Live from Phoenix

Sorry for my tardiness. The computer at mom and dad's is located in the guest room, and Ava's a pretty light sleeper when we're on "vacation" so there could be no typing during my usual evening blog hours.

This photo was snapped yesterday on our way to an appointment at the rehab hospital. And let me tell you, Dad was MR. POPULAR. During my tour of the facility, several nurses shouted his name in joy and came over for a hug and to praise his remarkable recovery. He even has made friends with a patient, a very nice woman with whom we chatted with for awhile.

Mom and dad attended a touch-base meeting with a psychologists (who informed me I was not invited because of my toddler-in-tow). This doctor will meet with them on a regular basis to make sure that all of his needs are being met through his therapy and that they understand each step as he progresses. As I've mentioned before, some of the therapy can seem remedial and be frustrating, but it's important to be reminded that this therapy is helping to build "new pathways" in the brain, circumventing the broken and damaged areas, so he can be good as gold again.

Ava's doing a great job keeping everyone entertained. She's been making her way through the kitchen cabinets, seeing what she can find for amusement. Soon she was making her way to dad with this colander and it quickly became a fencing match. On guard!

I'm very happy to report that dad is much better than I anticipated. He practically doesn't need any assistance getting around (the walker is gathering dust), he eats very well, and he's easy to talk to. He's still slowed down from his usual self and sometimes the words are hard to find, but I'm confident all of this will continue to improve. Today we're going to get his medication levels checked. This is significant because he is on massive doses of seizure medications, much greater than he's been on before. These high levels may not be necessary and at these levels they most likely significantly contribute to his slow motion and prominent tremors, which make small tasks difficult. (He had hand tremors for some amount of time after his second surgery, but got better over time. This time they seem a little stronger.)

As I mentioned a few days ago, dad has a caregiver that's here to help when mom is at work. She was here yesterday for a few hours. I talked with her for some time and I found her to be a lovely woman. She made cookies - an easy route to dad's heart.