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Copper Pot Therapy

June 29, 2018 By Becca Leave a Comment

I’m calling this post Copper Pot Therapy because that pretty much sums it up. In this post, you will see my copper pot and I’ll share the story behind the copper pot. This post also serves as a bit of therapy for me, in a few different ways. (typing, thinking, reading, moving) I’m having a bit of a pitty party today and I am forcing myself to do something… anything.

I signed up for an online photography class because I figured it’s something I can do while I’m on “activity restriction” and waiting for my brain to heal. I had been saving my birthday money for fabric but decided to use it on a class instead. The class is on finding and using light in photography. I thought this would be a good one for me because it’s always dark and gloomy in the Pacific Northwest and I struggle to get the pictures I dream of in my head. The lesson for this week is to take a picture of something from 5 different angles, really thinking about what we like or don’t like about the light. The story about the copper pot will be at the very end, so if you don’t want to read about photography you can scroll all the way down.

First off, we have a picture from the top. I think this is my favorite. I have always liked pictures taken at this angle. I would LOVE to get one of those tripods that holds your camera over the top of items. Now that balance is a huge issue for my stroke-brain, I don’t foresee myself climbing on chairs and tables to get the perfect shot.

The next two pictures are facing the windows. I didn’t want to see the neighbor’s house or my son’s car out the window, so I blew out the windows a bit. Not my favorite pictures, but I see how it could work if you had to have windows in the background.

I really like the next two pictures but I almost think I should use my 50mm lens and blur out the background. One of the things I hate is having clutter in the background. Yes, I could clear off the clutter but I wasn’t feeling like adding extra work. Remember… I was just trying to get myself out of my pitty party.

Ok, now onto the story of the copper pot.

I’ve always been deathly afraid of going to Mexico. I would hear scary stories of drug lords on the news, or hear of people being kidnapped. Everyone I know, who has survived their Mexican trips, always has stories of getting sick and spending half of their vacation near a toilet. Nothing about these scenarios appealed to me. Well, my kids’ friends would always post their awesome Mexican adventures on social media and the kids finally wore me down. I agreed that we could go to an all inclusive resort that had to be in one of the areas I had read about being “safe” and they had to use filtered water to wash all fruits and veggies and make ice. Once at the resort, we were not allowed to leave. My family rolled their eyes and agreed to my terms. Well, it was a bait and switch!! Once we got to Mexico they told me about the sight seeing they wanted to do! The resort assured me that if I stayed in the areas my family wanted to go that I would be safe. (I’ve never seen so many armed guards in my life!)

We took a giant van, because we were with another family as well, to two different cities. I can’t remember their names because I was a complete stress case. We went to a little market where people begged us to buy things. We ended up with a hammock and a hanging chair, and I had no idea how we were going to get those home. On the way home from the second stop, I spotted a guy on the side of the road selling copper. So. Much. Copper. I couldn’t resist and I begged my family to let me stop. I asked my husband and the cab/van driver to come with me. I really wanted the copper kitchen sink, but my husband said I was being unreasonable. I ended up with a really heavy copper pot (the one pictured) and another bowl that was a bit smaller. I bought the big pot for $40 and the small bowl for $15. I was giddy. I got back in the van and suddenly, I loved everything about Mexico!

The tricky part was finding a way to get the copper pots home. We ended up putting the pots in my daughter’s carry-on and the hammocks and chair in my son’s. Then, all we had to do was figure out how the kids were going to get their clothes home. We couldn’t put the clothes in the big suitcases because they were already at the 50 pound limit. So, my kids had to stuff all of the clothes from their carry-ons into the teeny tiny backpacks they bought at the market. Needless to say, they were suddenly cursing my copper pots. After we got home, I told everyone who stopped by about the copper pots and my new love of shopping in Mexico. The kids would just roll their eyes. I’m sure they will be fighting over who gets the big copper pot someday. I guess I’ll have to put it in my will.

Ok, I think my pitty party is over. Photography makes everything better.

Happy picture taking!

Pets and Flowers in the Golden Hour

June 14, 2018 By Becca Leave a Comment

It’s been raining for days. I don’t mean that it’s been raining like a nice spring rain. It’s been raining like it’s November in the Pacific Northwest. It’s the kind of rain you can hear when you’re inside with the dishwasher and washing machine running. Well, it finally stopped and it just happened to be the golden hour, so I ran outside with the camera.

The flowers really love the rain. No matter how much water they get with the sprinkler or hose, there’s just nothing like Mother Nature’s sprinkler.

The pets got to enjoy some outside time too. Cookie has recently discovered that there is a whole new world underneath the deck. My hubby came out with us and his job was to watch the bunny, while mine was to watch the turtle. Well, guess who bolted for the deck? My son came out and found us trying to lure her out from the playground under the deck. As he went back inside I could hear him tell his sister, “Dumb and Dumber lost the rabbit.” She finally came out when the dog started barking and spooked her. When she’s scared she wants her humans.

Peanut is home for the Summer and finally got to go outside to catch some bugs. She loves her potato bugs. We flip over the landscaping bricks and she charges after the bugs as they scatter. She’s quite the hunter. She loves basking in the sun and hiding under the plants. For those of you who don’t know, Peanut was gifted to our kindergarten class last year. She is a 30 year old box turtle. She is very set in her ways, doesn’t like to eat her greens, prefers bananas, and will grab onto your finger (tightly) if you wave it in front of her. (Ask our librarian how we know that!)

