing and the school theater group. Her class schedule reads like that of my nightmares - Honors classes, Advanced placement classes and even a "college in school" physics class. She has a smile that shows itself with the slightest of provocation. She is happy, easy going and a bit goofy. Generally, there was no reason to expect any health issues and definitely we would not ever have even thought a stroke was a possibility.

So, this is our story. I am hoping it will help others who experience this sort of misfortune to understand they are not alone. Maybe they are feeling the way we do and will take some comfort our story.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Winter fun.

Today we had our first snow in Minneapolis. We got somewhere between 4 and 8 inches - who really knows - anything over 2 inches is hard to shovel anyway! It was rather pretty but also very wet and heavy. Bailey and I decided to venture out into the winter wonderland and do some shopping. This seemed like a good idea until we got to the store and realized that there isn't any skid proofing on the bottom of a cane. She was slipping and sliding all over the parking lot!!

Anyone with any good ideas for this?

3 comments:

Kelly LNovember 13, 2010 at 11:20 PM
http://www.brucemedical.com/caneicegriptip.html

Might be able to find in local place like Handi Medical (University Ave.)

There's not much for slipping in slush except maybe a quad cane?!
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AnonymousNovember 14, 2010 at 2:36 PM
Tennis balls are the standard answer, I thought? Poke a hole in one and stick it on the end of the cane? Cheap, durable, fuzzy on top of rubber.

The movie "up" shows this in action on the protagonist's walker, I believe...
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AnonymousNovember 14, 2010 at 8:53 PM
hey bailey -
we saw a flier up at sled hockey in richfield tonite and came on your site- you probably wont believe this, but my son had a stroke while still in my tummy - he had a spinal cord stroke - he has paralysis from the chest down... if you want to see him - his site is www.caringbridge.org/visit/nicholasdeyo
i dont know if you all are aware of the Shriners hospital in mpls. they are WONDERFUL - all their care is FREE - if you would like more info on it you can email me at todddeyo@sbcglobal.net -
keep up the EXCELLENT work Bailey!!!
take care
tanya - nick
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Medical Bills and Home Modification

I am not typically a person who asks for help, even when I really need it. I tend to struggle until I get overwhelmed and then ask for the help I needed in the beginning. Well rather then do that this time I am taking the advice of a friend and reaching out before we get desperate.

Like most people, Paul and I were not prepared for a major family crisis. I was laid off from my job in May and had just began attending college full time. Paul has a decent job but there is not a lot of room for saving money with the cost of living being what it is today. We have decent medical insurance but because Bailey required 3 ambulance rides, 2 emergency room visits and was actually admitted to 3 different hospitals prior to coming to Sister Kenny we have racked up a ton of "out of pocket" expenses. Had this just been one hospital stay we would have to just pay the "minimum per inpatient stay" to worry about but instead we get to start over every time.

Beyond the medical bills we have a few modifications to make to the house in order for her to be fairly mobile once she leaves the hospital.

Any help that we can get is appreciated. We wouldn't be asking if we didn't really need it. Thank you for your support in our time of need.