Current Events > It's been the scariest month of my life but things are looking a little better

(+) Yeah! (+)

Dad's stroke was on july 22nd. It was not a good one. If you know anything about strokes but they range from a minor bit of clotting or blood that resolves itself and causes a bit of numbness or odd behaviour...to full out floodgate brain bleeding that causes paralysis, brain damage and death. Dad's was on the bad end of that scale. They couldn't operate or do anything except lower his blood pressure and just let it bleed out.

When I saw him 4 days after (couldn't visit in that time because of covid) he was a shell of a person. I really thought he'd be catatonic. Couldn't speak, paralysed on his right side completely, didn't have any "lights" on. A day or two later he could get some words out but they made no sense and he rambled completely. A week later he was given a test where he's got to point to different things in a painting (like the dog or the boat) and he didn't understand at all.

Today I walked in having not seen him in 4 days and he said "hello, how was your weekend? I've been meaning to tell you, I want the consultant to get us some feedback as I strongly feel I'm not making any progress at all." I didn't know whether to laugh or cry in his face.

He still can't move his right side but he's got some feeling back. Thank god for nurses, thank god for the NHS.

Anyway, blogfaqs. Strokes are really awful. I had no idea it was anything like this. I used to think a stroke was just a kind of somewhat funny thing where your speech gets a bit slurry. Guess I'm the idiot.


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