Catching Up

Many of you know this story already, but I thought it would be helpful to take a quick look at the circumstances that got me started on this blog.

September 4th (three weeks ago today) I had a "sub arachnoid hemorrhage" (SAH) -- a brain bleed -- that came on like lightning, out of the blue. (I was leaning over to pick up a pen off the coffee table when it happened, so I don't think it was the strain that did it!) A terrible headache, vomiting, and profuse sweating were enough to convince Julie, my wife, that we should visit the ER in Princeton, MN. From there I got to take a helicopter ride to North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale, just outside Minneapolis, where I spent the next two weeks -- a day and a half in ICU and the rest of the time out on the floor.

Statistically, a SAH kills about a third of the people who get it. Another roughly third are seriously debilitated by it. And the rest are pretty much unscathed. I am very blessed to be in this latter third. I never lost consciousness, and never had any "neurological deficits" -- memory loss, weakness, loss of cognitive or physical ability.

So basically I had a pretty harsh wakeup call. I've always tried to live with the knowledge that my existence in this world is not permanent. The last three weeks have brought a new sharpness to that reality. I had lots of time in the hospital for sitting and reflecting. (I know many of you have followed this experience on my Caring Bridge site.) Now I'm home, and I have another couple weeks of restricted duty. So I still have lots of time for sitting and reflecting.

Partly because I'd been thinking about it for a long time, and partly because many of you encouraged me to do it, this blog seems like a good way to share some of that reflection time with others. Physically I'm pretty much recovered -- though for another week or two I'm still at some higher risk for a random recurrence, so that's a little weird. This seems like a better venue than the Caring Bridge site as a place to share my thoughts. While I'm on restricted duty I have time to play with this, and as life goes back to "normal" -- whatever that is -- one of my goals is to make this part of the new routine.

Hope you enjoy it -- and if you like, you can comment on these posts (as so many of you have done on Caring Bridge -- thanks!)