Progress on the Rehabilitation Floor...

Denise has been on the rehabilitation floor at Broward Health North for the last week and half.  She endures at least 3 hours of rehabilitation a day including physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy.  

Doctors have identified that she suffered a large stroke that caused a large bleed in her brain.

She has common post stroke issues including extreme weakness of the left side. She has very slight wiggles of her left hand and can push with very little resistance with her left foot.  Doctors are still optimistic and remind us constantly that her left side will take quite some time. 

Mentally, she comprehends what happened and what her current disabilities are which frustrates her a lot.  She doesn't understand why this happened especially after being extremely active and eating ice cream only "once" a week. :)

She talks well and has a good range of motion on her right side. Therapy is teaching her to compensate for her left side by strengthening her right side more and more each day.  During therapy they stand her up (with major help) which allows her to feel gravity and helps her build trunk control.

Denise says this is the hardest thing she has ever had to do.  She has weak days where she feels it is impossible and others where she is encouraged by everyone's support.  

She is currently in room 414 at Broward Health North if anyone would like to visit. Denise smiles at EVERY message and marvels at the support from around the world. 

Our current prayer requests:
       1. We pray that God restores Denise's left side as soon as possible.
       2. We pray that God gives Denise a sense of peace and willpower to push through the difficult times.
       3. We pray that God allows her to stay on the rehabilitation floor as long as possible.  Insurance limits length of stay and we are praying that she can stay to their maximum limit.

I asked Mom what her favorite Bible verse was and she said "Lord Help Me!" and "Get Me Out of Here!"  She clearly still has a great sense of humor.

"...but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." 
Isaiah 40:31

She got a HAIRCUT!!! Shortest it has been since 1981 when she went to college. 

Rehabilitation begins...

Denise has been off the vent for 2 days! Today was her first day sitting in a chair. Hallelujah!

She still has no movement on the left side but moves the right side pretty freely.

Yesterday, she was mouthing words and today she is somewhat grunting. The staff thinks she should start talking within the next few days!

She is going through intense occupational and physical therapy every day. Everything is extremely weak -- most importantly her neck. She needs to strengthen her neck muscles and hold it freely. The rest of her body will follow.

THE BEST NEWS OF THE DAY: She should be transferred to the neurological step down unit at Broward Health North (BHN) in the next few days!!!! Which indicates she is stable enough to leave the ICU and once she is transferred everyone can start visiting!  {I will let everyone know when that time comes for open visitation :)}

Denise will most likely be in the neurological step down unit for a week or two and then go to the inpatient rehabilitation unit at BHN. 

Once she can walk we will take her down to the University of Miami to see their hematologists to balance the blood clots and bleeding issue. This will be an outpatient experience - she will not be admitted.

She still has clots in both arms but the swelling has significantly reduced! She is on a half dose of lovenox (blood thinner) right now that is acting as more of a blood clot preventer than actual thinner with the dose being so small.  They are gradually increasing the blood thinner while closely monitoring the brain bleed with CT Scans to make sure it does not start bleeding again.

Prayer requests: 
1. that Denise does not produce additional blood clots and that her current clots do not move
2. that she would remain patient and not too frustrated during this rebuilding, recovering and rehabbing phase
3. that Denise's left side would start to respond and move just as freely as the right
4. that the doctors at UM will have a solution to her bleeding/blockage/protein S deficiency issue

"From the ends of the earth, I cry to you for help when my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the Rock that is Higher than I." Psalm 61:2

Denise sitting with Caroline (daughter).

Denise is off the ventilator!

Written by Kurt Dickie (Denise's Brother):

Hallelujah!!! Denise is successfully off the ventilator! God is surely good! When I arrived at her bedside this morning Denise was wide awake... looking and responding the best since being admitted. A new Respiratory Therapy nurse seemed to have the same determination to extubate her as I'm sure Denise has. The weaning began and she blew away all the perameters and criteria for extubation. At 10am this morning the tube was removed. 

Occupational Therapy arrived 30 minutes later and soon after Denise was sitting (with considerable assistance) on the side of the bed. She was able to raise and lower her right leg as well as manipulate her right arm much more than previously displayed. She worked on holding her head up and turning her neck... huge at this point. PT guy said it is remarkable and very unexpected.... I responded, "well of course, it's Denise!" 

The critical 2 hrs post extubation has now come and gone and she is currently resting with awesome vital signs. I told her not to worry about talking just yet and to speak when she is ready... she is rather non verbal at this point.

Everyone is very encouraged with her leap of progress... no doubt as a result of the intense prayer, support and encouragement from everyone that knows her and even from folks that don't know her. The glory goes to God... through Him anything is possible! Please keep the prayers coming... together we can see her through this. God Bless you all.

Kurt (brother) and Ron (dad) visiting today after her ventilator was removed.

Best Day Yet...

Denise had the best day yet! 

Surgery to place the filter went well and she has been off of sedation for most of the day. 

Kurt, her brother, visited her this evening and she followed commands quite well (lift your hand, squeeze, move your leg). 

He asked her to blink twice (she did about 4-5 blinks) and then asked her to blink once and she did. 

Then he told her that one blink meant no and multiple blinks meant yes.

He asked if she was cold and she blinked once. He then asked her if she was in pain and she responded with one blink. 

Hallelujah Jesus!!!!! 

