Stroke at 57. Our story of recovery.

Today we woke up super early to be at Kaiser Fontana by 8:15. Traffic was light so we got there with plenty of time to spare. On March 24, Neurointerventional Radiologist Dr. Charles Stout of Riverside Community Hospital saved Michael's life. He will forever be a hero to our family. Today we saw Kaiser's equivalent, Dr. Mazen Noufal. He carefully studied the medical records from Community before coming in the room. After the exam he said the most awesome thing. He said, "With the medical records I studied I thought the patient in this room would be far worse off than you are, Mr. Canon. You are doing very well for the damage this stroke caused and I have no doubt you will continue to improve." It was music to our ears.  ❤ Here is the lowdown: 1) M will have a CTA of the head and neck for Dr. Noufal to see how the artery Dr. Stout enlarged during the Thrombectomy is doing. If it appears it has narrowed again at all, they will put a stent there to keep it open per...

Over the past few days we have had some nice visits with friends and family, went to the gym for a bike session or two, went for a swim and got stuck in the water because the lift battery went dead, went to therapy, enjoyed the patio...just a few highlights. Today, however, we did a first! I pushed Michael entirely around the big uphill/downhill loop of the trail & Four Seasons Circle. It was about 2.5 miles and has a super huge uphill section (therefore downhill also.) We had only done this one time before when Ben and Jake were here and they did the heavy pushing (Jake on the trail, Ben up the road!) But today I did it! M enjoyed the walk and he even helped with rolling his wheels during the top of the hill when I was getting tired. A great walk on a beautiful day. Tomorrow we have an early morning consultation with a neurointerventionalist to see if the artery they enlarged during his thrombectomy has started narrowing again. Then afternoon therapy sessions. Should b...

Other than a very nice visit during the morning hours with my brother, Greg, M and I did absolutely nothing today! NOTHING! I feel a bit guilty, actually...but he has been working so hard and we've been so busy with going here and there, we both just wanted to chill. We took a much needed afternoon nap and watched TV. That's it. That's all. We will go back to our training tomorrow, but doesn't everyone deserve a day just to be a little lazy? (obviously still feeling guilty) (Well, I did get a second wind around 8:30 and mopped my floor. I've been wanting to do that for a couple of weeks...that felt pretty good)  😁

Four Seasons Beaumont has a great indoor pool. This morning Michael decided he wanted to go swimming there. With some trepidation (just by me...he was quite confident) we donned our swimsuits, got in the car and headed on up to the Summit pool. They have a handicap pool lift there, so I knew we would be able to get in without much of a problem, but did not know what to expect from there. The attendant at the clubhouse was so helpful. She assisted us in getting M in the lift and into the water. From there we walked around the perimeter of the pool and exercised those legs. M DID GREAT! We walked and floated around for nearly one hour! It started out as a scary experience that ended up being great therapy for him. We will definitely add that to our "day off" routine. So what do you do after spending an hour in the pool? Take a nap, you say? NO. When we got home M wanted to go to the clubhouse up the street from us and do his 30 minutes on the recumbent bike and our light du...

Today we saw Neurology and Gastrointerology. Neuro referred M to another Kaiser location to look closely at the vertebral artery that was manually enlarged during the Thrombectomy to see if a stent needs to be put in to maintain constant blood flow. We will wait for that referral to go through. Gastro is scheduling a barium swallow test to see what us up with the choking on liquid problem. Where is the liquid ending up? This doctor was so kind and you could see his heart really went out to Michael. So many issues to tackle! Some are beginning to improve on their own, and that is a very positive sign. While waiting for one of the appointments we did some standing practice. And WOW! It was some super standing for sure! M stood there untouched and stayed balanced for over a minute, two times. I haven't seen that yet! I was so excited. His posture was great and he looked so steady. We will try that again tomorrow for sure! Progress!!!

The last couple days have brought more growth in the recovery of Michael's voice. He is speaking more and responding frequently when questions are asked. I've even found myself feeling like we've had conversations on a small level. Which, if you know me, I like to talk. Lol....well, I do lots of talking with him anyway, but now he is participating more in responding. I like that. He can give input in things he would like. That makes a huge difference in our communication. Ben and Jake came over this weekend and they were very happy to see the progress M has made in just the two weeks since they saw him. We took a couple of walks, sat on the patio, caught up on Orange County life, etc. We totally enjoyed having them here, as always. ❤❤ We have two sessions of Therapies this week as well as two doctor appointments. (two new ologists)  :)   (neurology and gastroenterology)  Should be a busy week and I am so excited to see even more improvements. Slow but steady...

