4/24 update

Hi all –

Sorry to be so long between updates.  Life has been pretty crazy lately.  I think I’m going to reduce my updates to once a month.  Dad’s made a lot of progress in the last (almost) 6 months, and things are pretty good at this point.  He continues to improve all the time.  I hear he’s been calling people on the phone a lot more.  BJ theorized that he’s starting to feel that he really is improving, and struggles less to find his words, so he’s more confident and is getting back to more normal activities.  He did see a doctor about his shoulder (not stroke related) in the last couple of weeks, and it looks like he will need a shoulder replacement if he wants to have any lasting improvement.  They gave him a cortisone shot and that has helped.  He’s still having PT for that and his hip.  Other than that, he no longer has any therapy appointments.  He supposedly does exercises in the pool, if you can call it that…..

Here’s a nice pic of Dad with Mom and Aunt Jean at a friend’s birthday celebration.  Everyone looks pretty good! 

On a sad note, yesterday BJ and Heather had to say goodbye to their little buddy Sam.  He was a sweet boy, and had been a faithful furry visitor to Mom and Dad’s these past several months.  He's been a member of the Hall family as long as Heather has; she and Sam were a package deal for BJ.  Even as his 16 year old little body was failing, he still had a lot of spunk and was always glad to see everyone.  Of course BJ and Heather are heartbroken and will miss him terribly.  The rest of us will too.  It’s so hard when they have to leave us..... 

That’s all for now.  I’ll shoot for the end of May for the next update unless something major happens.  If you want to know how he’s doing before then, give him a call!