Here’s the big guy. This is Cooper. He’s such a dork. He’s a total goof ball and he loves his pets. He gives the bunny kisses on the side of her head and kind of sniffs the turtle. He gets upset when the bunny goes under the couch and was really upset when she went under the deck. He tried to go under to get her, but quickly realized he’s too big to fit.

Seriously, could these three be any cuter? Someday I’ll have my farm animals, but for now I’ll be happy with these guys.

I’m so thankful that the rain stopped and that sunshine is on the way. I loved getting outside at the perfect time of night. Between sunshine, the golden hour, my favorite pets, and getting the chance to use my camera, this was just the mood booster I needed.

Behr Deck Over – 4 Years Later

June 4, 2018 By Becca 1 Comment

I just looked up how many years it has been since our deck makeover with Behr Deck Over. I first posted about Behr Deck Over in July of 2013. In case you are interested, here’s the first post. It’s been 4 years and our deck is just now starting to show some wear. We live in the Seattle area and, if you haven’t heard, it rains a lot here. We jokingly say that Summer starts on July 5th because it’s been known to rain on the day that we’d all like to be out at a family BBQ. Once the weather takes a turn for the better, we usually have a pretty nice summer! That doesn’t mean that every single day is clear skies and sunshine, but if it’s not raining you can find most of us outside. Our deck gets a lot of use in the summer and we need a product that will hold up to dog and teenage party traffic. Here’s the link to the second post about Behr Deck Over, if you are interested.

Here is our deck in 2013, when we had just pressure washed it.

And here is our deck after painting Behr Deck Over onto it.

You can see that there is a lot of space, which meant a lot of painting, and also meant that we didn’t want to tackle this project every summer.

For the past few summers I’ve given the deck a light scrub with a push broom, some outdoor cleaner, and a hose. It’s worked great to get the pollen and green gunk off of the boards. The Deck Over held up perfectly!

So, here we are in 2018. I just had a stroke and the deck is finally showing some wear. This needs to be the summer of Behr Deck Over Round 2. Unfortunately, I have been on a strict “do nothing” routine prescribed by my doctor. No repetitive movements like painting or exertion of any type that might hinder healing in my artery. Fortunately, for me, my kids were my chief workers with Behr Deck Over Round 1. At that time, they were 9 and 13. Fast forward 4 years and my kids are even better workers at 13 and 17. I’ll just sit in a chair in the grass and tell them when they miss a spot.

Seriously, friends, this is my happy place in the summer. Once the dry weather hits you’ll find me in the corner of that couch with the fire going and the heater on full blast. (I said it gets dry here, but most days aren’t too warm.) I plan to use Behr Deck Over again and I’m hoping they have the same color. I want to say the name either had something to do with chocolate or coffee. It was the perfect color. Our house is a light gray with white trim. Although I love the look of a white deck, that’s not the best idea when you have kids, a dog, and green blecky stuff that seems to grow on everything around here.

It’s Behr Deck Over for the win! Happy painting!

Cerebellar Stroke and Vertebral Artery Dissection

June 1, 2018 By Becca Leave a Comment

I’m going completely off of my normal blog topics of cooking, baking, gardening, sewing, and home life today. I heard on the news that June is Brain Health Month. I didn’t know that was a thing, but since I’ve been learning sooooo much about brain health in the past 8 weeks I decided to share a bit of my learning about Cerbellar Stroke and Vertebral Artery Dissection.

At the end of March, I had a stroke. I’m 44 years old, the mother of 2 teens, and I’m a kindergarten teacher. I’m ALWAYS sick with something, so I can’t say I’m super healthy. I seem to always struggle with illness and injury. Those of you who know me, know that I get weird stuff. The doctors tell me that my strange illnesses have nothing to do with my stroke, but I’m chalking this up to one more strange thing that happened to me. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m not the healthiest person, but I’m also not your typical stroke victim. If you are interested in reading the whole story, which you really should because it’s the craziest thing in the world, here it is. http://homeiswheremystorybegins.net/my-stroke/

After I had my stroke I tried to find as much information as I could on the topic. There isn’t much out there because a Cerebellar Stroke with Vertbral Artery Dissection makes up only 1% of all strokes. I told you I get weird stuff!!! One of the neurologists I saw suggested a book, which I laughed at because reading is incredibly hard for my brain right now. Luckily, the font was really big and if I read it slowly it almost made sense. Actually, it made a lot of sense which is why it’s worth sharing.

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The book is called Carotid and Vertebral Artery Dissection; A Guide for Survivors and Their Loved Ones.

(I hate being called a Survivor because it sounds so serious and life threatening.) There were several stories which were shared by survivors, which made me feel like I wasn’t crazy. Other people with this same injury/condition were experiencing the same things. Here are a few of the “oh my gosh” moments in the book that I really connected with:

*Exhaustion, background noise sensitivity, and sensitivity to light and sound are very common.

*Difficulty word-finding when speaking is totally a thing.

*I say that my stroke was a “small” stroke because I don’t look like a stroke victim. There is no such thing as a small stroke. My stroke was just in a different part of my brain, which controls different parts of my body.

*Vision impairment is common. My vision gets blurry if I read, write, or watch tv.

