ValleyRD Mailing List: Fwd: Tammy Worlock

[Bob Heiser (w7ikt]

God Bless
Bob (W7IKT) Carol (N5CBQ) Heiser

 

Following is a message that Curt Worlock put on Facebook (provided to me from Liz Weiler)

 

“Hi Everyone,

 

Where do I begin? This will be one big long post to get the word out to everyone as I can't possibly answer all the phone calls and e-mails, though they are much appreciated. For those that need to know the details, and so there is no inaccurate third hand information circulating around, here are the facts so far. After Dan & Sandi's teach Friday afternoon in Palm Springs we went to dinner at the Kaiser Grill with some friends and had a delicious meal. We came back to the hotel room where Tammy said she wasn't feeling that well and had a slight headache. I told her we could skip the pre-rounds, as I wasn't cueing until about 7:45pm, so she could take a nap and set her alarm for 7pm which she did and she probably got to sleep by 6:15pm. Her alarm went off and she turned it off by herself and laid in bed for about 10 minutes (not unusual for Tammy, ha ha). She got up and went to the bathroom and then came out and sat on the ottoman in front of the chair in our room. I was still on the bed dressed and ready to go on my computer so wasn't really paying much attention to her. I said to her without looking "heh, it's 7:15 Tam, you've got to get dressed so lets move it". I continued working on some e-mails on the computer and realized another 5 minutes had gone by and she hadn't moved. At 7:20 I closed the laptop looked at her and yelled "Tam"! With no response I got up and said "what's wrong with you, lets go"! When I got to her I called her name again and tapped her on the face a few times as she wasn't even looking towards me. I started to lay her back and asked if she could blink, which she did. I said "I'm going to call 911 and I want you to blink once if you understand me". She did and I quickly dialed remaining calm and gave the operator all the info they needed in 1 quick sentence. Kudo's to the operator and emergency people because within 5 minutes we had 5 men in the room working on Tammy. I barely had time to run down to the lobby where we were suppose to meet our ride with Bill & Sylvia Lantz around 7:25 to tell them what had happened and got back to the room when they arrived. Tammy hadn't moved and they put her on the floor and took all her vitals. She was totally unresponsive to the questions they asked and quickly asked me to fill in all the blanks as to what happened and what was going on, allergies, medications, blah blah blah. The other guys talked a lot about her condition, but I couldn't hear what they were saying with all the questions being asked of me. All I heard was her blood pressure reading was 201 over 150 and shortly after that the gurney was wheeled in and they were moving Tammy to the ambulance. They said I could ride up front and we were quickly off to Palm Desert Regional which was close by. They took Tammy to the ER and I was sent to the waiting room. After about 45 minutes they came and got me and said she is starting to speak but that her words are slow and slightly slurred, but by the time I got there to see her I noticed she was slow in speaking, but quite clear, so I never experienced the slurred speech. I was just glad she was talking again as it was real music to my ears. Tammy said her scariest moment was when she was in the ER and they asked her what her name was, but she couldn't tell them right away and said that's when she knew this wasn't a dream, but that it was real. The hospital seemed like a top notch facility with all the latest technology including a big screen TV where a doctor, cardiologist, or neurologist would pop up and start talking to you and asking various questions. Anyway, her Cat Scan came back negative so no big bad ugly to see. We probably sat and talked about the incident for about 1 hour as her color started to return. The neurologist came on the TV and asked her a couple questions that she answered accurately. You have to realize her first question as to who was President when she started talking again was answered with "Clinton" so I think they were worried. She later corrected it to O'bama. Anyway, he gave her some hand and finger coordination test as her blood pressure and heart rate had returned to normal and she seemed normal to me at the time. However, it was obvious she was slow to react with everything on the right side and touching her nose with her right index finger was not normal as she was off the mark by quite a bit as well as having a jerky movement getting her hand across her face. This worried me but I knew she was still recouping. They then scheduled 3 MRI's for her head, brain, and neck which they let me go with her and it took about 1 hour to complete. We got back to the ER around 11:30pm and they said that she would be moved to her room within the hour. A little after midnight I left for the hotel when