Stroke Survivor Blog

GOOD NEWS!  This afternoon Steve turned a corner in his stroke recovery!!!! He ate really well at dinner time after hardly eating anything at lunch. One of the goals the speech therapist set for him in his stroke rehabilitation is for him to eat 50% of his food and he did that at dinner. He ate a whole bowl of pureed hamburger patty and gravy, some pureed pears, pureed green beans, and part of a protein shake. Yes, it was very yucky except for the shake, but he did it. That was the most he ate since he had the right brain stroke 3 wks. ago today. Then we sat in the dining room/activity center and read the newspaper for a while. He even wanted to do more physical therapy but all the therapists were gone for the day. When he can swallow better, he’ll be graduated to solid foods which is necessary to meet his nutrition goal. This is a real answer to prayer so THANK YOU to all who are praying.

He looks so much better and he feels better too. There’s still some swelling of the eyeball itself, but that is going away quickly. He is responding very well to the antibiotics. The doc is calling this infection a strep or cellulitis of the eyes, because that’s where it started…in his eyes, but we still haven’t heard of the results of the blood culture yet. His throat, neck and shoulders are still very tender to the touch.

Steve is still sleeping a lot, but he’s taking a sleeping pill at night that will help regulate his body clock back to the right part of the day. So hopefully that will be soon. After talking with another stroke survivor who was being discharged today after 6 wks in rehab, she said she started out just like Steve…sleeping all the time, days and nights mixed up, her left side completely paralyzed. But she’s walking with a cane now and can move her fingers, although she will require some outpatient rehab for it all to come back.

Another area to target your prayers: He is experiencing sharp pain in the Achilles tendon of his left foot (the broken ankle). That is because for the last 3 wks. the foot was lying with the toes pointed down developing a condition called foot drop. And because he hasn’t used that leg for so long, the tendon wasn’t being stretched. So now when he stands on it, he can feel that stretching, and it hurts so much that he couldn’t do any walking today. But they’re icing it and a pillow is being used to prop up the sole of his foot with the toes pointed toward the ceiling to stretch it a little each day.

I think on Monday he’ll be ready for visitors again, but if you plan to come during the day you’ll have to work around his therapy sessions times which vary from day to day. If you call me first, I can let you know what the schedule is. They usually post it the night before.

Thank you again for your prayers!!!! God is hearing and answering.

Love, Kathy