Not surprisingly, his physical recovery is almost perfect: he tested at 4.5 out of 5 for mobility and balance. Bette, his PT, is continuing to work on his flexibility as well as fine motor skills in his right hand.
The area that continues to challenge Dad the most is definitely speech; we are learning, more and more, that "speech therapy" encompasses a tremendously broad area of cognition. In fact, it's kind of hard to figure out where Occupational Therapy leaves off and Speech Therapy picks up. For example, sequencing -- or completing the steps for a task in the proper order -- is a speech-based challenge. Anyway, lately Dad's speech therapist, Kelly, has also started to work more on his reading activities, especially the various levels of comprehension and recall.
We were especially excited, though, when Kelly told us how much he has improved in the last 3 weeks. During his first visit, Dad tested about 20% on the battery of tests she administered. This week, he tested at 75%. Still some room for improvement, to be sure, but how exciting!
Anecdotally, I've noticed a tremendous improvement in Dad's conversational skills since I last saw him just under 2 weeks ago. His vocabulary is strong -- yesterday he referred to something as "assinine." Good one, Jackie.
The folks at the rehab center predict that Dad's outpatient therapy will last 16 weeks altogether -- 13 weeks longer -- at which point they expect that he will be able to function with close to full independence. This is not to say, of course, that his recovery will cease at that point. Most stroke patients report change, growth, and improvement one, two, even three years or longer after their strokes. For now, we're hoping for a continued upward path and steady, regular progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment