Brianna Nordstrom

On early Sunday morning, my sister, Brianna, suffered an ischemic stroke. All last week, she was experiencing extreme headaches she assumed it was her normal migraines. Starting on Saturday, she started showing additional symptoms. She noticed her vision was off when she couldn’t see specific features of people on the TV, she dropped her water a few times, and she lost her words for a little bit. She seemed to recover from that after a little bit on Saturday, so she thought she had improved. Early Sunday, she woke up to go to the bathroom and remembered the events from the night prior. She decided to try to talk again and couldn’t get any words out so she knew something was very wrong. Brianna woke up Kyle and he figured out she was asking him to take her into the ER. They drove into the Monte hospital where they figured out she had a carotid dissection (tear in one of her carotid arteries) which caused a clot and eventually a stroke. They immediately scheduled an airlift to the St. Cloud hospital where they could provide more care. When she arrived at the St. Cloud hospital, she was administered TNK treatment to help break up the clots (extra special thanks to Adam and Mandy for the assist here). This helped and she was slowly able to regain her motor and speech skills. She spent a little over 24 hours in the ICU after this and was monitored and tested very often. The doctor finally came to see us at around noon Monday to explain everything that happened. Since there was no recent traumatic event that would have normally caused this event, he chalked it up to having narrow arteries possibly related to genetics. There isn’t much of any testing that shows what to expect for young, healthy people that this has happened to so there’s no real guidance on how to treat it or what to expect. They’re hoping the tear will heal itself while taking blood thinners, but Brianna will have to get a stent in the torn artery if it doesn’t. She will be going back for a check in and another CT scan in a month to check the progress on the artery and they will decide then what next steps will be. As of right now (Tuesday), Brianna is still in the hospital resting and being monitored, but is working on getting discharged very soon. She will have to take it easy for a while and stay home from work and most likely take a break from driving. If you know Brianna, you know she doesn’t like to ask for help at all, so we’re doing it for her We have no idea what type of medical expenses will be coming yet, but know it will be astronomical with the helicopter trip. Brianna will be restricted for a while too, and will most likely need physical/speech therapy to regain all that she has lost. We know monetary help isn’t for everyone, but even a kind word or prayer, or help in any way would go a long way. Please let me, my mom (Patty Johnson), or Kyle Tadd know if you have any questions or want to help in any additional way!