30 Minutes. Gone.

 It's been a rough winter.  

We lost our good friend, Greg on February 4.

February 15, our brother in law Ron passed away unexpectedly.  Two weeks later, Ron's mom Mary, passed.

A week later, Mary's brother passed away in Tennessee.

Donny decided to go with Jan to the funeral.  They would be gone for three days.   She was here to pick Donny up at 10 a.m. Saturday morning.  They left around 10:15.

Right before they left, I told Jan that I was going to clean out the refrigerator.  I was doing it while he was gone because I needed to throw some things away, and that's hard for him to do.  We both laughed about it.  I walked her out the door, said goodbye to both of them, told them to be safe and call when they got there.

Turned around went right back in the house and started on the refrigerator.  First, I got everything off the door shelves.  I used the Method All Purpose Cleaner (green).  Sprayed the shelves, wiped them down and returned what I wanted to keep and pitched the rest.  Then I cleaned the inside shelves.  Top shelf first, then middle, then bottom.  Threw a lot away, and reorganized the rest.

That's all I remember.  

The next thing I remember is answer the house phone, and Donny saying "Nick is on his way over, and I will be there soon."  I vaguely remember that conversation.  He said he also told me to stay in the house.

Evidently (@ 10:47 to be exact) I called Donny.  He and Jan were on their way to Tennessee for the funeral of Ron's uncle.  (I KNEW that.  I just said goodbye to them a half an hour before). 

The first thing I said (according to Donny) was "Where are you?"  He said he was with Jan, going to Tennessee for Mary's brother's funeral.  Then "Why are you going there?" "Whose funeral?"  Then I said "I'll just call Nick."  

At 10:51, I called Nick (in the meantime, Donny called Meredith and told them to get over to the house, something was wrong with Pam).  I asked Nick the same thing.  "Where is your Dad?  I'm confused."  I also told him "I lost 2 hours."

I have NO recollection of either of those conversations.  NONE.  The next thing I remember (vaguely) is the Donny saying Nick would be there soon and he would be there soon.I couldn't understand why he was coming home????

When Nick and Mere got here, he sat on the couch with me.  Asked me MY name, all of our birthdays, who is the President?  Then he told me about the phone call.  

Then Donny and Jan pulled in the driveway.  It was decided that I should be checked out.  

Just so happened that our neighbors (ML and Shirley) son was in town from Florida.  Mike was in high school when we first moved here.  I've know him most of his life.  Evidently he came over, put a mask on, and hugged me.  I don't remember THAT either.  

We went to Miami Valley South.  I don't really remember the ride there, but when we got close, I told Donny "You need to turn here." He almost passed the entrance.  Seemed like I was doing better?  Got into ER and I told them "I don't know what happened.  I know know if I had a stroke or what".  Because I said that, stroke protocol began.  They did all the tests for a stroke, but I had no symptoms - no drooping, no slurred speech.  They did a CT scan of my head, a chest x-ray, urinalysis, blood work.  Everything came back normal.  But they wanted to do an MRI (then also an MRA which looks at carotid artery for blockages).  I didn't want to spend the night, (and neither did Donny want me to), but Nick wanted me to stay for observation.  Ended up, Nick won.  I was remembering a lot more, but no recollection at all of those phone calls.  I really needed to know why that happened.  TIA (mini stroke) was mentioned as well.

Didn't get much sleep, every four hours they took vitals and did the stroke protocol stuff.  At 7:15 a.m. there was a knock at my door - they were there to take me for the MRI.  

After multiple tests, it was determined that I am very healthy.  Perfectly healthy.  Everything came back great (which is exactly what you WANT to hear), but still no answer as to why I have no memory of that half hour.  

I told Donny it's like when you get anesthetic for a colonoscopy.  They tell you to start counting down from 10.  You don't even get to 9 and you're already out.  Then 15-20 min later you start coming out of the anesthetic.  Also compared it to being hypnotized.  Like, they can get you to do things while you're hypnotized, but you don't remember.  Then, they snap their finger (in my case, the phone rang) and you're out of it.  

I'll have one more test, an EEG, to rule out a seizure.  Since no one was here to witness this "event", they want to rule that out too.

One other possibility is TGA.  Transient Global Amnesia.  The Nurse Practitioner said she's diagnosed about ten people with that.  Similar to a TIA, something happening in the brain, but only temporary.

With no medical reason for this episode, the only other options are either the chemicals in the spray cleaner I used caused an "anesthetic" type blackout, or someone (Ron? Roz? Mary? Melissa? or all of them got through to me and I needed to get Jan and Donny off the road.  Jan said "maybe I needed to be on this trip alone?  Donny said "maybe an accident was going to happen?")

In any event, I'm kind of leaning toward the chemicals in the cleaning spray.  I had my head in the refrigerator wiping it out, long enough in inhale the fumes for several seconds.  

But how in the world did I pick up my phone and call JUST Donny and Nick?  They are both in my favorites, but not next to each other.  I have over a hundred contacts.  How was I functioning enough to make those phone calls, but not functioning enough to remember any of it?  20-30 minutes.  Gone.

Donny ended up staying home.  Jan drove to Tennessee by herself.

I was discharged Sunday afternoon around 1, in time to get home, take a shower and see some of Max's lacrosse game.  Then to Nick and Mere's to give her a hug for her birthday.  Then straight home, where I fell asleep for two hours.

Had a good nights sleep, but still tired.

And still trying to figure out how this all happened.

Very thankful that I am as healthy as all the tests show, but SOMETHING happened.

The Critical Care Neurologist that I talked to on FaceTime said "You obviously have a lot going on in your life.  Sometimes your brain can just shut down."  He said a lot more than that, but that was the gist.

I said "I know, I need to be positive."  He said "Not just that, you need to deal with the negative. If you need to talk to someone, then talk to someone!"

Great advice.  I HAVE had a lot going on.  

But I'm still confused (not like I was Saturday) about this.  

I'll stick with the last two alternatives.  Cleaning fumes acted like an anesthetic OR I had a visit from some people that love me and needed my help to get Donny and Jan to turn around.  (I was really ok with Donny being gone for 3 days.  We've been together 24/7 for an ENTIRE year, and he needed this time with his sister.)

And bottom line, I'm HEALTHY.  

That's all that matters.

I believe you get signs when you need them.  Marie (my mom's name) was there. Becky and Valerie are two of Donny's cousins who passed).  I was being watched over.

Donny's sister Jean works in Nutrition services at MVH.  She called because I didn't order dinner.  Sent me a nice snack tray for the evening!   I had great doctors/nurses/PCT's (every time they came in to check on me in the middle of the night the nurse brought warm blankets.  It was freezing in that room!)

  But there is still NO PLACE LIKE HOME.