Day 22 of Jim's Recovery

Well day 22 brings us amazing miracles! Dad is eating on his own, using the restroom, and walking! Dad is starting to use full sentences more and doesn't mumble incoherent words. He uses a ton of sounds and is getting ornery with Mom! It's so wonderful!

I went in late this evening when I found out Dad was eating. So I made Dad a delicious Split Pea soup because I could only imagine what awful things they were serving him. When I got there thank goodness I decided to make him dinner. He had mashed potatoes, patoes is what Dad called them, broccoli, and some strange mystery meat. I mean this meat was scary! It was worse then school lunch. I couldn't tell if it was meatloaf or something my cat coughed up! Needless to say Dad gobbled up the soup! Dad doesn't have much of an appetite yet but at least he is eating. He does still have difficulty with liquids. The faster the substances travels down his throat the less response time his muscles have to react. This will just take therapy and time. But the speech therapist are happy and he is no longer on the feeding tube. We do have to wait until we can take the entire tube out but at least he is not connected to a long line.

Today the physical therapist brought Dad a walker and he was able to walk up and down the hall. Dad uses his right side quite a bit and is no longer non responsive with that side. It is still a little weak but not enough to inhibit him from walking or needing help so that the leg doesn't buckle underneath him. Dad is having trouble with his right ankle and this is the reason he can't walk far. We suspect that he has gout though tests came back negative. Like I said before we took x-rays and do not understand why it is bothering him. It could be that he just pulled some ligaments while falling and we just have to wait for them to heal. We are doing everything we can to get that healed.

Dad's speech has dramatically changed. The problem Dad has is with names of people, places, and things (hee hee, nouns!) So we are supposed to ask him to give descriptions of items. Also, he has a hard time following conversations for the same reason, he doesn't know what the names are for things. Remember, the part of Dad's brain that was affect was his speech. We didn't know what would be affected until he started getting better. So now we are just beginning to understand what part of his brain was affected by the bleeding and swelling.

Dad's occupational therapist had Dad play his guitar yesterday. I'm extremely happy to inform you that Dad was able to play his guitar, but he could not sing. He couldn't remember the words to his songs or any songs. This will just take time and practice. Who knows, he may struggle with speech the rest of his life, but the miracles we have seen leads me to believe that he will overcome this too! So don't feel bad if Dad can't remember your name. He remembers people, just not names. He asked my sister this morning "What is my best friends name?" Erin said "Byron." Dad remarked "That's right," and repeated the name over and over again.

So basically we are trying to get Dad home. We think that he can continue his physical therapy at home but no longer needs the assistance of a nursing facility. Unfortunately, this is the Thanksgiving weekend and of course no one works. Dad asks everyday if he is coming home. He tells us every evening that he will be going home tomorrow. Anyone have connections with case management at the U of U so that we can get him discharged? It's hard to slow things down though when you see how far Dad has come. He told us this evening that he wants to go to church this Sunday but that he won't be able to sing. So part of me wants to get him to the church where he can be surrounded by friends and support, but I have to stop and remember that just sitting up to eat his dinner makes him tired. Oh, it's so hard to wait. But we do have to consider that Dad's brain is still healing even though he has come so far. Heck, if it was me I would take him home tonight, make him a huge Thanksgiving feast, and have him play guitar in the Ecumenical program. But, I have to stop myself or be reminded that Dad needs time to heal even though he seems to be on the quick mend.