Bill: week ending Valentine's Day, Fri. Feb 14: yes, he had therapies

Yes, Bill had therapies on Thursday, back-to-back-to-back. I noticed improvement in his left leg for standing, and for getting in and out of the car.

Perhaps we can get Bill to post on update on his speech therapy.  I (Julie) was busy 'playing' with the pharmacy refill. Skipping the play-by-play,  let me just say it took the duration of  two hours of his therapies, four trips to the pharmacy window, and one trip upstairs to his doctor's office to get the med we tried to get LAST week. Luckily, he wasn't out yet.

Physical therapy was with a new therapist. She promises she has already had her children (last therapist is on maternity leave) and isn't having any surgeries (the prior-prior therapist). She had him standing and weight shifting to the left to build some more confidence in the left leg. Another standing exercise was alternate foot taps up to step platform.

During the transition from PT to OT, they all talked about Bill and Ayn's planned trip to Northern California in early March. 

Sadly, I missed most of Occupational therapy, making appointments through March. And making the third of those four trips to the pharmacy window.

After therapy reward: Ayn and I went to the Apple store to get Bill's new Mac Air!  If you haven't seen them, they are very slick, very light.  I think said his older Mac Pro is six years old (that's about 120 in computer-life years, isn't it?).

Bill: Social Security usually good service but...

Bill was required by Long-Term Disability to also apply for Social Security Disability benefits.  Dealing with SS has been fairly easy: initial on-line application, papers sent, signed, turned in documents to be copied at the local SS office -- well, a bit of a wait there, and the security screening, but not a big deal.

Until

Yesterday. I called to update, as required, that there had been a new doctor and a new test. The message was to expect a 50 minute wait, but I could request a call back instead, and not lose my place in line. Good deal. The call was a little more than an hour later. FIRST the guy couldn't find Bill's case in the system. "Did you apply on-line or in an office?"  He asked this three times as I hear his keyboard tapping. Yes, applied Online, papers received, turned in, additional documents....  "Okay, my fault, I see it but... Can you hold?" 

Sure.

I park at the outlet stores, walk in, make my purchase, and he finally comes back on the line.

"The case is completely under the control of the local office now, so here is the number."  But he gives me a number that is disconnected.  So I got the number from my paperwork when I got home.  Silly me, trying to take care of administrative stuff during drive time.

Bill: Fri. Feb. 7: cancels; trips (as in travel, not falling)

Yes, Thursday therapies were canceled for the weather.  Bill and Ayn planned to do lots of work at home.

Trips: Earlier this week, Bill booked the four of us (he, Ayn, me, hubby) to take a cruise to Alaska! We made our first deposits yesterday. Now to look for the best trip insurance...  Our travel is end of August / early September.

[Hey, Brooke, we are carrying on Grandma's tradition of being gone for your birthday!]

Another travel plan: in just a month, Bill and Ayn are going to the Bay area. It will take a little planning (and maybe some practice), but it could be a great adventure for them!

TOMORROW is seven months.

215 days

5,160 hours (at 8:00 or 9:00 p.m.)

Bill: Weds. Feb. 5: not legal to drive

Bill had his long-awaited appointment with the neuro-ophthalmologist.  Bottom line: he is not legal to drive, and should not expect to get it back. 

His acuity is fine: that is, his vision using his old glasses is great at 20/20. The health of his eyes is good -- she didn't see any damage at the back of the eye which sometimes occurs with long-term high blood pressure. The problem is that his field of vision is gone on the left side.

Here's more of an explanation, a distinction.  He can see the same out of BOTH eyes. In our eyes, what we see to our left (not with the left eye, but with the left side of each eye) goes to the right side of the brain. The right side is where the stroke damage occurred. And she said that unlike the other left-side damage which may recover completely (his left leg, his left arm), the neuro-optic fibers don't grow back. 

Bill was very calm about it. So was Ayn. And me.  (Yes, if any individual had 'lost it,' we all would have.)  So this is a big change in plans.  They had been talking about two years from now, when his daughter graduates high school, they could buy a motor home.  He could still work from 'home,' they could travel to their music festivals, and continue to enjoy life. 

No, Ayn can't drive because of various sensory issues.