*Constant head pain is common. My head pain is in a new spot for me. It seems to be in the same spot as my stroke and it’s just always there.

*Memory difficulties – I though my memory was bad before my stroke. Wow! Now it’s horrible. It’s not just something funny anymore, it’s super frustrating. According to the book, this is SUPER common.

*”If you survive a dissection, you’ve been given another chance at life.” Talk about a slap in the face and making you wake up and pay attention! In one of the stories, they suggest really looking at your life and finding your purpose. I’ve always known my purpose in relation to home, family, and early childhood education. What if I don’t ever have the stamina to teach little people again?

*My ER doctors were amazing and it’s practically a miracle that they discovered that I had a stroke.

*I have a constant feeling that I’ve stepped off of a boat.

*Most patients report head and neck pain.

*Pain and dizziness may accompany every activity.

*Chronic pain leads to frustration. Umm, yes it does. This is an understatement.

*Emptying the dishwasher is my nightmare. It will cause me to need to rest for about an hour before recovering and this is something other people experience as well.

*Half of patients with this type of injury and stroke will have no idea what caused it. I know that my stroke was triggered by rolling my head-neck around in the shower, but I don’t know what caused the initial artery injury.

*”Being at the mercy of someone else’s convenience” while recovering takes so much patience that it’s almost painful. It’s hard to let everyone do everything while you just sit and watch.

*Being healed does not mean being the same as you were before.

*”There are no research studies that have analyzed survivors of carotid and vertebral dissections with chronic pain.” So, I have no idea where to start with managing my pain. My last intense headache landed me in the walk-in clinic getting shots. I can’t take Advil, Aleve, or migraine meds. Tylenol does nothing for me, so I’m left with no options for pain relief except ice packs and meditation.

*Patients look normal on the outside, so it’s hard to believe they are feeling so much pain, confusion, and dizziness. On one hand, this is really great because my kindergarten students have no idea how horrible I’m feeling. On the other hand, most of the time I look ok and I just have to fake-it and show that I’m doing great.

*Things to try at home: keeping lights low, using earplugs (this was great at my son’s basketball tournament), peppermint extract for soothing, ginger as a replacement for Sumatriptan (migraine med), and basil and clove oil to relax muscles.

*Anxiety after these issues is common. I think I had a panic attack, a few weeks ago, around the time I think I had another small stroke.

*Adequate sleep is important. I sleep about 2 hours longer than the rest of my family and I also nap every day. Yes, every day.

*Vertigo can be present for YEARS after this type of stroke… noooooooooo! I can’t take it! Saying that it’s vertigo makes it sound like you have just a little bit of dizziness. Some days I have to take anti-nausea meds just to function. I have what I would call vertigo almost all of the time, but much of the time it’s like vertigo on steroids.

*I need to find my new normal. This makes me want to cry because I really liked my old normal. This is going to take some serious adjustment.

*If I experience new or worsening symptoms in the future, I need to call 911 or go the ER. I also need to balance this with the fact that life can’t be lived in the ER. Luckily for me, my first stroke presented itself in a way that I KNEW I needed to call 911 and get help right away.

*I have no idea when I will feel/be better. Every brain is different. Every situation is different. There is no way of knowing when I will be normal and what my new normal will be.

So, let me just this again. If you have experienced a Carotid or Vertebral Artery Dissection, and especially if you’ve had a Cerebellar Stroke resulting from the dissection, I strongly recommend buying this book. It is worth the $20 to gain some great information but also to know that there are other people out there dealing with this same issue.

Bee’s Wrap Sustainable Food Storage

May 31, 2018 By Becca Leave a Comment

It’s been forever since I’ve shared a kitchen product I love, but it’s also been forever since I’ve found something new that I’m in love with. Today, I’m sharing Bee’s Wrap Sustainable Food Storage. I’m an Amazon affiliate, so I do get a little kickback if you decided to purchase Bee’s Wrap using my links. If you want to skip my background story and get to my info about the Bee’s Wrap, you’ll want to scroll down a bit. I have a story to tell about how I found the Bee’s Wrap first.

As most of you know, I had a stroke 2 months ago. The stroke was centered in the Cerebellar region, which controls balance and motor function. I look fine, when I’m walking (most of the time), but I have a dizzy feeling in my head and sometimes sway, find myself off balance, or take a little tumble. Grocery stores are the WORST! Turning my head as I walk causes all sorts of problems like extreme dizziness and nausea, and you’re constantly turning your head to look for the items you need when you are in the aisles.

(Side story… words are really hard since my stroke and aisles took forever to figure out. Isles? Ailes? I finally asked my husband. Aisles isn’t normally a word that would have challenged my brain.)

Back to the story. My physical therapist gave me some homework. She said to walk down the mall on a day when it’s not too busy. Walk, looking straight ahead, and once in a while go ahead and glance into a store. She thought that would be a good step toward being able to do the grocery store more than 5 minutes. It started out ok. I started with the outdoor portion of the mall because outdoors are always better for me. Unfortunately, there was stamped concrete and the business was too much for my brain. I sat down in a little chair because I was starting to feel like I was going to fall over and… HEY, there’s Williams Sonoma. It sucked me in, Friends. I started to look for some gifts I needed and spotted the Bees Wrap on the sale rack. I have to tell you, I have been looking for Bee’s Wrap for about 2 years. I saw it in a magazine. I have put it on my Christmas list many times, but no one can ever find it. So, when I saw the Bee’s Wrap sitting there, I had to buy it.

