Just Over a Year and PUSHING forward...

Looking back . . .

On the night of October 22, 2010, Olga was taken to the hospital and was diagnosed with meningitis possibly lupus and the search for the cause began.  She suffered from short term memory loss and began to loose control of her body.

On November 2, Olga's brain suffered hydrocephaly coupled with an enhanced edema and vasculitis which in turn caused several strokes in multiple areas of her brain, but in particular her brain stem that bridges the brain to the rest of the body. A stint valve was installed and her fight to stay alive became most evident on that day.  She was in a comma.

During the next few weeks, Olga's condition was questionable and was far from stable. She was given 30% then 10% then 5% chance to live and finally in mid November 2010, her preliminary diagnosis was brain dead and doctors were preparing the family for the worst.  They were wrong.

Just over a year later now, Olga is doing quite well considering her condition and damage to her brain and brain stem.  She is now able to have some level of communication, her range of motion has improved in many areas, she is working on standing up among many other things.

Below are a couple of short videos showing Olga's progress.  She is currently working on eating through her mouth to hopefully remove both trach and gastrostomy tubes to enable her recovery to progress faster.

Playing Ball in September

Speech Therapy In October

Many of you probably have heard of Team Hoyt, but in case you have not click on this link to get more info TEAM HOYT. We were inspired by the love shared between Dick and Rick, but mostly we were motivated to continue our support for Olga and to raise awareness for individuals with TBI. We decided that Olga will be participating in a marathon (most likely the Mexico City Marathon) in 2012.  At this point we are in the planning stages and Olga has to get clearance to participate.  The dates are not yet set but the intent and motivation are there.  We look forward to your support and motivation during our training and in particular during the race.  More to come on this event. 

Until next post, God bless you and Happy Thanksgiving to those in the US.

PS we invite you to leave comments for Olga and to share this page with others.