April Wraps & Stroke Awareness Month Begins!

As we begin a new month, I can't believe how much has happened in April!

Before I recap, I want to remind everyone that May is Stroke Awareness Month. Please, take it from me - it's more important to know the signs of a stroke and the proper response. Act F.A.S.T.!!! If you suspect that someone has suffered a stroke, do the following immediately:

F - Face. Ask them to smile. Note if one side of their face is drooped.

A - Arms. Ask them to raise their arms. Again, note if one side appears to be weakened.

S - Speech. Ask them to repeat a sentence. Note if they have any difficulty

T - Time! If the appear to have any difficulties with the tasks above, call 911 immediately! Note the time that the symptoms began to appear. This can help medical staff respond with the best course of treatment!

I'll talk more this month about stroke, statistics, prevention and treatment. For those of you who aren't aware, my husband suffered a stroke on October 9, 2008. He was an otherwise healthy 35 year old with an at-the-time unknown congenital heart defect called PFO. He has since made a full recovery, but preventing a secondary stroke is our main focus right now. As many as 42% of men and 24% of women who suffer an initial stroke suffer a secondary stroke within five years.

Now, back to my regularly scheduled message:

The month started out on a somber note for me as NBC aired the series finale of E.R. on April 2nd. I tell ya, it felt like I was losing one of my closest friends of the last 15 years. My mom and sister watched the event with me and we all teared up at one point or another! I haven't replaced my Thursday night viewing slot with a new show and I don't think I'm going to. Instead, Thursday evenings from 9-10pm are officially "Lisa Time".

Our first family gathering in our new home was a big success. We celebrated Easter with our family and everyone really enjoyed themselves!

My little sister got married on April 20th. It was a Monday ceremony with just close family in attendance. Her and her "new" husband actually kept their original anniversary date from 7 years ago. It's so refreshing to know that no matter what two people can go through together, especially the really hard times, that they can (if they try!) eventually find each other again. Congratulations, Mike & Wendy! I love you both more than you'll ever know and I'm so happy to have been witness to such a joyous event!

I finished my class on the New Testament this month with a final grade of "A". I'm really happy and feel really enlightened after taking that class. I've now moved on to Human Communications and have so much work to do - including an individual presentation on stroke awareness and a team presentation on modern communication and technology. Wish me luck! I'm just hoping to maintain my 4.0 GPA! (Yep, that's me tooting my own horn!)

To round out the month, my husband had dental work torture done. He had his second molar extracted earlier this week and he's finally starting to recover. The roots of the molar had started to grow together and they had to break the tooth in his mouth to get it out. Painful stuff! He also surprised me by getting his hair cut yesterday. He had been in Sampson mode since his stroke last October and refused to get his hair cut since then. He looks like a brand new man!

Hoping that all of the April rain we got here in NW Indiana really does bring us some pretty May flowers. Spring is here, but it's been so rainy that I'm thirsty for some sunshine!

By the way, isn't today MayDay? Aren't we all supposed to be prancing around a pole or something?! Maybe that's just at the "gentleman's" clubs these days... ;)

Have a great weekend, everyone!