As many of you may remember, the night before Thanksgiving last year, my father had a stroke, and wasn't expected to make it through the night. The next few days were up and down, but he slowly recovered. Now, nearly 7 months later he is still making improvements. He still has no movement of his left side, but has learned limited use of his right. The hardest part to take is he still doesn't know me, or any one else, so the damage to the brain isn't better, and probably won't be. Kind of makes you think how precious life is, and how things can turn so quickly, and how little even the best doctors can predict how long we have.

 

Mizzou, my wife had brain surgery in 1999, for an extremely rare condition and while she has shown some improvememnt this is still incurable and will likely shorten her life expectancy...We could dwell on the bad, the why, and the losses or we can live this life with as much gusto as her condition will allow, take every advantage of the good days and snuggle close through the bad ones...Our prayers to your family that strength finds all of you and that you can give your father as many new, good memories as possible...The times that you have been given, even through the pain, the work and the unknowing, are all gifts...kinda' like the friends we make here !!!

 

I can sympathize with you on the part of them not knowing you. My grandfather suffered from alzheimer's disease and in the later stages knew hardly anything at all.

 

Glad you had more time to spend with him, MizzouHHR. I only wish it were more quality time. We see people come out of comas after years, survive terminal cancer, and walk again after a spinal injury. Miracles happen all the time. We have to live for today and never give up hope!