The Stroke

On Thursday, July 19, Chad had had a headache all day.  He called in sick to work and spent the day at home.  We actually made it to the Bountiful Temple to do some sealings.  He continued to feel off.

At around 8 PM I got the kids down for bed.  While I was upstairs, Chad popped his neck immediately felt dizzy and laid down on the floor. He made his way to our front door so he could try to cool down. He sat in the front doorway and proceeded to throw up for the next hour.  

He only threw up when he moved his head so I figured he just had an inner ear infection. I told Chad he either needed to get up to bed and rest there or we could go to the ER.  He chose the ER.  I called a family friend , ChiCho, and he brought his son over to babysit in case the kids woke up. ChiCho had to all but 

carry Chad to the car.

We got to the ER they started an IV and meds for the nausea. The Dr ordered a CT scan. (He told me later he wouldn’t usually order it, but for some reason he did). The CT showed an abnormality. So they sent him to get an MRI.  The next hour was probably the worst hour of my life. All I could do was think brain tumor.  I cried and prayed a lot.

They weren’t sure what the abnormality is but the Dr said it looked like he’d had a mini stroke. They did another scan with the dye to figure out what is wrong. They saw something wrong with an artery on the back of his neck.   They weren’t entirely sure what was going on so they transferred him down to U of U’s Neural Critical Care.

At U of U they explained that Chad’s vein had actually torn. Which actually happened on Wednesday night. It then clotted which is what caused the stroke on Thursday. At least that's what we think happened.

Chad’s parents came down Friday morning. Sherry took care of the kids while Wes, Chad’s dad, and I drove down to see him. Our Bishop and his first counselor came and helped give Chad a blessing.

Oh and did I mention that my basement started flooding in the middle of packing to go down to Salt Lake? Yeah that was awesome. Thank goodness ChiCho, AKA Superman, came over and fixed and cleaned everything. Seriously I don’t know what I would have done without he and his family helping us.