Turtles are people, too.

It's been over two weeks since Bob was taken to the ER.   Change in our lives is an understatement.  These past two weeks, I am the numero uno care giver for my sweetie.  It is so hard for him to be at my mercy for everything.  He can dress himself and do all the basics, but his ability to think ahead is limited.  I have to remind him to do simple things that used to be routine in his life.  Not that his life is the same routine at all.  It's slowed down to a turtle's pace.  This was a man who went to work every day come rain or shine (as they say).  His routine is now just kind of going with the flow.  He goes where I go, eats when I eat, etc.  We were together all the time before, but now we are, as Bob says, "joined at the hip."  One of our goals is for him to be able to stay by himself in our home, one hour at a time.  I keep asking God for patience.

We have made three trips to the Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital for speech and occupational therapy.  I am very impressed with the therapists there.  Bob likes them (they are all women and he's a big flirt) and they treat him with respect.  They have been evaluating him and have a plan of action.  I can see improvement already not necessarily from therapy but from just time spent.  I noticed the other day that his depth perception was just about normal.  That's a huge deal.  He says his basic vision is clearer but it comes and goes.   Please God give Bob patience.

The hardest thing for me to watch is the memory problem.  It's not just the short term memory but some long term memory as well.  The short term can be from yesterday to 10 minutes ago.  The long term seems to be specific incidents or things that might worry him.   There are some moments that Bob laughs at himself because his memory is so bad.  Tonight he and I laughed about the fact that he couldn't remember what he had for lunch today, but he could remember where his "beer refrigerator" was.  Funny how the brain remembers those important things!!!

I know that it could have been so much worse for Bob; he knows it, too.  The repercussions from strokes can be devastating and his are not.  He can carry on a very intelligent conversation with anyone and he has the ability to think and reason.  If you met him today, you would not know immediately that anything was wrong with him.  Only if you noticed his vision issues, or asked him questions about what you talked about earlier.  Bob knows he had an angel on his shoulder and he is thankful.  I am so very thankful to have Bob alive and kicking. 

He's still Bob.  Bob is a methodical, engineer-type of guy.  Everything he does requires him to think it through and does nothing with haste.  In other words, Bob is a slow mover.  He walks slowly, he eats slowly, etc. etc.  This is hard for me--I do everything fast.  But I think this is a plus for his recovery.  He goes slow; recovery goes slow.  So.....we can patiently wait, slow and steady, like the tortoise and hare story, right? 


From the home of Hope & Courage,
Jody