July 13th Update: Dad Comes Home!

Once again everyone sorry for the lapse in updating. Dad was at Century Villa for almost 2 months and received rehab there every weekday. He received many visits from people who live locally as well as visits from myself and my Aunt Katie and my sister Amber visited the week after Father's Day.

I went to see Dad three weekends in a row on Father's Day, the week after for Amber's visit and the following weekend for the 4th of July. Every time I visited he seemed to have improved little by little. His memory is still sitting in the mid 1990s but he seems open to the changes that his mind doesn't always remember. He was also in good spirits as we played Yahtzee with him and Uno with him when Amber visited. We also brought him pizza which he really enjoyed (the food at the facility left something to be desired at times!).

While his walking is still not completely to where it should be, Century Villa and Blue Cross made the decision that it was time for Dad to return home today. Blue Cross delivered Mom a hospital bed for him and is allowing him to keep the wheelchair he used at the facility. He will now be receiving in home rehab therapy 3 days a week and we hope that being home will help him to continue to progress more and more (We have been told when stroke patients return home, their progress improves by leaps and bounds).

Mom has had guardrails put in and made the house as friendly for Dad to maneuver as possible. It is sure to be a change in routine for both of them but I am confident they will persevere through this! I am so grateful to my sister April who is an RN and lives a few blocks away from Mom and Dad for being there whenever they need her for help. I wish I could be there more. Although I only live 2 hours away, I have had to be cautious with the miles I put on my car and so sometimes I don't get to get up there as often as I would like. It was very nice going up there three weekends in a row and I will be back up there on July 24th for my 20th High School Reunion and I am sure I will have more to report then!

I am so happy that Dad has progressed as much as he has in just 4 months since the stroke! I know that he will keep fighting in rehab to get as much mobility as he possibly can! I will post more in a couple of weeks. Thanks as always for reading and keeping up with his progress!