I can't thank you enough for all your support! I am literally brought to tears by your responses. Thank you so much! It sucks to live so far away when I can't just hop on the plane to go see him. Mom Skype called and I was able to see him though he was sleeping. He looked so tired. He is on blood thinners now to slowly dissolve the clot. They wanted to do an esophageal echocardiogram (basically an ultrasound) to determine if the clot originated from the heart but were unsuccessful. He has had bypass surgery years ago and so the doctors think that maybe where the originated.
My dad has had many strokes from 2005-2013 and his recovery will be determined in the next 6 weeks. It's critical that he start PT/ST/OT and continue with it, even if he thinks he doesn't need it anymore. It's also very important for him to take all the medication recommended to him. My dad didn't take a lot of the medication that they wanted him to and as a result had more strokes and is now in full-time assisted living.
I don't say this to scare you but strokes are like heart attacks for the brain and if he doesn't make whatever lifestyle change the doctors tell him he can have more, possibly on different parts of the brain.
bcarp, my dad is pretty good about taking medications regularly. But my mom is horrible about sticking to healthy diets and she is the cook in the house. Her poor eating habit has led to her having diabetes and high blood pressure. Unfortunately she thinks she can eat whatever because she takes medicine for the conditions. It's sooo frustrating. One of my uncle is an OT so hopefully he can convey the importance of continuing the therapies. My younger brother is there now helping my mom with setting up the in home therapy visits. I trust him. I just feel useless sitting here thousand miles away not being able to help with anything.
My aunt had a major stroke and recovered to almost full functions except her speech was permanently slurred and quite different from her old voice. There may have been a few other functions that never fully came back but for the most part she recovered and never had another stroke.
Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry house. My thoughts are with you and your family. The brain is an incredible thing. A lot of people recover fully from strokes.
One of my employees had a stroke 2 years ago. She made a full recovery in 3 months. Another employee daughter had a stroke about 9 months ago. She couldn't walk afterwards. Last week she sent her dad a video of her walking.
Oh thank God he is going home today! Just talked to mom this afternoon and she said he was able to recall a friend's daughters name! This is huge! She also said he is able to get up and do things on his own. He still has to go back for the heart ultrasound on Wednesday though.