This afternoon while resting in bed I was reading my Kindle. M asked to see his. So I got it and turned it on for him. Then he asked for his reading glasses. I found those too. We adjusted the font size until it was just right. Then he asked me to go backward a few chapters in the book he was reading before the stroke (2 months ago). I asked him if he remembered what was going on in the book and he said he did. I didn't think much would come out of this reading try. I just figured it was good he was interested. Well, out of the corner of my eye I see him tapping to change pages. OMG...he was reading that book!! He read a couple of small chapters before deciding it was time to get up. Tonight, before bed, I set him up again and he is in there reading as I type this. I told him to let me know if he needed any help or ran into any problems. So far...silence. I am so totally happy about this! I feel like he can now do something he enjoyed in the past. (unlike my gardening post fr...

Today's therapies went pretty well. However, not my bragging about our walker adventure two days ago. Me: "He walked across the house with his walker and onto the back patio the other day." PT: That's great, but not advisable. You risk him falling and hurting himself and you as well. Wait awhile before trying that again. He's not quite ready." Oops! Well shoot! He did love the part when I told them M was enjoying the recumbent bike at the gym, so at least that one got a thumbs up approval.  😁  More biking, less walking....OK...I get it. Imagine this. Your barely verbal husband asks to go to Home Depot on the way home from therapy. All you have on your mind is what to make for dinner and you feel so relieved you survived the rush hour traffic and so happy to almost be home. But you would do anything to make hubby happy, so you go along with the impromptu errand. OK. So we get there and I get that he wants to look at plants. We did have a few die in t...

Today we did something we really hadn't done yet since Michael has been home. (I didn't feel we were up to the task quite yet...but he wanted to give it a try so I just went with it.) Using his walker he went all the way down the hall, across the house, out the back door (down over the threshold) and to our chairs on the patio. (about 80 feet) He still needs quite a bit of assistance using his gait belt for balance, but his steps were pretty good and he was not leaning as far to the left as he was just a week or two ago. That is good progress and I'll take it! Sadness of the day...we made the decision to sell Ms new truck. We had purchased a 2018 Toyota Tacoma (we called it Taco) on the last day of November 2017.  Many reasons brought us to the decision. A) We need the space in the garage for wheelchair to car access, B) We didn't need monthly payments for a truck just sitting there, and C) He would not get to drive it for a very long time. Luckily our landscape contr...

For many, many years Michael and his friend John from Boston have made it a point to reach out on each other's birthdays. They've been friends since the Middletown, NY days. They met in middle school. I recall before cell phones were invented they used to send funny cards in the mail and/or an occasional landline call then once we were all connected at all times, it started becoming a cellphone call. Michael's birthday is before John's in the year so M always gets a ribbing about being the "old" one. When May 12 rolls around it's Michael's turn to issue payback. It's always something to which he looks forward. Well, today is May 12 and Michael is not able to have a conversation this year, but he can say "Happy Birthday, John" so that's just what we did! We gave John a call and put him on speaker phone. M was super happy to hear his voice and smiled much of the time while we heard about life in Boston and what John has been up to. It...

Yesterday was a busy PT, OT, Speech Day back at Ballard. (one hour of each in succession) Michael did great and endured the long day. His endurance is definitely improving. He slept long and hard last night which is good. Today was just spent at home. Just the two of us. It's kind of weird when you worry about what you are going to do keep the day occupied, making the most of it, when you are in this situation. It's something you'd never imagine you'd think of. During our old life we could always independently find things to do, but now for me it's planning a day for two with balance. You don't want to be too busy, but not busy at all is very depressing! "They" say we should have a tight schedule...I think those who say that have never been a 24/7 caregiver. I can't worry about doing things certain times (except meals), but instead I will try to fill the day with meaningful activities. That doesn't seems as stressful. We had a good morning ...