Tammy was moved to her room and we said we will see what the morning brings. When I got there Saturday morning Tammy had just started a brain scan test that was going to take about an hour or so. Jeff & Liz Weiler, who gave me a ride to the hospital were also there, so we chatted about her in the waiting room to kill the time. When it was over and we were let back in her room, Tammy wanted to try and walk but had a foley catheter attached and with all the other hook ups she had, it was impossible to try. Instead we tried some more exercises and she was closer with her finger touching her nose, but not quite there. The main concern was that she couldn't lift her right leg very much and it was obvious that her right side was just not right, including her jaw which she sad was hard to chew on that side. Speaking of that, because she ate breakfast the cardiologist came in and finding that out cancelled her chemically induced stress test until the next day, which I wasn't happy about, but what are you going to do. Anyway, when the nurse came in I asked if we could get rid of the foley and she said she would check with the doctor. A group of dancers were going to lunch and insisted I needed to eat and wanted to me join them. Though it's easy for me to refuse food, ha ha, I knew Dan & Sandi would be there and thought I'd better give them an update, so Bill & Sylvia picked me up and just down the street we had a nice lunch. There I talked with a few dancers at my table including Peggy Roller who is a PT herself and specializes in neurology. She offered to come over if I wanted and work with Tammy and I told her that would be great. I mean duh, right? After lunch Tammy was foley free and I asked her if it was ok if Peggy stopped by and she said yes. In the meantime a technician came in and performed a echocardiogram and they were working on getting a PT for us to try and walk. Tammy didn't like lunch much so I asked the nurse if it would be ok if I brought a Pizza in for dinner and she ok'd it so that was nice. The doctor did stop by and said that she had an "episode". Really?! I mean some Doctor's are just borderline genius! I asked the doctor some questions to clarify the definition of an "episode" and she said it could have been a seizure, perhaps a TIA, or even a hypertension crisis. Basically they were not sure and had none of the test results at this point. Peggy arrived after dinner before the evening dancing and did some test on Tammy's motor skills. She said she was definitely slow and weak on the right side including her grip so we all figured it must be a TIA to affect her speech, at least temporarily, and now her entire right side. Shortly after this the hospital's PT came in and together with Peggy they got Tammy up to stand and try to walk. They first did some balance test and Tammy could stand on her own with her eyes open, but as soon as she closed them, she would always fall backwards. She must have done this 5 times and they decided to let her keep her eyes open and try a few steps with the walker. Though I know I couldn't show it, it was terrifying to see Tammy struggling to do what we all take for granted. Her right leg just didn't want to move forward right away and many times her foot was dragged along for the ride. Definitely no heel leads going on in this Tango! They didn't get far and turned around to get Tammy back to bed and I couldn't help but think we weren't going anywhere right away. The PT said I could try to walk her again later if she felt up to it. After we watched some TV together we both decided we would take a walk around the floor. She made a complete circle around the wing but used the walker almost as a pair of crutches so it wasn't great, except she moved further than last time. When I got her back to bed, she pulled me in and we snuggled in to watch a movie together (X-Men) and we both dozed off. The phone woke us up and it was my ride home to the hotel. I decided to stop in at the after party to thank Rey & Sherry for filling in for us and let everyone know the latest on Tammy. I was thankful our flight wasn't leaving out until Monday, but started having my doubts we would be leaving then either. When I got back Sunday morning they had done Part 1 of the Stress Test and had scheduled Tammy at noon for Part 2. We decided to try and walk again while she was waiting. I felt when she got up she seemed stronger and she made her way to the bathroom without the walker. She wanted to try and walk without it but I suggested she just push it in front of her and not use it for support, but that it would be there for her if she needed it. The last thing we needed was a fall at this point. There was some improvement as we made the first lap and I asked her if she wanted to go around again. She said yes and she actually said it's a little easier than the day before. She made the turn and went around for a third lap and what I noticed the most, was that her pace was picking up considerably and though the walk was far from normal, it was encouraging. Just before noon I went back to the hall to thank Dan & Sandi, Rey & Sherry, and all the dancers for their understanding and prayers for Tammy. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would need to call the airline that night and see what we could do to re-schedule our flight home later in the week. Jeff & Liz had packed up Tammy's jewelry and our DVD's and the dancers had made a couple plates of food for me to take to Tammy for dinner and I decided I would worry about the flight later. When I got back to the hospital and started to walk to Tammy's room, they were bringing her back from the stress test, her last test. I told her that her timing was still there! 10 minutes later the doctor walked in and said all her MRI's, echocardiogram, brain scan, and stress test were negative and looked great. She said the PT would be back to check on her progress and if all was ok, she would be discharged. What? I was stunned and elated at the same time. The nurse said she would work on getting a CD of all her pictures and any test that were not readily available would be mailed to us for her doctor. WOW! Peggy Roller stopped in before she left for home and started some test on Tammy and said there was some noticeable improvement. In the middle of these test, in walked another PT who watched for awhile and Peggy told her "she's all yours". The PT wanted to take her for a walk and I said she was doing much better with that today and probably didn't need the walker. Tammy agreed and off they went around the wing. She managed without losing her balance and the PT cleared her to walk out on her own, but ordered a wheel chair anyway. Don & Jean picked us up around 6pm and took us to Wal-mart where Tammy wanted to replace a couple items they had cut off her in the ER. We were back in the hotel room around 6:30 and I'm sure Tammy was more than relieved. It was surreal for me as all I could think about was her in that chair that was now staring at me, so sort of scary. Tammy took a hot bath and we decided to just veg out and watch some TV with left over pizza. We both were falling asleep and we decided to go to bed early so were sleeping by 9pm. The next morning Don & Jean, who were going to give us a ride to the airport, had a break-in in their van with a busted window and everything stolen. I wanted to help them clean up the glass but knew our time was short if we were going to catch our flight. I called the front desk and they had a driver to take us, but want to thank Don & Jean for everything and hope they were able to replace their window quickly. Our flight home was uneventful and we got home 1/2 hour early getting to our house around 10:30pm. Today Tammy is moving her leg equal to her left leg when it comes to the exercises. Her walk was better today, but after some coaching with some ideas for her to think about and talking her through her walk, she started walking normally, for her, around 8pm tonight! 2 hours later she executed a spiral on each foot in perfect balance and wants to try dancing tomorrow. No worries, we are not going to do that and we are just going to take it easy and get ready to go on our 8 night Caribbean family cruise on Friday. Tammy had seen her Doctor Tuesday before we flew out to Palm Springs Thursday. We had some blood work done too as the Doctor was hoping to find something that might be causing her A-fib. If not, he would refer her to a cardiologist, but of course that would be weeks down the road after blood test results. For now, they have upped her low dosage aspirin to 325mg as a precaution. This, though never good, was a blessing in disguise. All these test done in 1 shot narrowing down the possibilities. We will focus on the A-fib problem and possibly the sudden spiking blood pressure. The number 1 symptom of Hypertension is A-fib so maybe these are tied together. This is for the doctor's to figure out, but her heart is good and her brain is working fine. Her cholesterol is great and the only blood test below normal was that her platelet count is low. The doctor said this would explain her bruising for no apparent reason, except for the possibility that her 2 Shih-tzus beat her up in the middle of the night. Anyway, we have moved up her follow-up appointment to Tuesday, Oct. 15th after the cruise and will try some dancing after that. We will be armed with all her results from Palm Springs and Tammy will keep you posted. Thank you all for your overwhelming support and prayers. God is good and I knew she was always in his hands! Sorry for writing this book, but you have to realize I didn't get to use the microphone the entire weekend! To my beautiful wife, life long partner, and my better half that always makes me look good, I love you and will always be by your side. Get well soon!”

 

Curt Worlock cworlock [at] tampabay.rr.com

 

 

Gene & Jean Severance

danceinfo [at] cox.net  & ladyjean [at] cox.net