I haven't blogged in month's and now will start again with a very lengthy post, but a post I don't want to forget.

On Friday December 30, Addyson & Jessica had a multi-stake dance in Springdale that got over at 12:00.  Addyson had a carload of kids to drop off before coming home, so we weren't expecting her to be home until 1:30.  As customary in our home, I went to bed, while Marty waited up for her.  Rylee got home from babysitting shortly before midnight.  About 12:30, Marty got a really bad headache and asked Rylee to wait up for the other two girls.  That is very uncharacteristic.

I slept in a little on Saturday morning and didn't get up until about 6:25.  While sitting on the couch, I heard Marty get up.  Thinking he'd waited up for Addyson until 1:30 or so, I turned and commented to him that he was up early.  He didn't say anything, shrugged his shoulders and I could see fear in his eyes.  I asked if he was ok.  He shook his head no.  I asked if he needed to go to the hospital, he shook his head yes.  He had amazing faculties about him at that time.  He insisted I put some clothes on (which I hadn't planned on doing).  While I threw on jeans instead of pajama pants, Marty gathered his medicine and poured me a glass of diet pepsi.  I would NEVER have thought of either one.  Off to the hospital we sped.

They immediately took him back and hooked him up to tons of machines, drew tons of blood and tried to figure out was was wrong.  At that time he was indicating that his right arm was numb, his right side of his face was numb and he wasn't speaking at all.  He didn't have the strength to hold a pen to write either.  He was quickly getting frustrated as he couldn't answer the doctor's questions and I am clearly not a mind reader.  Over time, his frustration turned to anger.  He really wanted us to know what was wrong, but he just couldn't communicate it.

While the doctors were assessing Marty, I called our Bishop of our old ward as he was very close to the hospital, a close family friend, and I had his number in my cell phone.  (Here's a note to everyone, put the entire ward roster in your phone, you never know when you'll need it).  He quickly brought another friend over and gave Marty a blessing.  It was nice to have friends that would come to the hospital at 7:30 in the morning.

After doing a physical exam and all initial tests came back good, the doctors thought it was a medicine imbalance, admitted him to the hospital and sent his blood to Springdale for confirmation.

When our normal doctor saw Marty around 10:30 he noticed a significant weakness in Marty's right arm that had not been there before.  This concerned him more as this would indicate stroke and not medicine imbalance.  He sent him back to the ER for a consultation with a neurologist.  The CT scan showed no irregularities, but the change over time made the neurologists convinced Marty was having a stroke.  At that point it was too late for the clot busting medicine (they think the stroke started around midnight and you only have 4 hours to administer the meds).  They ordered an MRI to view the location and extent of damage.  When the MRI came back, there were no clots, but there were small areas of damage.  I have no doubt this was a miracle that the clot(s) had dissolved.  This helped minimize the damage and long term effects.

Throughout the afternoon, Marty would try very hard to communicate with us and get very frustrated because we didn't understand.  We kept encouraging him to write.  He finally did start to write.  It was SLOW and meticulous.  Each word seemed to take forever to form, but he then had a way to communicate. 

At one point her wrote, "I can't pray".  I told him he didn't have to talk to pray.  Just think about it in his mind and the Lord would know the intent of his heart.  He then wrote, "I can't think very well!  Ask me a Question I can know it."  I then asked him several yes/no questions and determined his thinking was very foggy.  If we asked him a question, he could answer it, but to have him come up with the questions, wasn't going to happen.

We had several visitors throughout the evening.  As each would come in, Marty's face would light up.  He still hadn't written more than a dozen words but loved to answer yes/no questions.  We became quite good at 20 questions.  When his seminary students came to visit, he really shined.  He loves those kids.  While there, he wrote "push car" and pointed to Cody.  All the kids laughed.  There was a testimony building story behind pushing a car that Marty remembered and obviously, so did the students.

