Thanksgiving, Victory, 70 Steps

We had a nice big Thanksgiving meal last Thursday. Thanks for the Thanksgiving messages many of you sent us! Here's a picture of our family and our feast.

On Saturday my dad and I watched Ohio State lose to Michigan in football. That was a pretty awesome day. :) He's definitely losing some hair from the radiation treatments, but when I asked if he wanted me to shave his head, he looked at me like I was crazy, which I took to be a "no." haha

Today my dad started physical therapy. My mom reports that he walked 70 steps today. You can see him with his physical therapist below. Pretty awesome, eh?

Walk to Dance

My dad has been doing much better recently! He has even taken a few steps here or there. He's good at lifting himself up from the wheelchair by pushing off from the arms of the chair, which means that I hardly have to do any work at all to get him up. On Sunday of this week, when he stood up, my mom, brother, sister, and brother-in-law were gathered all around. It was great. He balanced himself by putting his two hands on my mom's shoulders, and then he said, "I'm dancing!" With his jelly legs bouncing a little and his body swaying, he really did look like he was dancing; it was a happy moment.

Then yesterday afternoon, Ian came to visit and my dad had a good conversation during which he (my dad) spoke pretty proudly of his most recent "BM," as he called it. My dad was really excited to see Ian, though, and I think it was the first time since early October that my dad has spoken more than two words about how he's feeling.

I think his main complaint about his stay at Birchwood is that he's always surrounded by women who are trying to control him by not allowing him to get up and walk around whenever he feels like it. Although he's been taking a few shuffling steps, he still should have someone spotting him or holding onto him a little bit. After Ian left, my dad and I took another little walk, and my dad started doing an animated, bouncy little dance step and humming a little waltz. I walked beside him, holding his waist, doing the little bounce step, too. It's really been a fun few days here.

Because my dad is regaining some strength, he's also getting a little bit more feisty, too. As I mentioned earlier, he's been "arguing" with the nurses more. He really resists having to wait for someone to assist him now; for example, when he's ready to get out of bed, he'd prefer to just get up and walk to the bathroom to himself, even though he's really not steady enough yet. When I wheeled him to the dining room, I walked down the hall to leave, and when I turned around, my dad had sort of scooted himself out into the hall to follow me.

It was actually a pretty happy sight for me, since he hasn't taken control of his own "transportation" in about a month. He was just re-evaluated today to see if he can begin physical therapy again, though, so I hope he'll start physical therapy soon and be able to walk with just a walker or something. Keep your fingers crossed!

Visitors, Orchestra...Weight-Bearing!

I'm trying to add a "scheduling" function to the blog so that you can see who's visiting when and sort of arrange your own visits directly on this blog. It doesn't appear to be working, so I'll keep tinkering with it.

A few quick updates --

Last Wednesday (Nov. 9), I went with my dad to his radiation appointment. He was pretty awake on the drive back, and he was in a good mood, too. His bus driver is a wonderful woman who's not only friendly but entertaining, as well. When I told my dad that I liked her, he said, "Me too. . . she's in-your-face!" I thought that was funny.

On Friday, Nov. 11, some family from Toronto arrived to visit my dad for the weekend. We also had a surprise visit by my dad's friend, Sam. My dad was asleep when we all arrived, so we let him sleep for another half hour while we all got more acquainted with each other in the lounge area. Then I actually went back to my dad's room to wake him up. He enjoyed the visit and was laughing at our jokes. This was also "Pocky Day" since the date was 11.11.11, and the number 1 looks sort of like Pocky (an Asian snack). I brought some for my dad to try, and he held it like a cigarette. Ha!

Pocky Day

It was a pretty neat day. Sam said he had thought about wearing some Michigan gear to make my dad happy, but since he was an alum of Ohio State, I guess he just couldn't bring himself to do it. I guess my dad and Sam have a history of razzing each other for their school pride. Sam said that he used to spend all weekend coming up with zingers for my dad, and my dad said, "That's about what you'd expect from someone who went to OSU." I do have to say that with my dad's fatigue and stuff, his condition is particularly well suited to one-liners. This is a blessing since one-liners are a specialty of his.

On Saturday, Nov. 12, my cousins and aunt visited my dad in the morning. My cousin Cindy brought photos to show my dad from her visit to us at Christmas 20 years ago. My brother, sister and I appeared to be giving a concert with an electric keyboard and mics and stuff -- clearly new Christmas gifts. There was a photo of my dad, beardless and quite a bit heavier, tinkering away on the piano. Those photos were a HOOT!

Later in the evening, we all went to an orchestra concert. It was a great concert, but at times my dad's Parkinson's tremor got sort of loud. Part of me was really embarrassed/nervous that he was distracting others in the audience, but I tried to quiet that voice by reminding myself that it's awesome that my dad can get out to hear some live music. I'll have to remember to be less upset when other people distract me during concerts in the future.nAt the end, during the standing ovation, my dad said that he wanted to stand, too! When we all got out to the parking lot after the concert and it was time for me to transfer him from the wheelchair to the car, though, he actually DID stand. I mean, not totally on his own, but I felt like I hardly had to lift him! He used his arms to assist me in getting him to his feet, and then he really was able to bear much of the weight on his own. He even shuffled his right foot to get closer to the car, but I've noticed that he really doesn't seem to have the ability to control his left leg/foot at all. When he tries to take a step with his left foot, his left leg kind of buckles. I hope to get him back on physical therapy soon. I can't remember if I've already mentioned that the physical therapists stopped doing therapy a couple of weeks ago because they said he wasn't making progress anymore, but now with the steroids, it'd be great for him to start up again.

Welp, tomorrow we begin Week 3 of treatment!

Monday, Nov. 7: Improvement

It has now officially been one week since the beginning of radiation treatment -- only 5 weeks to go. My dad has also started with steroids again (he was on them @ St. Mary's in Grand Haven) to reduce swelling. Even by last Friday, either from the steroids or from the radiation, my dad was much more alert and communicative. This was a total relief to me, at least. He has been speaking audibly (unless he's really tired and it's close to nap/bedtime) without any sort of prompting or needing to be reminded about taking deep breaths. He has started making some more jokes, and he has even been feeding himself!! I'm so pleased about all of those developments. He still can't bear any weight or stand on his own, but I'm hoping that maybe we can coach him back to walking a little bit. Wouldn't that be great?

Thanks to Dimitar and Kyu, my "host family brothers" for coming to visit my dad Halloween weekend. Even though we didn't end up having time to carve Jack-o-lanterns, we did pick out pumpkins, which is half the battle. The boys brought a skeleton t-shirt with them from my dad's house and explained that my dad's plan had been to wear the t-shirt and somehow attach the x-ray of his actual left shoulder (from his motor scooter accident in July) to the shirt. So funny! I'll see if I can somehow get a photo of that later so that you can appreciate the full effect.

Thanks very much to Jack and Tom for coming to visit last Friday.They were with my dad during lunch, as I understand it, and up until my dad left for radiation. I hope you were able to have an enjoyable visit!

Thanks, too, to Jonas, Dr. Chang, and the rest of the family for visiting on Saturday. I think we probably haven't all been together in one room since I was 12 years old. I know my dad enjoyed the visit, and even though he has been better able to speak lately, he had his work cut out for him with such a lively group. Dr. Chang was my pediatrician throughout my childhood (I was actually named after her), and she was present at the births of my brother, sister, and I. She said that since I was the firstborn, my dad had been particularly nervous. At one point, the delivery doctor (there must be a name for that kind of doctor) turned away from my mom, looked at my dad, and told Dr. Chang, "You'd better go help him, instead." Then, my dad fainted. Dr. Chang was careful to explain how this wasn't just a regular ol' faint, either -- he slowly slid down the wall he'd been leaning on for support. It's a great visual, isn't it?

I also owe a ton of thanks to the awesome team of people who have been helping with the daunting chore of fall yard work @ my dad's house. I've been impressed with your ability to coordinate trips, equipment, tasks, and just general do-gooding. I definitely have a few lessons I could learn from you all.

It's an overwhelming task to consider how we can ever repay all the people who have been helping out along the way through completing chores, sending cards/letters/flowers, coordinating efforts, calling/texting, driving here for visits, or sending warm thoughts. My whole family feels an enormous amount of gratitude for you. Thank you.