I bake a lot of bread, so the Bee’s Wrap bread wrap was the way to go.

Saving the environment, one Bee’s Wrap at a time!

(Another side story: Going to the mall as my physical therapy assignment didn’t work out so well for me. I wound up with the headache to end all headaches, which put me back at the walk-in-clinic to get help with the pain. There are very few things I can take for pain, so they tried a shot. No luck. They finally found some meds that worked, but sheesh!!! One little trip to the mall and they were just about ready to send me back to the ER for another MRI and and IV to administer pain meds. I’m thinking it’s because I didn’t follow the rules. I went into two stores and looked around. On the plus side, I found Bee’s Wrap and got a cute new shirt. I know, I know, next time I’ll follow the rules. “Strokes are nothing to mess with. Your brain takes time to heal. Rest is important. Always stop the activity when you begin feeling too dizzy or nauseated to continue.” Those are the doctor’s words.)

My son, who doesn’t really care much about kitchen related purchases, commented on how fresh the two day old banana bread tasted. I was just happy that the bread wasn’t wrapped in plastic wrap. To wash and reuse the Bee’s Wrap, the directions say to wash with cold water and a little dish soap, hang to dry, fold to store, and reuse for about 1 year. Friends, I’m saving the planet one Bee’s Wrap at a time. I know you want to do the same!

Happy Bee’s Wrapping!

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Graduation Sugar Cookies

May 24, 2018 By Becca Leave a Comment

I was just scrolling through Instagram and spotted some graduation sugar cookies from Jenny Cookies. It reminded my that I don’t think I ever did a blog post about the graduation sugar cookies my niece and I made last year. She wanted to make cookies for her brother’s graduation party and came over so we could bake together.

We live in the same area as my sister and sister-in-law, so the kids all go to the same schools. Once in high school, they are the Glacier Peak Grizzlies. We have a niece who graduated in 2016, a nephew in 2017, another niece in 2018, my son in 2019, and another niece in 2020 all from Glacier Peak. Then, we get a little break until my daughter moves up to high school.

I might be borrowing my sister-in-law’s graduation cap cookie cutter quite a bit.

I think they turned out pretty cute! Jenny, over at Jenny Cookies, uses buttercream for her frosting. I’ve always used powdered sugar and milk and just mixed those two ingredients together to get the consistency I wanted. I think I may shift over to buttercream. I didn’t realize there were so many different buttercream frosting recipes. Whenever I’ve used buttercream, I’ve just used the Wilton recipe. Whichever frosting recipe you choose, I’m sure Google will help you discover lots of options.

Graduation Sugar Cookies

These are super soft rolled sugar cookies that can be cut with any cookie cutters you have on hand. The graduation cap cookie cutter came from Amazon and I had the other shapes in my collection.

CourseDesserts

Graduation Sugar Cookies

These are super soft rolled sugar cookies that can be cut with any cookie cutters you have on hand. The graduation cap cookie cutter came from Amazon and I had the other shapes in my collection.

CourseDesserts

Ingredients

6 cups flour
4 1/2 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup + 2 tbsps butter
1 cup shortening
2 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
3 tbsps milk
1 tbsp vanilla

Servings:

Instructions

Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat butter and shortening until fluffy. Add eggs, milk, and vanilla. Add flour mixture a little at a time. Cover and chill at least 3 hours.
Roll the dough onto a floured board, to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with cookie cutters. Place onto a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-9 minutes. Larger cookies may take more time to bake. Cool and decorate with your choice of frosting.

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Herbs in the Garden

May 9, 2018 By Becca Leave a Comment

For the past 20 years I’ve been experimenting in the garden. I’ve learned, the hard way, that veggies need lots of sun. Unfortunately, the gardens I’ve had at my last two houses, have not had very much sun. This year, I promised myself that I’d grow the things I know do well in my yard. My garden is filled with herbs and I have lots of different potted herbs around my yard and on my deck.

I know that lavender spreads, so I usually buy a pretty plant at the nursery and keep it in a pot. The plant in the front is a yellow variety of lavender. I can’t wait to see what it looks like. I’m hoping this one grows quickly and I will need to move it to a bigger pot.

I have two different varieties of oregano this year. I planted a traditional oregano and a golden variety last year. These plants have been extremely happy in my garden. I think I have enough oregano to share with the whole neighborhood.

Parsley grows very well in my garden too. I use parsley, in my cooking, when I feel like something needs a little color. My bunny is a huge fan of parsley too, so she gets a handful once in a while too.

I’m just starting to use chives in my cooking. I had always pictured chives on baked potatoes, but I’m starting to come around to using these oniony flavored stems in other dishes as well.

Lemon Balm is my newest herb. I bought 4 small plants last year and they didn’t even grow as tall as the top of the planter. Once the warm weather hit this year, these guys took off. Lemon Balm is a relative of mint, so I planted them in their own container to reduce unwanted spreading. I can’t wait to try this in salads and teas.

Last year’s Rosemary plant is still going strong!

Just because I love it, I planted another container with Oregano. I really will be able to feed the whole neighborhood.