She is not out of the woods as she still has clots in her arms and has a long road to recovery for her brain but we are appreciating EVERY SINGLE BLESSING from God!

Tonight she is going to be given Lovenox, blood clot preventer. We hopefully will get her off the ventilator by the earliest next Monday and at that point they will consider giving her blood thinner to break up the clots. This means they will have to monitor her extremely close because to make sure her brain bleed does not restart. 

Denise at Aniston's (granddaughter) Thanksgiving Feast at Westminster Academy - November 2013.

Surgery today to treat blood clots...

Yesterday, the cardiologist completed the TEE (image of her heart) and it was normal with no clots.  Hallelujah!

After some blood work, we found out that she is protein S deficient (she clots easier than most people). They did ultrasounds of her arms and she has clots in both arms which is probably why her swelling won't go down in her arms.

Ultrasounds were done on her legs and there weren't any clots which is good.

As most of you know, clots aren't good but we can't give blood thinners because of the bleed in her brain.

Today at noon she will go into surgery and the cardiac surgeon will place a filter in her Inferior Vena Cava to prevent any clots that may form in her legs that could lead to her lungs.

Also, they are going to place a central line in place of the extremity line currently in her arm.  This line is able to give any medications as well as provide nurses with a direct line for blood so they don't have to prick her over and over.

When all is said and done hopefully they will be able to begin clot-busters to dissolve the existing clots.

PLEASE pray for the surgeon's hands and wisdom as well as for her body to STOP forming these clots. It will devastating for the clots to go to her legs or brain.

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." Romans 12:12

Denise came to EVERY single one of her girl's games that she could. She drove anywhere, flew across country, live-streamed if she couldn't be there in person and most of all taught her girls how to stay strong in the hardest of circumstances. Our family entered the biggest "game" of our lives last Saturday and we will fight and be strong for her.

Denise at Caroline's (middle) last Junior Olympics for water polo in California - Summer 2013. 

After Surgery and a Little into the Future...

After surgery it seemed like she was having some localized seizures so they gave her a strong seizure medication. During her neurological tests early this morning she was not reacting with her right hand and barely reacting with pain to her right leg which is a decrease in movement from the last few days. During the early morning CT Scan it looks like she has been suffering mini strokes (no cause yet) so they did an EEG this morning which we will get results in a few days.

She has been off sedation since before the neurological test and a couple hours after her original neurological assessment her interventional neurologist came in and woke her up She opened her eyes (with help) and focused on him. He also asked her to move her right arm and she did!!! She only wiggled her right toes but she kept lifting her right arm over and over! I think she was giving him some attitude. There is no movement still on the left side but they don't expect that for a few days.

Right now they are looking at the EEG to hopefully give us a reason for the mini strokes as well as performing a TEE tomorrow on her heart.  They are assuming she is throwing some clots from somewhere which is probably causing these mini strokes.

During surgery last night, they took some tissue samples from the blood mass area to rule out some potential causes.  She has had a melanoma, so we hope that hasn't metastasized to her brain.

All doctors are very optimistic to her recovery but have warned us it will take lots of time. They put us a little at ease when they told us to expect a roller coaster of events and emotions. Which we are clearly going through. Seems like we are going backwards but the doctors assure us we are moving forward.

Ron Dickie, Denise's Dad, visiting today. 

According to Wikipedia:

EGG = Electroencephalography (EEG) is the recording of electrical activity along the scalp.

TEE = A transesophageal echocardiogram, or TEE, is an alternative way to perform an echocardiogram. A specialized probe containing an ultrasound transducer at its tip is passed into the patient's esophagus. This allows image and Doppler evaluation which can be recorded.

The Beginning

Where to begin...

My mom, Denise Israels, is a fighter.  She is the strongest woman I know.  She takes care of her family, she helps raise her granddaughter and she loves unconditionally.


On May 24, 2014, she suffered a bleed in her brain.  After many tests we have come to find out that she has a large hematoma (pocket of blood) on the right side of her brain and due to the swelling has affected the movement on the left side of her body.

She also had subarachnoid hemorrhage (bleeding in the area between the brain and the thin tissues that cover the brain.)  

Another issue that they found during testing is a vertebral artery dissection.  From Wikipedia: “Vertebral artery dissection is a dissection (a flap-like tear) of the inner lining of the vertebral artery, which is located in the neck and supplies blood to the brain. After the tear, blood enters the arterial wall and forms a blood clot, thickening the artery wall and often impeding blood flow.”

At this point the doctors are trying to figure out what the next course of action is. Normally in order to release the blockage of the Vertebral Artery Dissection they would use high doses of blood thinners to help break up the blockage but they can’t do that because that will increase the blood in her hematoma.

We know that we are at the best hospital for this kind of medical condition and have the best doctors on her case. 

She is currently in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU), is sedated and on a ventilator. They want to allow her brain to heal and give her plenty of rest.

We don’t know true causes yet – could be stroke, high blood pressure, tumor, aneurysm... the list goes on. At this point we are just hoping that they will make a plan to move forward and help her heal.

Please pray for peace and wisdom for our family. God’s plan and timing is perfect but hard for us to understand at times.

Jeremiah 17:14

“Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.”

We praise you Jesus!

Our last family shot at Victoria's bridal shower during the early afternoon of May 24.