May 4th Update

As promised, I will now update again after returning from my visit with Dad (I have been calling him Jack in this blog up until now, I will be calling him Dad from now on as that is what he is to me :) ) on Sunday.

First things first, they say that most patients who have neurological injuries will go on one of two ends of the spectrum: They will either be very, very angry and violent or they will be very, very mellow and laugh at everything. I am happy that Dad went the latter of the two routes, especially for Mom's sake. Dad was very mellow, but he laughs at EVERYTHING. And I don't just mean hehe laughs but GUFFAWS! This was my first observation that Dad's personality has changed. Dad would laugh before but mostly if he was watching something really funny on tv or hearing a really funny story but other than that, he was a very stoic guy. When I saw him on Sunday, everything was funny to him.

When Mom questioned Dad about the year, he started to say '19..' but she would not let him finish. When given hints, Dad will remember it's 2010. When I told Dad that I was in the hectic end of the semester, I could see in his eyes he thought it was the early 90s and I was an undergrad, not a teacher as I am now. His timeline is very very off when he remembers things. While I was there, he could not remember that Grandma and Grandpa (his parents) have both passed away (Grandma has been gone since 1995 and Grandpa since 2007) and he couldn't remember that his friend Dave passed away 4 years ago. He also could not believe that his wreck/stroke occurred in March and that it's May now. He seemed flabbergasted when told this (which Mom has said is his reaction every time he's told).

Even with all of this, Dad is leaps and bounds ahead of where they thought he would be. When they first saw his brain scans, they never thought he would speak again and here he is speaking in full sentences. His memory and timeline may also come back once his brain heals. He just has to make new 'pathways' for the memories.

One thing I learned from Sunday's visit is never take for granted what God has given you the ability to do. I am so grateful that I still have the use of both sides of my body and that I have my full memory and brain capacity. I now know firsthand that these can be taken from you in a second and I will never take these things for granted again.

I plan to visit Dad more this Summer as my Summer semesters are much more relaxed and it will be easier to get back and forth to Indy more. I will of course keep you all posted with entries whenever there is something new to report. Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there reading this! I have purchased my Mother's Day cards, have you?