As Nancy walked in this morning to see Dad (she's hanging out while Dad awaits transfer back to Orchard Park), his eyes were open which was, in and of itself, a good start. As she greeted him with a ‘hello’ he responded with a whispered, "where've you been?". I realize that's not much to write home about, but they were the first words he's spoken in at least a couple of weeks.
No more words since then (so far), but what a wonderful beginning to the first day after the shunt being put in. I'm told that the PT folks came by today and had Dad (with full assistance) sitting up on the edge of the bed to see if he could support himself but to no avail.
One good thing out of that though... his vitals didn't change drastically either. Not long ago over at Orchard Park, they sat him up and his BP dropped to almost nothing. Nice to see that there was improvement in that area, too!
Don't get me wrong, Dad's not made any significant levels of recovery as of yet. I point out what few changes have occurred to let you all know where things stand (no pun intended), and to continue to be optimistic the way that Dad brought me up to be.
Dad continues to be very un-responsive to verbal commands of any sort, very immobile on his own, and very sedate. His eyes seem to be working rather well at this point, and will follow movement from time-to-time.
The neuro-surgeon (Dr Harris) made sure to pass along to the family last night that the recovery process from this point, could be very lengthy. As we've been told previously, it's a marathon... not a sprint, and Dr Harris' comments that any level of recovery could take ‘weeks or even months’, was a good reminder of that!
So... Where've you been?
Johnny:)