We both got showered, had breakfast and still got out of the house by 9:30. That is progress in getting used to our routine for sure! It was doctor day! While visiting Michael's regular GP at Kaiser he referred us to Cardiology,  Neurology, and Opthalmalogy in Riverside. There were cancellations so we were able to see Cardiology and Opthalmalogy today! The Opthalmalogist did not really have much to say other than often the eye alignment can work itself out. We should see more progress within a couple months. He did make an appointment for us to see another doctor who specializes more in the alignment problem. We go there in about a month.  M has had better eye movement in the past month, so maybe we will see even more in the next. Next was Cardiology.  The doc wants to follow up with another Echocardiogram in June and a 30 day heart monitor to see if an irregular heartbeat was cause. She recommends for him to be on a blood thinner for life, just to be safe. However sh...

Yesterday morning we took a walk on our favorite dirt path in Four Seasons. We did pretty well even on an uphill area. (I'm going to get so buff!!)  Here is a photo of M enjoying the beautiful path and all of the trees that had no leaves last time he was there. We enjoyed a visit from Ben and Jake this weekend. It was nice seeing their handsome faces and we had a good time being together. We did a test run with Michael on the wheelchair up and down our street. So I think I'm ready for that! The uphill/downhill was not as scary as I thought it would be. So yay, more quick walks without having to load the car. My parents brought up some lunch today and it was great to see them as well. They hadn't seen Michael since he was at Kaiser. He's improved quite a bit since then. Tomorrow we have our first post-patient visit with M's regular doctor at Kaiser (look out Dr. Patel...I have LOTS of questions and referral requests, LOL...about every "ologist" ...

Our second full day has been a better one. (I got a good night's sleep and a shower this morning...that helped immensely) We explored our backyard and sat on our rockers watching the construction go on across the street. It's better than TV! While enjoying the patio we got a visit from our former co-worker, neighbor, and dear friend Sue. It was great seeing her as she has been such a support during this tough time. She was really happy to see Amazing Mike as she called him. She even got to see us do some of our expert transfers and some super standing exercises. I think he was showing off for her.  😁 Just finished lunch and I asked M what he wanted to do afterwards. "Go on a walk, me and you." So that's what we have planned! We will hop in the car and take ourselves to some level ground. Our street is just too steep for me to navigate at the moment. We don't want any runaway wheelchairs! This is funny. Just a moment ago at the end of lunch while typi...

Michael slept well last night at home in our bed. I know, because I spent most of the night listening to him breathe and waiting for him to need to go to the bathroom. 🙂 I'm sure sleeping will become easier as we get our routine down and I better know what to expect. It felt familiar to the times I brought my babies home from the hospital...you are on constant watch and your ears never stop listening. Earlier this morning I was having a tough moment thinking of the enormity of this situation. But I have to say that we've done a lot for our first morning home. We successfully ate breakfast and took our 5 morning meds, (we have 4 in the evening) used our bathtub chair for the first time for a lovely shower, and we loaded M in the car and ventured for a walk on one of our favorite paths in Four Seasons.   We got a call from our Coumadin Pharmacist. They will be responsible for monitoring his blood work and prescribing dosages for this blood thinner. They asked if we ...

This is the update I have been looking forward to for 6 weeks. Arrived at Ballard at 9:30 and we were released and out of there by 10:15. No troubles with the car ride. They were not sure how he would do...dizzy, nausea, etc because of his equilibrium. He did not need our barf bag, so yay! Test 1 out of the way! He was smiling so big while coming into our community. It was drizzling, but everything looked so green. We made it into the house in a reasonable amount of time. We will become pros before you know it.  Test 2 out of the way! The first stop in the house M wanted to go to is his Owl Room as he called it. It was where he would go to escape and write. He even wanted to roll his wheelchair directly under his desk and luckily it fit well. Little tight getting around everything, but we made it. The coolest thing happened as we were looking out the window. A little hummingbird taking a drink on our succulent flew right up to the window and hovered there as if to say, "...

Had OT and PT back-to-back this morning. Good practice in getting M ready for the rigors of outpatient therapy. He was super tired, but did great. He got his Independence Day shirt today and got his photo taken and put on the wall with all of the others before him who got well enough to go home. But what was super exciting is the PT had him sign a photo release. I almost told her he could not sign, but instead just let him go for it. He started writing his name and had a nearly perfectly formed M (in the same style he had prior to the stroke) and you could recognize a C and an N. Won't be long until he will have that back to, I have a feeling!  yay! In OT, with the adorable Whitney, he bounced a soft basketball off a net and caught it again. Over and over, sitting then standing! His reaction time was really great. Then he did his favorite hand over hand windmill exercise. We still have equilibrium issues and need to learn to straighten up while sitting and standing and not lean...