We were up really early on Friday, and by the time the sun started to come up, we were pretty much awake, and enjoying a particularly gorgeous sunrise that lasted for quite some time. Normally they are over in a couple of minutes, but not this one.
It started out with just some pink in the sky to the southwest.
Then it spread to the west.
The snow clouds were closing in on us fast, and the closer they got, the more intense the colors became.
And the clouds farther north became pink, with what was going to be left of the clear skies peeking through.
The whole sky was pink at the last, and the fog in the valley below us was picking up and reflecting the color of the sky.
Then it started snowing, the first real serious snowfall of the year. We were looking forward to a nice relaxing day, playing with the birds and our cat. On Thursday, Dan had filled the wood rack on the porch because we knew this storm was coming, so we didn’t even have outside chores to do.
Then at 2pm he had a TIA (a mini-stroke) affecting pretty much the whole left side of his body. And all thoughts of a nice relaxing day went poof.
It takes about 40 minutes for an ambulance to get up to us, assuming they could with the road conditions being what they were, and about 45 minutes for me to drive to the hospital in good road conditions. So we got into the Forester, and I drove to the emergency room is absolutely horrible driving conditions. The only thing that would have been worse is freezing rain, and I think it was doing that at the very end of the drive into town. I’m pretty sure the 45 minute drive (I was pushing it), took at least 3 hours! Or it felt that way anyway. We passed two car wrecks on our way into town, no doubt people who didn’t have winter tires on, and/or simply can’t drive on super slick roads. It did slow me down a little bit. We have really good snow tires, I was driving a Subaru, and I was in a hurry.
So at the emergency room with Dan hooked up to all sorts of machines, they ran pretty much every test they could think of, and one Dan wouldn’t let them do (MRI). And his symptoms kept improving. Ultimately we left against their advice because we’d had all the fun we could take, and came back home, thinking that a good night sleep would be the best thing to do. The roads were super slick coming home, but it didn’t take hours to get there. The day was definitely improving! Fixed something hot and quick for dinner, and got the fire going in the wood stove, fed the cat (he thought that was obviously something we should have done first), and then went to bed by 9pm. Exhausted.
I woke up at 1am Saturday morning, and no way was I going to be able to go back to sleep. We both got up a couple of hours later because I was keeping Dan awake. More improvements to the numbness lessening in his left hand during the day on Saturday – yay!
Saturday evening we were watching some Buffy’s on DVD, and I asked Dan if we were going to make it until 8pm. He said no. So I asked him if we were going to make it until 7pm. He said no. I said good! And we slept 10 hours.
So we’ll go see the normal clinic we go to in Colville this next week (hopefully Wednesday since we have an eye doctor appointment that day, and I don’t want to drive over the pass twice in one week, but will if we need to), and see what they think about all the bazillion test results.
The emergency room doctors couldn’t see any reason why he had had a TIA, which is quite concerning. It could be one of those “shit happens” things. I keep telling Dan we need to take up drinking alcohol, smoking, and using drugs, as this clean living stuff doesn’t seem to be very beneficial.
This morning his left hand is feeling somewhat better, and hopefully in a day or two it will be back to full functionality.