All of these herbs are leftovers from last year, so I didn’t even need to spend any money in my garden. I have lots more to show you in another blog post. So many herbs, so little thyme. Sorry. It had to be done.

Happy planting!

Garden Planning

April 11, 2018 By Becca 1 Comment

Ok, friends, it’s time to turn my attention away from the things I can’t do and toward the things I can do. Yesterday I may have had a few teensy tiny moments of feeling sorry for myself. I’m dying to get things done and I’ve been told by my doctor, “If a piece of paper falls on the ground, you’re not allowed to pick it up.” I tried to spend a bit of time on the computer and ended up needed to take anti-nausea medication. (For those of you who don’t know, I’m recovering from a stroke and I’m trying to follow doctor’s orders for.) Knowing that, please excuse any grammar or spelling errors. I won’t be able to go back and re-read before pushing publish. I’ve found that about 45 minutes on the computer is my max. This is awesome therapy for me though. It gets my left hand working and makes my brain work a bit. By the way, a post-stroke brain constantly tries to spell knowing as noing, and computer as cumputer. Multi-syllable words? Don’t even go there. It WILL get better though, right?

So, here I sit, on a rainy Wednesday afternoon. I wouldn’t really go out in this weather anyway, so I might as well do a little indoor garden prep. My friend, Diane, said she’d take me to Flower World on Friday. OMG, I’m getting out of the house and I get to have my doctor-allowed afternoon stroll t Flower World. Poor Diane will have to pull my cart and lift my plants, but she’s a friend who doesn’t mind getting dirty. Heck, we pulled a tree out of her front yard one day, on a whim, and she was wearing a skirt! Ok, back to the garden. We have a big “roundy-round”, as I call it, in our back yard. The right side is mainly perennial flowers. It gets quite a bit of shade from the big maple trees.

The left side of the roundy-round is used for my herbs and veggies. I divided it into 4 quadrants and this is my herb and lettuce quadrant. Sadly, this area has seen less and less sunlight over the years, as my neighbor’s tree has grown taller and added more shade to my yard.

This year, I’ve decided to focus my gardening efforts, in this area, mainly on things we really and truly eat and that I know grow well here. Every single year I try to plant corn and every single year my cousin, who is a farmer from Eastern Washington, laughs at me and reminds me that we don’t get enough sun on this side of the state. So, corn is OUT this year. For some reason, pumpkins don’t like my garden either. I plant them and the vines grow but I never get past the flowering stage. I’ve thought about going out in the morning and cross-pollinating the flowers with a small paint brush, but that seems like a bit more work than I’d bargained for. Pumpkins, you’re OUT too! I’ve given potatoes one last chance to prove their worthiness, but it’s now or never with those little guys. That means I’ve freed up an entire quadrant of my garden for more herbs.

We use a lot of parsley and cilantro at our house. I’ll plant about 5 plants of each. In addition, I’ll sprinkle some cilantro seeds so all of the cilantro won’t be ready at the same time.

We do eat a lot of lettuce, so I’ll plant plenty of that. I already found some Romaine starts this year and they are in the ground.

I love basil with all of my heart! I plant as much as I can fit in my garden. This year I’m thinking 5 basil plants in the garden and 5 basil plants in my planter up by the house. I cook with basil all summer long and my kids also love pesto. I think I made 6-8 double batches of pesto last summer. This year I’m going to remember to freeze some so we’ll have it in the winter too. I don’t buy basil starts until May. In the Pacific Northwest, basil will rot in your garden with all of the rain we get. I’ll resist the temptation to buy this when I go to Flower World… ok, maybe just one little plant that I could bring inside!

There are a few plants I put in my garden just because I think they are pretty. Whenever I run across white or yellow lavender plants, I snatch them up. I love the way they look. I usually put these in pots because they spread so fast.

My oregano, sage, mint, and lemon balm come back every year. I use those in cooking, baking, and in tea. I bought a few books about herbs last year and I’ve been trying to use my herbs more frequently in the kitchen.

Here are a few of my favorite herb books:

Happy garden planning!

My Stroke

April 9, 2018 By Becca 3 Comments

I don’t have any pretty pictures to go with this post, except the iphone photo I took of the view from my hospital room.

You read the title of this post correctly. I had a stroke at 44 years old. My stroke wasn’t the typical stroke that our grandparents had. Specifically, I had a Cerebellar stroke with vertebral artery dissection. In the hospital, they told me that this makes up 1% of all strokes. Basically, I won the stroke lottery!

Here’s a little of the backstory first:

***Disclaimer: It’s really hard for me to read, write, and type. I’m hoping this makes sense and I didn’t make too many spelling or grammatical errors! I’m just putting this out there and asking for grace.***

A few years ago, I had back/neck surgery to fix a herniated disc. They inserted a cadaver bone between C5 and C6, in my spine, and fused them all together. It fixed most of my intense neck pain, but I had come to the realization that I would always live with some pain. A few weeks before my stroke, my neck pain really intensified. I waited it out, hoping it would go away, but it just got worse. Luckily, I had an upcoming appointment with my neurologist for Botox injections related to my migraines. In addition, I had about 10 days in a row of headaches before my appointment. I told my neurologist about my 10 days of headaches but we attributed it to the fact that the Botox had worn off. She was also convinced that if we focused a bit more of the injections into my neck and shoulder, the pain in my surgery area would subside. I had about 40 Botox injections in my scalp, neck, and shoulders, and she sent me on my way. That was on a Thursday.

