Knock Knock

"Who's there?" you ask. Unfortunately, I don't know.

And so it is with Dad at this point in his recovery. As I've mentioned previously, he has his high moments and his low moments. After several interactions where I get essentially no response from him, he surprises me, and the Dad I know shows as brightly as ever.

He was exhausted this morning when I stopped by. Apparently, he had just had another MRI. Or catscan, or whatever means they used to poke inside his head this time. Funny, I didn't think to ask again about the results. Anyway, he had once again removed his feeding tube and was attempting to do the same to various other tubes when I arrived. I can't say that I blame him, but he was clearly very confused. It is for these reasons that I hear rumors of restraints being used again.

After a lunchtime visit with the hospital rehabilitation representatives, I tried talking to him briefly. He was awake, and coherent. I told him that the hospital was wanting to remove the feeding tube and surgically move it directly to his stomach. He frowned and made a comically sad face. He was playing it up, the same guy I knew just a few days ago. I winked at him during this visit, and he raised both eyebrows in response. Moments later I asked him to squeeze my hand in response to a question, but I got nothing in return.

Now, I have to be honest here. Dad's hearing isn't what it used to be. He's far from deaf, but if pressed, he'd admit to "some" hearing loss. And for those that don't already know, he's also fighting macular degeneration. It's worse in his left eye than his right. The surgery that saved some vision in his left eye, also left him with a rather large blank spot in the center of his vision. The day before his stroke, he mentioned eye surgery similar to what Mom recently went through. I don't remember the details, but he was excited that it would improve his vision.

Go through the list with me:

Hearing loss
Vision impairment
Unable to speak, and possibly interpret everything he hears
Can't move the right side of his body
Unknown other limitations due to the clot and subsequent bleeding
Unknown other limitations due to the residual swelling inside his head

And yet, he's still finding ways to communicate as he can during those brief moments of clarity of thought. So, upon further thought, I think I can answer your earlier question.

It's still Dad.