StrokeSurvivorBlog

My husband, Steve, will start an ECP heart treatment next week to increase the circulation of blood flow to his heart. ECP or External Counter Pulsation is a non-invasion therapy for the treatment of congestive heart failure and advanced angina pectoris.  When the heart muscle does not receive enough oxygenated blood, it sends a signal [...]

It’s hard to ask for help when you need it the most, especially when you or a loved one is going through a crisis like an illness, accident or tragedy. When an incident like this occurs and is ongoing for more than a few weeks, help is needed. Oftentimes, the parent or spouse of a [...]

Re-living the day my husband, Steve, had a massive stroke is forever etched in my memory. Could I have done something differently? Some of his early symptoms were so common that we overlooked them, but if we hadn’t, things could have been different. Hopefully, you can learn from our experience. That fateful day went like [...]

If you have to go to the hospital for an emergency, do you want to be resuscitated? We all take for granted that when we go to a hospital for an emergency, the doctors, nurses and staff are trying to save our life. This was the assumption I was under when my husband had a [...]

The thought of winter and the early onset of cold weather in Wisconsin has been the source of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in my husband, a stroke survivor. He’s been having a lot of depression in the last year, but coupled with SAD, it’s taking its toll on him and he dreads the long winter [...]

Last week we purchased a wonderful used power wheelchair for Steve. Even though he has a manual wheelchair paid for by Medicare and our Medi-gap policy, it really limited him (and me) whenever we went somewhere which required a lot of walking. Steve did qualify for an electric wheelchair right after his stroke, but we [...]

What is Congestive Heart Failure (CHF)? CHF, or heart failure, is a weakness of the heart from high blood pressure or heart attack. It is a condition in which the heart can’t pump blood the way it should. In some cases, the heart can’t fill with enough blood. In other cases, the heart can’t send [...]