First on Tal:
We asked that they lower the amount of pain medication that he was getting. "Synthetic heroin" Bruce called it! So you can imagine why he saw his friend Hall and Johnny Cash having lunch with him. Hopefully this will help him be more alert, be able to work better with his team of physical therapists.
We are learning quite alot about right sided strokes from Melia, his speech therapist. That ornery quality he affects is all part of the game she says.
The two hours that it takes to convince him that yes, he must tell her what the pictures are of on her page: tree, star,apple, piano...turns out he can identify quite a few but coming to the bottom he becomes very left brain and abstract. A clock becomes a "boy in a field flying a kite" and finally "an onion" cut in half. A lamp becomes a banana.
Questions all soooo beneath him he says!"You think I'm an idiot he says!" But we learn that he CAN see and recognize quite a bit but sometimes can't find the word describing it!
Sheila, another physical therapy nurse and one that has had the most difficulty with him, got the big prize two nights ago. A drawing of the Dragon Stair sculpture, in front of the National Museum in Korea! Yes! There was the building behind it, the tall pine tree to the righthand side and the way the piece sits drawn with care and precision. And he signed it. "Tal" with a little moon.
Wouldn't you have liked to be the recipient of one of those ? I certainly would have ! I hope she understands what she was given !
We are trying to lengthen the time that he keeps his eyes open. So far his record is 40 seconds. It has to be 3 minutes by the end of the month they tell us or Pop's Medicare wont foot the bill for all of this "Rapid Recovery". That's a reality to deal with too. If he doesn't make enough visible progress every month. They will stop the therapies because Medicare will no longer cover squat all.
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