FRIDAY - 12/19

Sorry for the delay, but here's another update from David...

DAD IS THRIVING!

Elizabeth made a trip from Memphis to Nashville this week to see Dad. She spent all of the afternoon of December 17 and all day on December 18 with Dad. She found him making remarkable headway with his rehab. The morning of the 17th the physical therapist reported he had walked for the first time since November 9 using a walking frame – 1000 paces! Elizabeth saw him using the walker on the 17th. With no active support from the therapists, he used the frame to walk some 500 paces down a long corridor to a physical therapy gym. At the end of the rehab session, he returned again under his own power. Dad grows more alert and for longer intervals. His doctors have been using Ritalin to stimulate parts of the brain that create focus. It has had a dramatic effect.

On December 17, Mother, Elizabeth, and David joined Dad as he ate his evening meal. When David arrived at five Dad was lying in bed in his sweatsuit (Razorback red pants with stripes). A nurse came in and directed Dad’s movements to manuveur himself off the bed and onto his feet so he could sit in a waiting wheelchair. Then the nurse wheeled him in to a therapy/exercise room that had large tables. He joined three other patients at those tables for his hot meal. He now gets solid food that is prepped only by pre-cutting it to bite size chunks. He ate as well or better than any of the other three patients. A therapist was present to monitor how often the patients swallowed per bite. Dad had no problems.

He was completely alert and followed all conversation – only his bad hearing interfered. As part of therapy, the patients are left to feed themselves. Exercising motor control over muscles to feed themselves requires great concentration, and all ate very slowly. Dad had to be frequently prompted to take another bite, but he did eat his whole meal on his own.

On Friday December 18 at seven at night, David telephoned the room from home. Dad was awake and alert. Mom put Dad on the phone and he talked much as he might do before his stroke. I asked if he had had therapy that day, and he told me about walking more and spending time with hand activities. He told me he had talked to grandson Michael and that the latter was coping with 18 inches of new snow in Rochester, but that Michael would be planning to go to Tulsa soon for Christmas with his parents. Then Dad told me that the whole Tulsa crew would be coming at New Year’s to see Vanderbilt play the Music City Bowl. A very normal conversation for Pappaw. Grandchildren, children and in-laws, family gatherings and football.

I put Douglas’ mom, Mary Lee Murray, on the phone and the two chatted for several minutes, before getting back to David. We said our good-nights and hung up.

Dad does ask a lot of questions that suggest he’s getting his bearings after being asleep for a month. That may be how it feels to him. Last night at dinner he asked what city the hospital was in. Tonight, he asked me where I was. He is mentally re-building his sense of location, time and place.