August 6th-- The full update

The last week has been an emotional roller coaster . Last Friday when we asked the Nuerosurgeon for his opinion "no holds barred" he pretty much said that my dad was in a vegetative state, did nothing purposeful and that we should pick a time frame of 2 to 3 weeks and if he wasn't any better we would have some tough decisions to make. WOW! This coming from someone who admitted he spends less than 5 minutes a day w/ my dad.

Luck would have it that at the beginning of every month the Nuero team rotates. We now have 2 new fabulous Doctors working w/ my dad. They kind of went back to the drawing board w/ things. They ordered another EEG and an evoked potential (to test the pathways between the peripheral nerves through the spine and to the brain by stimulating nerves with small electrical pulse). The EEG showed further slight improvement on that left side and the evoked potential looked excellent--everything is getting through on that left side. They said he has lots of healthy tissue and there is reason to be hopeful. So now they are still trying to figure out WHY he isn't doing more. BUT today, finally, thank GOD, he followed some commands for the Doctor. You have no idea how good that was to hear. We've seen him do stuff but they haven't. Finally, they did.

That leads me to my other good news!! After my dad had his stroke, but before his stent, a caseworker (we'll call him Bill) came into his room to introduce himself and say "hopefully you won't need my services but anything can happen so you never know." That was the last we saw of him over the past 5 weeks, until Monday when we met w/ the social worker about nursing home placement and he sat in on the meeting. Well, it turns out, he's our angel for the week. After meeting w/ us he just felt like my dad really deserved a chance. He remembered meeting him and how young and healthy he was and after meeting w/ the new Nuero team he felt like he needed to help him out. With his help and the help of the Nuero team he has been approved for acute rehab. This means no nursing home!!! Can you see me smiling?? There are a few places they are looking into for us--Spaulding Rehabilitation in Boston, Sunyview Rehabilitation in NY and Fanny Allen Rehabilitation (which would be fabulous b/c it's 5 minutes from my house and 15 from my Mom). We'll take what we can get though.........all 3 are supposed to be fantastic.

This afternoon my Dad was bright eyed and watching t.v. Whenever I asked him to look at me he did. He turned his head and looked right at me.........I talked to him about rehab and then said to him "if you understood all that give me a thumbs up" and right away he gave me a (very shaky) thumbs up. I kissed him and told him he'd made his daughter VERY happy. At one point he was holding on to the tube that goes to his trach and I told him to let go of it and he kept shaking his head no. He is getting strong---I couldn't pry his fingers off of it. That said, when my mom came around and said "Kraig, let go of that and give me your hand" he did just that. Ain't that love?? Then the nurse came in and said "it's okay. I told him he could hold it". I smiled. He knew it was okay and was telling me so the only way he could. He was probably wishing he could have told me to buzz off. You can imagine my Mom is so thrilled. She awoke this morning and called me and said she wasn't going to cry this morning---that she was going to be positive. I guess that paid off. Oh, I can't forget the fact that he only needed suctioning once in 14 hours. He was needing it hourly.

I know there are still miles to travel but finally.........some good news.........after a long 5 weeks. The new Nuero team and "Bill" have been absolute Godsends. As have all of you who are thinking of us, praying, sending cards, keeping the faith, leaving comments. We love you all! I know my Dad would be blown away w/ the amount of support you all have been giving to us. I continue to pray, that one day soon, he will be able to read this himself.