Updates

Okay – it’s been a while so here are some updates:

• Steve’s Dad suffered a pretty major stroke last Friday afternoon while driving his car. Luckily he was in a quiet, residential area and although he did get into an accident it was quite minor (he hit a parked car). He was brought to St. Mary’s in Duluth by ambulance as he was unresponsive.
• The stroke affected the left side of his brain – which controls communications (speech, reading, comprehension) and also his right side….which is his dominant side (he’s right-handed).
• He is alert & seems to be in okay spirits but is unable to communicate with us & we don’t know how much he is understanding of what we’re saying. He’s definitely getting some of it – names, people, some words, etc but not everything. He works daily with a speech therapist, a physical therapist and an occupational therapist. This will continue after he leaves the hospital and moves into the re-hab center.
• He needs to re-learn pretty much everything – how to live every day and do those small things that most of us never think about; he needs to re-learn how to speak & read, etc etc. He will most likely have surgery to put a stent in one of his carotid arteries but I don’t know when yet.

We brought Mindi (½ jack Russell, ½ rat terrier) down to visit him the other night. I think it’s AWESOME that you can bring your dog in to visit. I think Mindi will be very therapeutic for his dad. He laughed (!) for the first time when she came in the room – yay! And he also really enjoyed petting her and feeding her treats. I think those are good signs. J

It’s hard. It’s really hard on Steve & his siblings. It’s hard on his girlfriend. It’s hard on everyone! We all just have to stick together and be positive and encouraging and support him and each other and take things one day at a time. It’s going to be a long journey.

<>In other news….not much is going on. We had a “Valentine’s Dinner” last night- me, Steve, his brother and his Dad’s GF. I made chicken roll-ups (chicken breasts pounded flat, filled with french cut green beans & cheese, rolled up, covered in a creamy yummy sauce w/jasmine rice in the new rice cooker!). It was nice to all be together. There is some movie stuff to be taken care of – in fact – deadlines are looming so if you want to donate….DO SO NOW! We could use the final push. My brain isn’t in it all that much lately but I’m trying to keep up on my ‘to-do’ list and get a few things done. It’s hard to think about the movie & the wedding and things like that when so many other important things are happening. Perspectives & priorities have definitely shifted.

So – that’s the update….I’ll keep you posted. As always – prayers, warm-fuzzy-universe-vibes, well-wishes, good thoughts, or whatever else you can think of in a positive light are appreciated. I really do think they help.