1/26 - he's home!

Hi everyone!

Today is a great milestone in Dad's recovery! He came home this morning, 87 days after his stroke. Sydney greeted him and Mom when they got out of the car:

Then he headed up the stairs on his own:

And made it into the condo:

Heather got some balloons and cake and sparkling cider for a celebration:

And Mom was able to return Dad's wedding ring to him, amid a lot of emotion on everyone's part:

Everyone enjoyed the day, relaxing on the lanai, soaking in the nice weather.  All in all, a pretty fabulous day, even for those of us who couldn't be there in person :)  Thanks to Heather for all the great pics!

Dad has his cell phone now, so you can call him if you'd like. If you'd like to call but don't have his number, send me an email. Just be aware that he struggles with names, and mixes up his words sometimes. Other than that, he's the same big good looking guy you always knew!

1/23 update - big news!

Today, 12 weeks after Dad's stroke, we learned that he will be heading home this weekend! He is scheduled to be discharged next Monday, but he is just about done with his scheduled therapy at HealthPark, so Mom has decided to bring him home on Saturday. He will be seeing Dr. Alvarez,  the neurosurgeon who operated on him, on Monday, and we expect he will schedule some in home therapy for Dad.  He still has a lot to work on, particularly cognitively, and we want to make sure he keeps up with that for as long as he needs it.

Mom has been working hard to get the condo ready for him to come home. Mom brought Dad to the condo yesterday so his OT, Colleen, could see how he does getting around. He did really well getting up the stairs!  A few more things need to get done, like getting rid of area rugs and installing some rails in the bathroom, but we're excited that its only a couple of days away!!

Thank you again to everyone who has been calling and writing to show your support and love for Dad and for us. We've said it many times, but it's worth repeating; we appreciate you all so much!!

I'll write another update after Dad gets home, and hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures as well!

1/20 update

Hi all -

Just a quick update of what's happened the past few days. Dad and his therapists made a trip to the hospital late last week to work on going up and down a flight of stairs using only one railing. He did very well, and made it up and down 17 steps! That's more than he needs to do to get into their condo, so we're getting closer to him going home!

Yesterday BJ was there for a visit, and he and Dad went out for a ride to Fort Myers Beach and looked at some boats.  Today he and Mom went out to do some errands together, and then had lunch at a local restaurant. Mom brought his wheelchair along, just in case, but he walked everywhere with his walker. It was a lot for him, and he was tired when he went back to the rehab, but he did it!

The therapists may be going to the condo tomorrow to evaluate it and make recommendations of things we need to do before Dad goes home.

That's all for now. Hopefully we'll know more about when he may be going home early this week.

Some special videos

Hi everyone -

Well, it hasn't worked out for us to have our secret special guest blogger (aka Dad, which I'm sure was not hard to figure out!) write a post, so I got him on video so you can all see for yourselves how he's doing!  These were taken yesterday afternoon, 1/15, in his room at the rehab.  I kept the videos short, as he seemed to be able to stay focused pretty well that way.  And you can hear that he has a little trouble from time to time finding what he wants to say, but overall I think he did pretty well!

Here they are:

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

We did test the links and they worked, but send me an email if you have any trouble.

1/14 update

Hi all -

We had a great time on our trip to the Caribbean!  It was really nice to be able to get away, all together, and enjoy a little time in the warm weather.  Here's my favorite picture from Grand Turk:

Dad did well while we were away.  Cherry took great care of him!  Here's a picture of the two of them from this morning:

Mom and I had a meeting this morning with the care team at the rehab facility.  Right now, Dad is scheduled for therapy through next Thursday, January 24th.  He may be coming home after that!  He still has a long way to go with his therapy, particularly cognitively, but he continues to do well.  He's doing very well with problem solving, and math type things but struggles with memory loss, and is still having a hard time finding words sometimes.  Focus is also a problem as he tends to drift off while you're talking with him. But we just keep reminding ourselves that his doctors have said we can't even try to evaluate what permanent issues he may have for at least another few months.  And many stroke patients continue to improve for a year after the event.  Considering it's only been 11 weeks we think he's doing remarkably well.

We still have some logistical things to work out before he can come home, but we're getting closer!  Soon the therapy staff will be coming to the condo with him to see how he does getting up the stairs.

Cherry and I are both heading home to the cold tomorrow.  I'll be visiting Dad one more time before I leave.  If we learn anything new, I'll write another post tomorrow.

1/6 from the Ruby Princess

Hi all -

I'm writing to you from the Lido deck of the Ruby Princess.  We're getting ready to set sail to the Caribbean for 7 days and we're all pretty excited to get away for a bit.  The last couple of months have been tough on everyone.  Mom and Dad's friend Cherry is all settled in at the condo with Sydney.  She'll be visiting Dad everyday and will let us know how he's doing.  He had a good week: Kate and her boyfriend Jason flew down on Thursday and visited with Dad before heading to Ft. Lauderdale for the cruise.  Dad has been working on strengthening his hip muscles this week.  He's been walking with a limp for quite a while, and his PT feels that can get better with some targeted exercises.  He's also been working on going up and down stairs while only holding onto one railing, which is what he'll have to do at the condo when he goes home.

He's improving cognitively as well.  His speech therapist has been working hard to help Dad remake the connections in his brain that he's lost.

That's all for now!  We'll let you know how he is when we get home!

1/2 Happy New Year!

Hi everyone -

Hope you all enjoyed a safe and happy new year's celebration.  Mom, BJ and Heather spent lots of time with Dad over the last few days.  They were able to take him out for a ride each day, and also attended some of his therapy sessions with him.  HealthPark has been keeping him pretty busy; he's had therapy everyday, and hasn't had a day off.

His speech therapist, Betsy, says Dad has a condition called fluent aphasia.  A definition I found online says its a condition in which speech is well articulated and grammatically correct, but is lacking in content and meaning.  It seems to show up in Dad when he can't find a word.  He may not be able to recall the word "pen" and instead ask for a  "gun".  But its not with everything: apparently he can recall just about every detail of his hot rod!  Betsy described some techniques she's using to help Dad reestablish the connections in his brain so he can better remember the names of things.

Physically, Dad is doing really well.  He's walking all around, sometimes with his walker, sometimes without.  BJ sent me a video of Dad practicing getting out of bed and he appeared to do it with ease, maybe even better than before all this happened.

We haven't been able to have the secret  special guest blogger write a post yet, but I'm still hopeful that we can have him/her join us soon, at least for one post.  In the meantime, Kate will be arriving in Fort Myers tomorrow for a visit with Dad before we all head out on a cruise!  I hope to write one more post before we leave on Sunday.  Dad has a special friend going down to hang out with him while we're gone.  His friend Cherry from Brockton will be flying down on Friday.  She will be visiting Dad everyday and taking care of Sydney so we can all be together on the cruise.  We booked this trip in the fall, expecting that we'd all be able to go, and we have all wrestled with whether or not we should go, or if one of us should stay home.  Once we felt like Dad was in a good place, Mom made a call and Cherry came to our rescue!  Special thanks to her for making it possible for all of us to get away and not worry.  Its been a stressful couple of months and we're all looking forward to some much needed R&R!