In the morning, they brought him breakfast.  He just stared at the plate.  I asked him if he was hungry.  He nodded yes.  I told him to eat.  He shrugged his shoulders.  I put the fork in his hand and helped him take a bite.  He took a few more bites and then just stared at the plate.  I asked if it tastes good.  He nodded yes.  I asked if he was hungry and he nodded yes.  I again told him to eat.  He then took a few more bites.  This happened over and over until he had finished his breakfast.  After he wrote "I can't rember what to do I'm Hungry and Thirsty I forget to eat & Drink"  It's as though he doesn't know the purpose of the food and drink put in front of him.  However, before I got to the hospital he had shaved.  Why his brain knows how to shave but not eat will continue to be a mystery to me.  The brain is a powerful thing.

On recommendation of my mother and another family friend, I created some flashcards for Marty to use if he needed something.  I wrote simple words like, medicine, pain, hot, cold, eat, drink, water, Dr Pepper (got to have the important things), thank you, quiet, etc.  When I asked Marty if these were helpful, he wrote "When you say stuff I understand It takes a while when I read I need to read" 

Over and over through the morning, he would motion that he forgot as we played 20 questions.  At one point he pointed at me and motioned forgot.  I said "you forgot me?"  He nodded yes.  He then broke down sobbing.  It became quite apparent that he had forgotten a lot of things and was very sad to have lost these memories.  He couldn't remember the names of our daughters or their ages.  This too was upsetting for him. 

At that point they brought him lunch.  He had soup and a sandwich.  It took a lot of reminding him to eat but he made it through.  At one point while eating his soup, he wrote "Panda".  Panda is one of his favorite Chinese restaurant and he LOVES their soup.  We will need to go there this week for lunch.

Marty's sister then came to the hospital to sit with Marty while I went to Sacrament meeting.  Marty also had quite a few visitors while I was gone.  It was fun to see all he had written when I got back.  Our visitors quickly figured out that Marty had lost a lot of memories and kept talking to him to spur a memory.  Here's the list of what he wrote - spelling and punctuation included (and an explanation if I know it)

