Wednesday 26 April 2017

Stroke Recovery Day 30

Today is one month since Allen's stroke. I never imagined anything like this even possible for us. We are grateful for the experience and know things could have been much worse. Every day I tell him: Thanks for not dying. Ha! We marked the day today by taking some baking to the nurses at the stroke clinic at Foothills and by visiting our friend, Merlin there. Merlin injured his spine body surfing in Hawaii the same week Allen had his stroke. We admire Merlin's fighting spirit and cheerful smile through his big challenges.Merlin has always been a role model for us and even more-so now. We expect a miracle for him just as we have experienced.
Allen's speech is much better. There are still some weird things going on with all of that but he is working hard on his tongue twister and sound assignments. He is a bit of a language arts teacher's dream. We have a new language and parts of language focus in common. Who knew the linguistics dabbling would be so helpful?
He is becoming quite cultured as well as he has been encouraged to eat slowly and to swallow and pause before speaking. Neither of which come very naturally to him. :).
Fatigue is a big issue and apparently, that is quite common with stroke recovery. The brain just takes time to heal. He is more my speed now, so that is nice. :)
He is happy to have passed the grandpa driving test. One more step in the process and he will be back to driving. Every day he has some kind of appointment: OT, speech therapy, family doc, MRI, stroke clinic....he's very popular. We are so grateful for everyone who has helped get him here and there when I was at work....especially Jillian Ackroyd and Sid Jones ......and many more. Thank you.
❤️