Here is his test result on each eye:

The test description: with a patch covering one eye, he is looking into a box at a center light. When he sees a white light flash somewhere in his field of vision (not moving his head to look for light), he taps a button. The picture above reports black dots for any flash he missed.

So, moving on. Tomorrow's therapies might have to be canceled for weather. Where I live, we have a chance of snow, a higher chance that it won't hit until noon. But it freaks out my husband, so he might get really stressed if I try to get to Portland and back to help with transport to the appointments. And the wind chill is going to be way too low, about 6 degrees, at 7:30 in the morning from them to wait for the streetcar.

Gotta go. Hubby wants to make sure we have enough toilet paper and paper towels (smile, but friends and family know I'm not kidding).

Bill, Thurs. Jan. 30: Tiredness

[post by Julie]  After last week's therapies, Bill got sick.  Then Ayn. So they've had several days of tiredness, canceled Monday's PT, and are still a tad out of sorts.

Thursday had PT and OT. 

PT worked a lot on the standing, walking, weight shifting; overall, working to build trust in the left leg.

OT was a new therapist, Roseanne. It was very interesting to see a different approach. Her work today was very related to the weight shifting done in PT. She had Bill sitting, and kept going round and round, checking his alignment, where is the pelvis sitting, let's lean straight forward to take the weight off the butt then go back to just the right spot. She also had a different approach to opening that curling left hand. Instead of slowly prying the fingers, roll the palm over, and massage the "palm pad," pushing from the wrist into the palm of the hand.  Lots of shoulder movement was included, too. A very busy session.

Several administrative things for me to take care of today, but you just want to hear Bill's progress, right?

Next week will include the long-awaited trip to Dever's Eye Institute (at Good Sam) for the neuro-eye doc; is he still having issues with field cuts or peripheral limitations?  She'll let us know.

We're thinking of planning an Alaskan cruise trip. Yes, a little scary given the Norovirus on the recent Caribbean Lines. Looking at Princess -- anybody have any experience or suggestions to us novice maybe-cruisers?

Bill, Fri. Jan. 24: Lotsa therapies

[Julie post]  This week ended on a tired note. Because of scheduling issues, Bill ended up having a PT on Thursday afternoon, and then all three therapies, PT/OT/ST, back-to-back starting Friday at 9:30.

Thursday's PT worked on the right (yes, the right) shoulder. He's been putting a lot of strain on it using the cane to walk. I'm a bit of a nag, telling him to make the left leg carry more of the weight, and it's coming along very nicely. Friday she worked more on the left leg, specifically on exercises to rotate the leg in, instead of splaying outward.  AND she added three exercises for the right arm.

Speech is working on "executive function," attention, and memory. In one test, she would read four-word sentences, such as "Joe's car is red," and have him say in reverse, "red is car Joe's." That wasn't very successful, about 40%, so she went through how to set strategies (one being: don't rush it).  The she went through the same sentences, but he was to alphabetize the words, "car is Joe's red."  100% correct.  Then she worked a 'switching' exercise. She would read off numbers, and he was to tap the table each time a number was a multiple of 2, but when she said 'switch,' he was tapping at multiples of 3. Another task was  listening to a series of five words (read quickly) and say which word didn't belong: school, house, mail bag, store, office. It was really go-go-go for 30 minutes, and she sent homework!

OT worked a lot on sit-to-stand.

Next week's schedule will be easier, with PT Monday, then PT/OT Thursday. They will have lots of time to cover exercises every day at home.

On the fun side, Bill has been in more contact with coworkers and friends (phone/email/chat). 

Bill, Mon. Jan 20: no PT; other funny

[post by Julie]

Bill's Friday PT was canceled (therapist out), so sorry to let you down on possible videos!

So for your weekend entertainment, you get me with another silly act. My daughter and her husband were here Saturday, and I was heading through the garage to help him with a project. Socks on my feet, ready to put boots on.

But I had a pair of knit gloves in my hands, so you guessed it, you can picture it, there I was, trying to put the gloves on my feet.  Egads, will I ever get my brain back?  Oh, and a bit later when I was getting my husband's noon meds, my daughter was next to me chanting, "Don't take Dad's drugs, don't take Dad's drugs."  Thanks, sweetie.