• How far is home
• My Birthday is Sep 28. How old am I
• Susie, Laurie, Becky, Judy, Jon, Jean, Andy, Scott, Mickey (all his siblings in birth order)
• Up in the mountains
• I took your son to the MTC
• We got stuck on a Dam
• You like Braum's milk shakes
• Same place in California as David (Brother Cutting moved to Arkansas from California.  Marty remembered they lived in the same place that his nephew is serving a mission.  I didn't even know that)
• Choir at Dr. Fred's house (Dr Deal came to visit)
• Sage is Diabetic (one of the seminary kids, but she wasn't here at the time, so not sure what spurred that memory)
• 20mg (the nurse tried to give him 40 mg of a medicine and Marty remembered it was too much)
• Do we have stairs (when the physical therapist was working with Marty to see if he would be safe at home, it was clear Marty didn't remember where we lived)
• Where do I work (when I explained that, he looked very surprised and a lot concerned.  he then wrote:
• I can't do that (we assured him we'll help a lot until he can do that)
• D&C 20:77-78 (he wrote this after Cody and Adam administered the sacrament to Marty)
• Egg Sandwich (he makes Rylee one most mornings
• Pumpkin pie is Thanksgiving (one of the visitors said that he'd had pumpkin pie for breakfast.  Marty then indicated he didn't like thanksgiving)
• Painted our (two of the boys that visited help paint our new house)
• You toch (you touch - Marty dared Jessica to touch a lady on the arm at Walmart and he'd give her $1.  She did it and bought chapstick with the dollar.  This is what he wrote when he saw Jess putting on the chapstick)
• Coockie San (Jessica saw a plate that had frosting on it left from lunch.  She asked if Dad had cake, nope, a cookie sandwich)
• 1 bag hsh brns, 1 onion, cream cheese, 3 cups water, 1 can corn and cream corn (Marty was eating corn chowder for dinner and started writing this.  It's most of a recipe for corn chowder that he makes.)
• muffins you like (I love the corn chowder and muffins at mimi's)
• Pretzel M&M 3 for 99 at Alens (not sure where this one came from, but Conner was excited to know that they were on sale)
• Steak & Buffet in (Started pointing to Jessica - Marty was eating banana pudding and remembered he worked at Ryan's in Georgia where Jessica was born)
• Hot Guys B (We were talking about Jessica's birthday.  She'll be 16 this week.  I told dad she wants a red truck with a hot guy in the passenger seat.  He then scribbled this.  When he got to the B Jessica finished saying baby animals.  I guess there is a calendar at the mall called Hot Guys and baby animals that Jessica was looking at.  Jess and Marty sure laughed about that one)
• Is her Friend in the Army (I asked Marty if he knew anything about Qatar.  He didn't.  I told him Jess has a friend in Qatar.  This was his response.  Not sure who he was thinking of)
• Aug 26 Dec 13 (our anniversary and my birthday)
• June 17 (Addyson's birthday)
• Jan 9 (Jessica's birthday)
• Feb 7 (Rylee's birthday)
• I think you might be telling stores :) (The girls were telling him all kinds of stories that he had told them about his childhood.  He was shocked at some of the things he had done)
• My n.
• The cave (our first apartment)
• Eufala Inn (He then pointed back at his brother Mickey's name and made a large circle.  Eufala inn has plate size chicken fried steaks that Mickey loved)
• Raidio 94.9 song ADHD (Jessica won't leave the radio stations alone and constantly changes them.  Marty teases her saying she has song ADHD)
• Ronald Regan (when someone asked who the president of the united states is)
• Thomas S Monson (when someone asked who the prophet is - at least he knows the important ones)
• Jon (??)
• Summer, Christ, Dara (when asked who my siblings are - we teased him that he only likes the girls.  Two of these are my SIL not my sisters.  He couldn't remember my brothers)
• Doctor (When we were telling him the spouses of the above names, he stopped when we said Dean and wrote this.  Dean is a Physician's assistant)
• D&C 89 - (one of the kids asked where the word of wisdom is)
• Oth & Coven (one of the kids gave the scripture reference for this - I'm not even sure where it is)
• Cody taught it (in seminary last year, Cody taught the oath and covenant section.)
• Susie & Will (??)
• Not about me - about (??)
• Girl for sale - Allens (long funny story, but Marty remembered seeing what looked like a car selling little girls on the side of the road on his way home from Allen's one day)
• you used to go to math competitions (talking about me)
• no boy tease (we were talking about different boys that the girls like)
• Jan 8 (Jessica's birthday)
• Cook better dinners (Addyson was telling Marty that the talks in sacrament meeting were about setting goals and making new year's resolutions.  Marty remembered his)
• senior, 10, 8
• with Angela (we were talking about where Addyson wanted to go to school.  He could remember that one of her choices was with Angela, but he couldn't remember which school or who Angela (his niece) is)
• I was late (we were talking about our wedding - and indeed he was late - about 35 or 40 minutes late due to traffic)
• yellow - (pointing at his bright yellow socks.  We asked him if he remembered any other colors and he couldn't)
• Utah (??)
• Mountain Home (we were talking about all region band concert in a couple weeks and he remembered where it is being held)
• Martin Hemming Christoffersen
• De Anne Leah Goth (my mother's maiden name is Goff)
• Addyson Marie
• Jessica Ray
• Rylee Anne
• Car accident - (when clarifying Goff, he remembered that my mother was killed in a car accident)
• Red Robin - SVU - (again, talking about colleges for Addyson, he remembers eating at Red Robin with the molines and talking about SVU - long before Addyson was considering it as a potential school)
• Lots of trees - (we asked if he remembers our home, this is what he remembers)
• water fountain - (we were talking about all the different rooms in our house.  When we got to the perspective room, this is what he remembered)
• I need to eat with meds - carbs (when they brought him his evening meds he remembered if he doesn't have some carbs his stomach gets upset)
• Paper towel - (he was sweating and wanted a towel to wipe his forehead)
• Electric blanket - (I commented I didn't know how he could be sweating and i was freezing.  Our temperatures are always different.  He bought me an electric blanket for my birthday)