By the following Monday, I couldn’t stand the pain anymore. I made an appointment with the spine specialist I had seen many times before, but they couldn’t get me in until Friday. I also went to the walk-in clinic after work. They read up on my history of back problems and the doctor said, “I know you have a very long history of back problems, so what are you hoping that I can do today to make this better?” I told him that I’d really like him to schedule at MRI so that I could get some answers on my Friday visit. That request was a no-go because he was sure the other doctor would want specific images that he didn’t know to request. I also said that I needed to do something about the pain so I could make it to Friday. They gave me some pain meds and an anti-inflammatory, which worked fairly well and I could make it through the day of teaching before collapsing onto the couch.

This was a SUPER exciting week for me because I was going to a three day workshop in Seattle. This wasn’t any workshop. This is my DREAM workshop about Reggio Emilia inspired early childhood education. To most people, I know this doesn’t sound like an exciting topic, but this is #1 on my list of learning I’d like to do. The conference was Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 9-5. I paid over $500 out of my own pocket to attend and had to use my “personal days” that our district gives us. Thursday was great and I made a few new friends from Wisconsin to have lunch with. I was going to be a little late to Friday’s conference because of my appointment with the spine doctor, but I planned to be in Seattle before the tours of early childhood centers and the 100 Languages of Children exhibit took place. (Ha! Little did I know!)

Now, here’s the stroke story:

I woke up feeling pretty decent. My back wasn’t throbbing and I didn’t feel like crying because of the pain… that makes it a good day in my book! I got in the shower and turned the heat of the water up a bit to loosen my neck muscles. I had just put some conditioner in my hair (this is an important part of the story) and started tipping my head to the right and left to see where the pain was the worst.

BAM!!! I’m telling you friends, when I say I got a little dizzy, I really mean that it felt like a 10.0 earthquake hit my house and I was spinning in circles. This dizzy spell was not like any other dizzy spell I’d ever had in my life. I leaned up against the wall because I thought I might fall through the glass shower doors. When the wall didn’t even feel like it could hold me up, I sat down on the bench in the shower. At that point, I stared dry heaving (another thing that I’ve never experienced). I still thought I might fall over, so I got down to the floor of the shower. At this point, I was thinking, “No!! There is no way my husband is going to let me go to my conference now!” I was still spinning and dry heaving but I had knocked the shampoo bottles over in my dizziness. I was worried that I actually would throw up, so I started trying to put shampoo bottles back so I wouldn’t throw up on them. (Seriously? Who tries to clean as they are having a stroke?) At that point, I decided that I could use the shampoo bottles to try and get my husband’s attention. He was working downstairs in the office. I started pounding the shampoo bottles on the walls of the shower, but he didn’t hear me. (He says, hindsight, it sounded like I was trying to get my makeup out of a bottle and was banging it on the counter.) Somewhere along the way, I had turned the shower off. I knew I needed to call 911 but I couldn’t even crawl out of the shower. There was no way I could make it to the phone. I kept banging and finally I tried yelling for my husband. I felt like I barely even spoke his name, but apparently it was loud enough for him to hear me.

My husband came upstairs and I was still in a puddle on the floor of the shower. I told him to call 911 because I had a really bad dizzy spell. You know when you have those times when you are thinking, “Should I, or shouldn’t I, go to the doctor? I feel pretty bad, but maybe I’ll be ok.” Well, this wasn’t one of those times. This was big and I could tell. The whole time I was on the floor of that shower, all I could think was that I needed to get to a hospital and make this stop. My husband told me that they were on their way and he helped me crawl out of the shower, onto the bathroom floor, and got some towels for me so I could warm up. This was the point where I yelled, “Oh, my gosh! Get me some clothes!” I had just had a stroke but, I was going to get my bra and underwear on, darn it!! Come on, now, you all know you are with me on this!

I was still flat on the bathroom floor (with bra and underwear on… phew) when the paramedics got there. They knew they didn’t want to move my neck, but I tried really hard to convince them that I could put on yoga pants and a sweatshirt without hurting my neck. After multiple attempts, I decided that this was not going to happen. Then, I realized that I still had conditioner in my hair. Do you know how gross that would be if I didn’t get it out? I was really hoping that they would let me rinse my hair when I said, “Oh, no. I didn’t rinse the conditioner out of my hair.” The nice paramedic got a towel, put water on it, and started trying to get the conditioner out. Not only that, but he also started talking in a French accent and was telling me I was at the spa. I think this was the only point I laughed during the whole ordeal. It lightened up a tense situation. I convinced them that I could walk down the stairs and didn’t need to be carried. They let me put a robe on, and I was on my way to the hospital in the back of an ambulance.

Thank God for medicine, because in the ambulance they gave me morphine for the horrible pain that had started in my head, anti-nausea, and anti-dizzy shots. I’m still not sure how they managed to get an IV going in my arm, while in the back of a moving ambulance. Those guys are amazing. I got to the hospital and they put me in a room in the ER. I knew this place VERY well because my mom had been in and out of that same hospital for the 4 weeks just before. (That’s another VERY long story.) I swear my husband beat the ambulance to the hospital, but I must have fallen asleep, because he told me he didn’t. They gave me something for anxiety and told me that I was going to the MRI waiting area. That area was so great because Winnie the Pooh and Friends appeared on the wall! (You know you’re a kindergarten teacher when you hallucinate storybook characters.) My husband said I was gone for 2 hours. I remember nothing else, but Winnie the Pooh and Friends, and then waking up back in the room with my husband. MRI’s are very loud and tight. You’d think I would remember having an MRI on my head and neck, but nope.

