Katherine Arnold Wolf Updates

Thank you all for asking how to specifically pray for me.  Here is my most current list of prayer needs.  As I have shared, there are A TON of issues.  Please pray above all that I am fully restored.  As you can imagine, any ONE of these issues would be difficult to cope with.  All together, they can make you feel atrocious!

Strangely, despite all these issues, I feel very hopeful about my continued recovery.  I spoke with two medical professionals this week who are both still in shock that I recovered as much as I have.  It is implausible given my injuries.  Many thought I would never eat or walk again.  Now, I listen to nothing that anyone tells me I will never do again.  I just know I can prove them wrong!  God’s power is bigger than my problem.

My Walking:  While I can walk across a room with a quad-base cane now (with Jay close by), I still cannot walk on my own or very far at all.  Thankfully, I have not taken too many major falls, but please pray that I won’t hurt myself in relearning to walk by falling.  My balance has been brutally affected by the stroke.    (This is why I did not walk for a year and a half).  My right leg has no coordination, and my body has learned to compensate by using my ab and my glute muscles to learn to take steps.  I want so badly to walk normally again.

My Balance: That brings me to this one.  I can now stand on my own, but I cannot do much in terms of movement without holding on to something or my cane.  I cannot even carry a purse because it throws off my balance too badly.  I could not begin to even step up on a scale to weigh myself or carry my own son or I would fall.

My Hand: It has no fine motor coordination.  I cannot do much of anything with it.  I cannot even write normally.  Compared to many stroke patients who have a hand that curls up, I have a normal-looking hand and decent range of motion with it.  The trouble is, I can’t really use it for normal things you would use your hand for, like grabbing things, writing/typing, even wheeling my wheelchair.  You can imagine all the extreme difficulties associated with not being able to use one hand.  I am right handed, and I have tried to switch to using my left hand.  Unfortunately, I am incredibly ‘Right Hand Dominant’, so I am unable to switch very effectively.

My Eye Ball: My right eyeball is still severely turned in to the middle of my face.  I had a surgery to fix this in August, but it could not fully correct the problem.  My eye is not only turned in, but also facing down and torqued sideways.  I will have another surgery within the year.  I have a wonderful doctor who is committed to fixing my eye.

My Vision: Speaking of my eye, I still have severe double vision.  I have learned to concentrate on the figure that is the real image.  It is annoying more than anything.  Seeing two of everything can make you feel slightly insane!  The vision in my right eye has been greatly impaired by the stroke, so it is actually easier to see the real image from the wrong one since one is blurrier than the other.   The double vision is the main reason I cannot drive yet.   Still, I am thankful that the vision in my right eye continues to improve – it was 20/400 and now it is 20/40!

My Cornea:  When I was in ICU, I had a full-on corneal tear and they thought I could need a corneal transplant (due to my facial paralysis which impaired my eye lid and thus completely dried out my right eye).  As I have recently shared on here, I had another corneal issue, but it has healed from your prayers and the contact lens they put over it.  Because of the facial paralysis, my eye does not close all the way and so it is susceptible to many issues especially severe dryness.  Jay has been putting eye drops in my eye constantly to help keep it moist and lubricated throughout the day and night.

My Energy Level: I have always been someone who has a ton of energy.  I married someone with even more energy than me!  Now, I drink a cup of coffee mid-afternoon to make it through the day without falling asleep.  I am tired almost all the time now.  I feel agitated in the afternoons and want to nap, but I cannot.  It is a horrible feeling.

My Face:  The entire right side of my face is paralyzed.  I had an intense (13 hour) surgery to start the process of correcting the facial nerve that was cut during my brain surgery; however, we have a long road ahead of us.  It appears that the transplanted nerve that was attached to the working, left side of my face ‘took’, so I will have another surgery to connect that nerve to the right side and restore my ability to smile and move my mouth.  I may need an eye-lift, so that my eye lid will open fully.  While I have never considered myself a very vain person, it has been a huge blow to my self-esteem to have half my face be paralyzed.  Please specifically pray that some movement occurs on the right side of my face in the near future because if there is no movement, I will need a much more extensive surgery (including muscle transplantation in my face from my inner thigh).  If there is some movement, I will still need a surgery but it will be less intensive.

My Swallow: While it is functioning again and the feeding tube is out (Praise God!), there are still problems swallowing food and liquid.  There are some foods I cannot eat at all (like steak, many breads, vegetables and nuts), but there are also techniques I use to swallow all food, like washing down my foods with lots of liquid.  I still cough a lot and sometimes I feel like I am choking.  I have to be so careful when I do eat or drink, and it is no longer a carefree activity.

My Endurance: I have greatly diminished stamina now.  If I am even standing up in church, I have to sit down after several minutes from exhaustion.  I frequently have to hold on to Jay when trying to stand up and have an increased heart rate when even walking slowly on a treadmill.   It is as if all my oomph has been sucked right out of me.   I feel like I am 95 in a 27 year old’s body.

My Spirits: Surprisingly, I am strangely hopeful about my continued recovery from this beast of an injury.  Yes, there are moments of sadness, and it is dumb to pretend everything is OK.  I no more want to be Suzie Sunshine than I want to be Debbie Downer.  The truth is I’m somewhere in the middle.  I  have wonderful support, and I think that makes all the difference.

This is only the beginning of a list and there are many, many more issues.   However, please pray for these things specifically to be healed.   It may take several more years, but She-Ra will do it!  I believe this is true: what is impossible for man is possible with God!

Important Side Note: My Mom (with much encouragement from her family), has started a new blog.  Please check it out!  She is such an amazing writer.  I am so proud of my Mama!

P.S. Getting the Christmas mail from our P.O. Box was sooooo precious.  The number of Christmas Cards and gifts from strangers was so special.  Thank you so much!  I really appreciate it.

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at 4:38 pm and is filed under CaringBridge.org Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.