Blessing Andrea Stern: Heading Home!

Friday, October 26, 2007

Heading Home!

from Hugh, 8:30 a.m.

I just got a phone call from Andrea's dad, Jerry, and she will be heading home in a few hours. She had a very good night last night and although her parents are a bit apprehensive, ANDREA is very excited to be getting out of the hospital. NOW she will be able to get some real sleep without them waking her every few hours.

The bandages are off her head, and she's been walking with help at the hospital.

Jennifer, Andrea's ER nurse, will be going over to Andrea's today as well, which is a relief.

2 comments:

cathy@cathydebuono.com said...: hey sternie....

congrats on getting past the surgery part, i'm so glad you're at home now, that's got to feel better.

take your time with yourself, be patient... let your body do it's healing.

i'll just say, i can't believe the world series is over already... I was looking forward to watching more games.

xoxoxo
Cathy; October 29, 2007 at 4:53 PM
Eileen said...: I am so sorry I was not there to offer my support. I was totally out of the loop because I have been in the hospital most of the past two+ months. I can't believe all you have gone through. You are one amazing woman to have handled everything that's happened. I am very happy to hear that you're home and on the road to recovery. I am sending prayers and love and hopes for a speedy recovery. I am soooo glad that you are ok and that this was caught in time. I am thinking about you and care about you so very much. I am really looking forward to Passover.

Be well,
Love,
cousin Eileen; October 30, 2007 at 8:27 PM

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Why the blog?

Andrea finds great comfort in her individual connections with everyone and wants to be reassuring us each personally, but she has admitted that reporting the same news bit by bit via text, email and phone is really tiring.

A small number of Andrea's close friends in LA will be maintaining Sternie Central on a regular basis. Feel free to comment on any of the posts, and include questions or personal notes. Andrea will occasionally post too, when she's feeling up to it.

Thank you for your support!

Summary of events: the first few days

Andrea has been diagnosed with AVM (arteriovenous malformation), a congenital disorder of the connections between veins and arteries in one spot of her brain. It's most likely something she has had since birth, and she needs to have it surgically closed or removed to prevent any possible bleeding or hemorrhaging, which would result in a stroke.

Since February 07, Andrea has been having some hallucinations, which she experienced at the time as deja-vu episodes or memory lapses; we now know these were seizures, caused by her AVM. Last Thursday morning, September 20, she woke up with an unusually heavy numbness in her K-T (left) leg. Per Rinat's instructions, she went in to her General Practitioner, Dr. Denise Freese, at UCLA Santa Monica. In wanting to rule out the possibility of a stroke, Dr. Freese, thank G-d, ordered the full round of tests for Andrea, including a brain MRI. The MRI shocked us when it showed a lesion on the left side of her brain, in the temporal lobe, that needs prompt attention. She was immediately given an anti-seizure medication called Dilantin, to which she had a violent adverse reaction; she was then put on oxygen and eventually transported in an ambulance to the UCLA Medical Center ER in Westwood. She stayed in the ICU for another 2 nights, hooked up to an EEG so they could monitor her brain activity, which continued to appear normal and seizure-free throughout her stay. She was released on Sunday, after a spinal MRI showed that her spine was free of any lesions. (This still leaves a question open about whether the K-T is related to the AVM.)

On Wednesday, September 26, while adjusting to the new anti-seizure medication called Keppra, Andrea experienced shortness of breath and more weird pain in her left leg, she felt lightheaded and very weak. Coley & Andy had stopped over for a visit and didn't like what they saw, so after a few phone calls, they took her back to the ER in Westwood. After another day of tests that came back negative (see Wednesday's blog), she was released. It seems that all her symptoms were traceable to the Keppra medication.

In any case, Andrea is feeling extremely blessed and grateful to have learned about her brain lesion early, before any bleeding or hemorrhage occurred. She is scheduled for surgery at UCLA Medical Center in Westwood with Dr. Neil Martin on October 23. Her first consultation appointment with him will be October 15. Andrea is currently in good spirits, but tired from the all recent activity, and from the Keppra, so she has been at home in a restful state, under friends' care. She expects to be up & about, with things back to normal, around the end of November. She is also scared, and finding a lot of comfort in the incredible support coming her way, and she is seriously leaning on all the love and prayers she is receiving.

Blessing Andrea Stern

Friday, October 26, 2007

Heading Home!

2 comments:

Why the blog?

WORK - contact Andrea's photographers directly

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Summary of events: the first few days