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.