David visited Dad in his new room at Vanderbilt Rehab Hospital on Wednesday, December 10. He had been discharged the day before from the main hospital to the Rehab Hospital. This is his report...
I found Jim Miller, Cousin Frances Bartol Miller’s husband visiting with Dad. Jim, Frances and their six children live near Atlanta and Jim has always used every business trip to Nashville to visit with Dad and did not let this trip be an exception. Fortunately, he kept digging for a lead to Dad’s location when the main hospital desk said Dad had been discharged.
Attached are two photos of Dad. One shows Dad and Jim Miller together. The other shows Dad enjoying lunch and successfully manipulating his spoon to do it. During his fourth and final week in the medical hospital, Dad was restricted to pureed foods to reduce the chance that he will aspirate poorly chewed food. Now, the dietician and physical therapist have stepped him up to textured food.
He took the first two or three bites of food on his own and then became passive and still, so I took on the task of feeding him four bites of food and having him feed himself the fifth. Doing that, he cleaned his plate. It seems to me he chews very thoroughly and has normal swallowing reflexes, so surely they will let him have whole foods soon.
Dad was glad to see us both and enjoyed listening to our conversation. He continues to answer questions well after taking time to ponder. His nurse observes that he is able to do most one-step tasks, such as reaching for an object, but he has trouble thinking how to execute multi-step tasks. The stroke has affected his ability to think through how to execute steps two and three to reach a goal. Recovering those skills will also be a goal of rehab. Later in the visit he was drowsy and drifted off to sleep. I saw that he continues to sleep with the left eyelid slightly open.
By Friday the 12th, Mom had brought some easy-on clothes so that Dad can start wearing street clothes during the day. Putting them on each morning will be part of his rehab program. I understand from Mom that the staff put Dad in a wheelchair and took him to the Rehab hospital dining room for dinner on Thursday, so already he is starting to get with the program to become more mobile.
The picture of Dad dining also shows how clean and healthy the incision is at the back of his scalp where the neural fluid shunt was inserted.
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