Email: (from me to friends & family)

I realized that some of you might be wondering how things went today, since I’d mentioned that the first 24 hours after surgery were so important.  Don’t want to keep you hanging, so will share the good news that my dad is doing well with his recovery thus far – Whoo-Hoo!

A few updates:

– A CT scan was taken this morning which indicated that all of the tumor was removed – very encouraging!

– He is experiencing weakness on his right side, but this is to be expected, and hopefully through therapy he’ll regain his strength on this side.

– Speech/occupational/and physical therapists have already begun work with my dad (and although he’s a bit discouraged/frustrated with his present condition, he’s cooperative and working hard).

– He was moved out of the ICU and into anther room in the hospital where he will be monitored less frequently (no more poking and prodding every hour).

– Most likely he’ll be discharged in a few days and then transferred to a rehab facility for 2-3 weeks.

– He began using his new iPad and enjoyed reading the email messages I forwarded from many of you (he’s still able to read & understand the written word much better than the spoken word).

I think that about covers it for now.  Hoping the next few days will be uneventful as he continues to recover and regain a bit of strength.

-Kari

 

My Reflections:

Today I paint rocks with C Bear….

Little M takes his first taste of “solid” food….

And Papa tries out his new iPad…

I head to the hospital to see Papa in the afternoon.  I’m surprised that already there are therapists working with Papa – speech, occupational, etc.  Nana & I speak to the speech therapist about possible apps that would be helpful to use with Papa in his communication.  She tells us that there’s a term for this, this mixing up of words and letters and speech that Papa is experiencing.  It’s called “aphasia.”  She gives us a few handouts that explain aphasia more fully, and apparently with no app recommendation on the tip of her tongue, she tells us she’ll check into app resources as well.

When she leaves, I do some researching of my own, searching online for the best aphasia apps out there.  I soon find that it’s much less straight forward than I imagined.  For some reason I thought it would be easier; just find an aphasia app, and Papa would be good to go, or at least be given a big boost up in his ability to communicate.  But the apps I find, and even the ones the speech therapist will refer us to, are anything but easy to decipher.  But I’m willing to try to figure it out, and I convince Nana that it is essential to drop $30+ on a couple of apps that look promising.  After downloading them onto Papa’s iPad, I spend a good part of the rest of the afternoon trying to figure out how to actually use them.  And I end up feeling like a degree in speech therapy should have been a requirement before purchasing said apps.

(Sigh).

I finally give the iPad a rest.  In his current state, Papa doesn’t have much energy to deal with aphasia app training anyway, and at this point, I don’t either…. there will be time to figure it all out another day.

Nana’s notes:

Papa tried to tell us something – pointing to IV lines in his hand – tried to ask the nurse, tried writing it – finally wrote the town where my cousin [who has cancer] lives and I said her name and he said “yes.”  I figured out he was asking when he would start treatments & what it would be.  All of this took a fair amount of time and he was worn out!  He closed his eyes to rest or sleep.

He did really well through last night and is progressing well in strength and ability.  At first his right arm was weak when he was asked to lift it, but through the night it got better.  This morning the doctor said his right hand didn’t respond to commands as well as his left (i.e. touch your nose, touch my finger).  His eyes were able to follow the doctor’s hand.

Right arm kept getting weaker through the day.

Our pastor and his son visited.  Papa perked up and was very animated during their stay.

He was moved to telemetry care in the evening.