We waited a bit longer and the doctor came back in. He said that when people come in with dizzy spells, they always have to check this one area of the brain. He said that it never comes back showing that someone has had a stroke, but it’s protocol for them to check. He said, surprisingly, my MRI showed I had a stroke. This type of stroke is so uncommon that it makes up only 1% of all strokes. I looked at my husband and said, “We can just chalk this up to the fact that I get really weird stuff.” If you’ve known me for any amount of time, you know that I get anything and everything that comes along when it comes to injury and illness. Sometimes, I wonder if people think I’m a hypochondriac. But, then I go to the doctor and they tell me I have Swine Flu, Strep (again), a gene mutation that makes me sick, a herniated disc, or mold growing in my sinuses causing a massive breathing condition. You name it, I’ll come down with it. It’s how I’ve been for my whole life.

Once I was admitted, the tests started. They needed to figure out why the stroke happened and if I was at risk for this to happen again. They told me that the stroke was in the Cerebellar region of the brain. That’s the back part of the brain, close to your neck, that is in charge of balance, coordination, and movement. They told me that I had earned at least 48 hours in the hospital. I tried watching tv to pass the time between tests, but I couldn’t concentrate that long. I couldn’t focus on magazines either. They came in every 4 hours, night and day, to do mental and physical tests with me. Many of the tests were the same tests they do for people with DUI’s (so they told me… I’ve never been in that situation). They had me touch my nose and then touch their finger. My right side was fine, but my left side was a bit sloppy. I could never actually touch their finger and always missed by about an inch. They had me read out loud, which was really hard for me. The word ‘know’ was always a challenge and the words didn’t make sense to me. They had me do mental math problems which I totally nailed, except for the multi-step problems that they were giving me at 2am. At that point I said, “It’s 2am! Nobody does mental math at 2am!” When the occupational/physical therapist came in, I got to go for a little walk. I was a bit wobbly, but did ok. If I walked and turned to look over my left shoulder, I’d get really dizzy and start to sway. I did ok on stairs. Basically, walking, reading, and moving my head were my issues.

After a few more tests, they saw a vertebral artery dissection. They told me that at some point, an artery in my neck got a tiny tear. That can happen by picking up the garbage to go out, grabbing a heavy purse wrong, lifting a box, a car accident, or any other thing that happens every day and we think nothing about. They think that my neck pain was totally different and not related to my stroke, but when I was rolling my neck around in the shower, the blood clot on that artery came off and caused a stroke. I told the doctor that I had been suffering with 10 days of headaches but he didn’t think it was related. I had fallen and sprained my ankle two weeks before, but he didn’t think that was related either. One really weird thing, they also told me wasn’t related but I don’t believe them, was that I was having a twitching problem for several months. Any time I sat with my eyes closed, I would jerk. It was kind of like that feeling you get when you fall asleep but then you dream that you are falling off a cliff, but mine happened every 10-15 seconds. My husband said it happened all night long too. I had talked to many doctors about it, but they all said it was normal. I’m telling you, this was not normal. It would happen every 15 seconds and start immediately after closing my eyes, even when I wasn’t tired or trying to fall asleep. Well, here’s the weird part. After my stroke, they disappeared.

So, where am I now? When I left the hospital, the neurologist told me that I was not allowed to do ANYTHING for several months. No dishes, no vacuuming, no changing the laundry, no cooking, no gardening, no activities that get my heart rate going, and if a paper fell on the ground I was not allowed to pick it up. I was allowed to do self-care and after a week I could stroll like a grandma, outside, with supervision. There was one teensy tiny problem. We had booked a vacation for Palm Spring and were scheduled to leave exactly one week after my stroke. I explained that this was a relaxing vacation and not a sight seeing vacation. I promised to do nothing but sit by the pool and relax. He gave me the ok, with many rules to follow, and I did get to enjoy a week doing nothing by the pool. Let me tell you, doing nothing in the sun is MUCH better than doing nothing in the Seattle rain. We got home last weekend and I’m doing ok. I need a lot more sleep than usual, I get headaches, and still get dizzy spells. Walking for any length of time is a trigger for headaches and dizziness. My left side is still clumsy, but not nearly as bad. Typing, pushing buttons with my left hand (that’s really hard for me), and playing guitar are my prescription for therapy. Reading is still hard. Sometimes I forget my words as I’m talking or the wrong words come out of my mouth. I can watch a full tv show at home but I can’t go to a movie. I tried that in Palm Springs and I spiraled downhill pretty fast afterward. They told me I will never be able to go to a chiropractor and will never be able to put my head in the shampoo bowl at the hair salon. I will be taking aspirin for life. I am wearing a soft neck collar, right now, to remind me not to move my neck in any direction. The artery needs to heal and any movement can cause progress to go backward or even another stroke. My personal neurologist was much nicer than my hospital neurologist. My neurologist told me that I needed a full month of doing absolutely nothing and then we could revisit my orders. The other guy had told me “several” months. I’ll be out of work for two more weeks, but if I’m being honest, I think they’ll probably tell me I need to stay out a bit longer because of the headaches and dizzy spells. Who knows, maybe I’ll be as good as new in two weeks and ready for a class full of kindergartners! I’ve been pretty amazed by my progress so far. The brain and its ability to heal is fascinating.

