A BTTT for our friend, and a reminder that he still needs our prayers for his recovery.
Writing to give an update on my dad. I was down in Austin from Kansas for the Thanksgiving holiday and was able to see him almost every day that I was there.
Dad is still very early in his recovery, but we are always excited about the little "hooray!" moments that we see. He is still on a feeding tube, but this week or next they will do a swallow test with him to see if he can swallow something soft, and make sure he does not cough it into his lungs. If all goes well with that, the feeding tube may come out, but it will still be a few weeks at best.
He tends to be very tired during the day, and sleeps a lot. However, when he is awake, we are able to ask him basic questions and we sometimes get a "yes" , "no" , or "okay." (He does try to occasionally speak in sentences, but it is a very low murmur and is very difficult to understand - it tends to be garbled.) However, he does have moments of clarity. Mom brought a set of dominoes for his room (one of his favorites) and we sat and played for a while. He and I were on a team together and I held up a domino and said, "can I play this one next?" He looked at the dominoes that had already been played, nodded, and said "if you want to." He was also able to shuffle the dominoes between games with his hands, like a muscle memory coming back very clearly.
With assistance from the therapists and a kind of sling, he has been able to walk about 20 steps a couple of times. However, this is only attempted once or twice a week because it is a huge feat and does tend to suck the energy out of him. He had a dizzy spell during therapy and his blood pressure dropped pretty low, so occasionally therapy doesn't go as planned. But they are sure working with him to try and get him to move forward with baby-steps.
For now that's about all! We love getting the FReeper cards, and mom reads each of them to dad multiple times and shows pictures, notes, etc. that people include. It is so very sweet and we are so grateful for the overwhelming support from his online community. You all are just wonderful! Thanks to everyone for their support and for the continued thoughts and prayers. Still no word on the overall prognosis, but we simply hope for the best in accordance with God's will. :) It's all we can do.
If you would like to send a card or note or ???, please FReepmail me for their address.