Stroke at 57. Our story of recovery.

Michael got his wish and walked to the gym (about 800 feet away & partially uphill) via his walker on Wednesday when our friend, Jeff, came to visit. Then he did 30 minutes on the recumbent bike. Many thanks to Jeff for assisting and providing motivation for that achievement. (and his amazing patience) Since Sunday, M has not used anything but his walker until this evening when I wanted him to get in the wheelchair so we could take a long walk and enjoy the beautiful weather. This included today's trip to the doctor, Panera Bread for a morning bagel and smoothie, and shopping at the Sketchers Outlet Store for some new shoes. (quite an adventure!) He is trying so hard and I am incredibly proud of him!! ❤

We've been mostly around the house since the procedure last week. Just an evening walk on Sunday to hear the community concert from a distance, and a trip to the recumbent bike at the gym today. But the funnest thing is that yesterday and today Michael has not wanted to use his wheelchair at all. (and hasn't used it!) First thing in the morning he says, "Walker. No wheelchair." Today he went from the bed to the kitchen table - kitchen table to patio - patio to bathroom - bathroom to family room - family room to car - car to gym - gym to car - car to kitchen table - kitchen table to front bedroom for a nap. I wish I knew how far he has gone, but it is super exciting. AND most of that walking has been with minimal assistance to steer him to the right, and giving some verbal cues. THAT'S IT! He wanted to walk to the gym, but we definitely are not ready for that. (thinking BIG!)  ❤ We are still waiting for the new PT, OT, and Speech referral to clear Kaiser so w

Michael was released from the hospital ICU at 4 pm. We are now home and will be able to resume our regular schedule in a couple of days.

M has been in his procedure since 2:00. They have already let me know they are attempting to stent the left vertebral artery since they found it mostly, but not fully blocked. He will most likely be admitted and stay overnight. I will update when I know more. UPDATE all went well with the procedure. Michael will be spending the night here in ICU just to keep an eye on him. But he should be able to go home tomorrow afternoon.

Jake the Graduate of UCI Ben and my brother, Greg waiting for Jake's graduation with Michael photobombing.  :)  Canon Fam after graduation A nice Sunday afternoon swim Getting ready to swim Michael Swimming (click to go to link)

THE GOOD- Who walked with his walker out of the bedroom (with minimal assistance) and sat at the dining room table for the first time?  THIS GUY!!! When asked how he felt sitting on the cafe style chair (taller regular) M said he felt like an eagle on perching on top of a tree. LOL Prior to this we had just pulled his wheelchair up to the table so it was much higher on his chest. This was an awesome event and we were both very proud!! After breakfast then, we used the walker to get him outside to the patio. He did great! Now, the not so good. The Neurointerventionalist we saw recently who ordered the CT scan called this morning to let us know that they want to do an angiogram (via the groin -femoral artery) very soon to see the left vertebral artery more closely. This is the artery that was manually enlarged during Michael's thrombectomy. At that time Dr. Stout thought it had a chance of closing and wanted us to follow up with Kaiser. So, he was right...it has narrowed again.

Hi Family & Friends. Not much going on out of the ordinary. Appointments, home therapy, etc. are pretty much the norm. Small improvements here and there. Still struggling with swallowing saliva. (food and thickened liquids are just fine) CRAZY how something so simple like swallowing can be a problem, but it sure is. He does not have the automatic swallowing reflex that we do. He has to be reminded, and often he chokes...super crazy....but hopefully that mechanism kicks in sometime soon. That would be very wonderful to hit that milestone. (I feel like a nag...."Swallow, swallow, swallow" Bleh! He is patient with me, but once asked if I "could not be a coach for a half hour."  LOL I have been assisting M use the walker a little more. He's doing pretty well.  We went down the hall with minimum assistance yesterday. That's a definite improvement. I was just there to guide him if he started going too far of course, or leaning too much. Pretty GREAT work and

We've had a pretty quiet week with not much going on. We had a nice visit with Ben and Jake over the weekend. We took M swimming again and he actually entered and exited the pool via the stairs with double handrails instead of the still broken lift. That was pretty cool, actually. Therapies are Wednesday and Friday (along with 2 doc appts also on Fri.) so the week is going to get super busy. In the meanwhile, we've just been doing our home therapy, using the recumbent exercise bike at the gym, taking a couple of quick walks and enjoying time on the patio when we can. We've started watching some speech therapy videos on YouTube as well doing as some simple guided meditation practice. There is a lot of research that meditation can assist in the healing process. So why not? Progress is pretty slow lately. You'd like to think that one morning you'd wake up and there would be HUGE steps forward in recovery, but unfortunately that is not how this works. As a matter