Stroke of Determination, part 1

Late last week, occasional reader and contributor (and longtime chum) Spartacus caught my recent posting here on my mother's stroke, and the first steps of her recovery. He kindly emailed me his best wishes; I responded:

-----Original Message-----
From: Aging Child [mailto: AGeneChilde@YouWho.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 1:07 PM
To: "Spark" le Klaus
Subject: Re: Stroke of Determination

Thanks for the thoughts, Chief. Yes, Mother's strokes (there was a second one in the hospital, and these two may have been part of a possible series of little ones this month) were mild – in that all that seems to be affected are her coordination and motor skills (i.e., damage restricted to her cerebellum). Her humor is indeed firmly in place, and we've all been buoying her morale (and sapping her strength) with frequent visits.

Longer-term prognosis… who knows? She's getting some interesting rehabilitative therapy (and so gets to play with cool/intriguing toys), and her motor skills and speech are improving. It broke my heart to see her cry when (early on) one of her doctors told her she'd probably never drive her car again. Yet… a few days after her first stroke (before my sisters and Mother's doctor corralled her), Mother did indeed drive twice, with no trouble beyond bumping the hubcap on a curb… something I do on a weekly basis myself. (And more recently Mother said dismissively to one of my sisters, "I've driven enough.")

Further stroke(s) since admission have left her nearly unable to walk – though she gamely tries, with walker and nurse and firm resolve, and is getting better at it, too. Yesterday she was playing solitaire (no cheats, either) with her rehab coordinator, and afterward gathered the cards together (flipping them over where needed) to get them back into deck-shape. Sure, she was clumsy… but she did it.

She tries to write… but it looks like Arabic. Strike that; I can read bits of Arabic/Farsi/Urdu… and her scrawl is still just about illegible. Except: when she came back into the Transitional Care Unit late last week (or early this week), she signed her treatment plan and initialed here and here and here and don't forget up here, too, ma'am. This was all legible, and recognizably her own handwriting.

The issue for her is that all her life her mind's known what she wants her body to do, and the body cooperates. Now… it's kind of like when your foot's grown numb while sitting on the toilet with an especially good magazine: you try to walk on it, and the blasted thing just flops around. (Exception: she's not numb in her extremities; I've tested this by tickling her feet; she jerks them back and makes an annoyed look at me. Heh-heh.)

She doesn't give up… and that's never been her way anyway. More than once I've said to her, "You know this isn't a permanent condition, right? That you're getting better?" She usually responds with a simple "Yes." And she does. She also doesn't limit her speech to one- or two-word phrases, but still sticks with full sentences… which often are still very garbled, so we get her to back up and repeat particular words, even the whole sentence, just more slowly, e-nun-ci-ate, and that helps. E.g., about rehab yesterday, she said with impressive clarity, "They worked me harder than ever!" I pointed out (and so did sister Mew) that this is exactly what the rehab folks are supposed to do; she understands that, and embraces it. Doesn't like it… but you can't blame her.

And speaking of magazines: I dropped off the last of your impressive science-magazine stash, plus a couple years' worth of "Consumer Reports" (and a few others) all around the hospital last week: notice a table and chair in waiting-areas, deposit another magazine. There are a lot of waiting-areas… and I had a lot of magazines to work with. [note for readers: Sparks got hold of my mailing address a while back, and this Spring sent me a nice boxload of science-based magazines… I got some good reads, and he solved his recycling-overflow problems.] And they were quite the improvement over "The Watchtower", local real-estate rags, "Dog-Polishers' Monthly", "Feeled and Scream", and so on. And as I walked through the waiting-areas over successive days… folks were reading them, too.

You just may have helped boost (even if just temporarily) the average IQ of the average Hometownian here; on their behalf, I thank you from the heart of my bottom.

Regards,

Hugh Jass

Spartacus sent back:

-----Original Message-----
From: "Spark" le Klaus [mailto:SpartaCuss@Yabbadoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 3:18 PM
To: Aging Child
Subject: Re: Stroke of Determination

Thanks much for the fuller report on your mom's condition. Sounds like she is well on the road to recovery. Most importantly, her attitude is in the right place, and that has to make all the difference in the world. You had better start training, man--with the PT she's getting, she could very well be challenging you and your bro to a 5k race one of these days!

I could really relate to your analogy about sitting on the toilet and having a leg go numb; when I worked in construction, I would wake up in the middle of the night with my arm completely numb and unresponsive, like a piece of dead meat attached to my body. Scary stuff.

Glad to hear too that my old mags have found new homes; mental stimulation is a part of the recovery process, and anything's better than "Dog Polisher's Monthly"!

Yawl take care!

--
Some of us have been sleeping for these eight long years, while our nation's values have been traduced, our liberties reduced, and our moral authority around the world trampled and shattered by a nightmare of ideological incompetence.
Ted Sorensen, former advisor to JFK, commenting on the George W. Bush administration

More updates coming, folks.