When things like this happen, you are really reminded how much people care. I got cards, flowers, and well-wishes from people I hadn’t seen in years as well as close friends and family. Facebook was flooded with prayers and people just reaching out to say they were thinking of me. I can’t say it was worth having a stroke for, but I really do appreciate people reaching out. I’m on the mend, and that feels like a really good thing! My husband and kids are picking up all of the slack while I’m on do-nothing-orders. I know it probably drives them all crazy, but I love them for it.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be here doing nothing but thinking happy thoughts!

Favorite Hobbies

February 3, 2018 By Becca Leave a Comment

There was a time, when my kids were very young, when I put aside absolutely everything I enjoyed doing in my free time. “Free time” was the craziest phrase I could imagine. There weren’t enough hours in the day to work full time, feed my family, keep a fairly clean house, bake cookies, and still have enough time to do something for myself.

Now that my kids are older (my son turns 17 tomorrow and my daughter is 13), I’ve taken back a little time for myself. They are off doing their own things, spending LOTS of time at sports practices, plenty of time chilling in their rooms, and a good chunk of time doing homework. Sadly, when they have spare time they don’t usually say, “Hey, mom, do you want to play a board game?” Nope, those days are gone.

So, how do I spend my time? I really love to cook. I enjoy looking through cookbooks, Pinterest, and blogs to find new recipes. If I can cook with ingredients grown in my own garden, this makes me even happier. As much as I love to cook, I must confess something. There are days when I ask myself, “WHY, oh why, do my children want to eat 3 times a day EVERY single day?” I try not to use too much processed food as I’m cooking, so that makes things a bit time consuming, but I have a hard time keeping every meal on the healthy side. I really love cheese, and cooking with butter and cream just makes things taste better. It’s a work in progress to find healthy meal options, but I’m trying. (If I don’t try hard enough, my naturopath gently reminds me at every appointment.)

I’ve always loved to bake. Cookies and bread tend to be my favorites. Lately, I’ve tried to change things up and try whole wheat breads or flourless cookies. When my kids were younger, we’d have Cookie Friday. Our district dismisses early each Friday and I’d always have cookies ready for the kids when they got home from school. There would usually be a handful of friends and neighbors and sometimes a cousin or two. Those were the good old days. Now the kids just hurry home so they can take naps. Ah, teenagers.

Sometimes (most times) I really wish I lived in a sunnier location so I could happily enjoy my garden day in and day out. To say that I love to be outside is an understatement.

Most of my edible garden space consists of herbs and veggies that don’t require full sun. My neighbor’s trees have grown so tall that they shade my veggie garden. I’m barely able to produce tomatoes any more, so I’ve just given up on things that needs tons of sun.

My basil and mini tomatoes have been moved to a plant stand on the deck. The deck gets a good amount of afternoon sunshine and the heat reflects from the house onto the plants. Basil is probably my favorite thing to grow and we eat a lot of pesto in the summer time.

I have my fair share of perennials in the center of my yard. I love that I don’t have to replant them every year. Every few years, I get to divide them. Score! Free plants!

The best part about gardening is the end of the day. I love the “golden hour” in my yard. After spending the day getting my hands dirty, I absolutely love putting my feet up and enjoying the view. I do miss the days of the kids playing on the swingset or jumping on the trampoline, but there is also something incredibly relaxing about the quiet of the backyard.

Sewing and quilting are my winter hobbies. When I can’t spend time outside because of the relentless rain, my sewing room is my happy place.

My mom taught me to sew when I was about 7 years old and I insisted that both of my kids learn to sew. I make all of my own home decor items. I love making curtains, valances, pillows, and quilts. I love the personal touch handmade items have on a home. I’ve even been designing my own quilt patterns with a quilting program for the computer.

I’ve had to start changing pillows and quilts out seasonally because I’m running out of space. I’ve started putting zippers into my pillow covers so they are each to wash and change out frequently.

This was one of my favorite projects. When my daughter was younger she picked out a fabric line that she thought was pretty. I bought the fabrics and she chose a pattern that she liked. We painted her room a color that coordinated and her new room was born.

I love looking through blogs and seeing cohesive quilts that all have the same feel, but I can’t seem to stick with one theme. I love vintage/scrappy, French General, warm and cozy, and also whatever is new and trendy. As much as I like the cohesion, I also like to try new things when it comes to quilting.

I don’t even know where to begin when it comes to photography. I love trying new things with my camera. My favorite subjects are my own kids and my YoungLife kids. My YL kids are Juniors in high school and I feel so lucky that they’ve allowed me to follow them around with a camera on my neck, capturing memories of Summer camp and school dances.

Of course, these two have my whole heart and they know to always pack “picture clothes” every time we go to the farm or the beach.

How about you, friends? What’s your hobby?

I’m sharing a few of my favorite photography items that are sold through Amazon. I’m part of the Amazon Affiliates program and if you choose to purchase through Amazon, I get a teensy-tiny portion of the sale.

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