Last full day of rehab

...so you know that you're tired when you fall asleep while putting your kids to bed and you don't wake up and go into your own bed until 2am...that's why I'm updating this blog post Friday morning instead of Thursday night!

Here's what I started to write yesterday and never posted...
Mordy had a very early morning today. They woke him before 6am (which is earlier than our kids would wake him if he were at home) and brought him to a classroom for the neuro-ophthamology residents. They spent the next hour discussing his case and examining him. It definitely wore him out! When he got back to his room he slept and slept. They woke him for occupational therapy, which he sleepily went through.  He showed the occupational therapist that he can accomplish activities for daily living well enough to be able to be sent home.  These activities included: getting in and out of the bathtub; walking to a bedroom and sitting down on a bed, laying down and getting up; walking into the kitchen and doing some cooking (with pretend food); getting into and out of a car; and more.  They were very satisfied that he could come home Friday!

He was still tired, so he slept during the lunch break and woke up for physical therapy. During physical therapy,  he walked with a cane.  It seems that he'll be sent home with a cane, not a walker, so that is very exciting news!  He went up and down stairs multiple times (and quite well) and then did a number of exercises to help with his coordination and balance.  The therapist provided detailed instructions and illustrations of all the exercises so he can continue to do the exercises at home.

The neuro-ophthamologist came to visit in the afternoon, to make sure Mordy wasn't too tired out from the early morning class, and to suggest some exercises to help his vision improve. Mordy's vestibular system (which coordinates balance) is getting inaccurate signals from his eyes.  As he continues to do these eye exercises, his vestibular system will get increasingly accurate visual information, so his balance will improve.  The prisms are still working great--Mordy continued reading to himself through the afternoon.
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So today is Friday, and Mordy is coming home!  Last night the children made a big poster that says "welcome home Abba" that is hanging on the front door of home, just at the top of the stairs, so he'll see it when he comes home.  (Thank you to Tammy Dorff for the idea and for helping to make it happen!)

Next week he'll have outpatient therapy, probably Tuesday and Thursday.  And after that, he'll have outpatient therapy on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.  If you're able to give Mordy a ride to JFK, please email getwellmordy@gmail.com

While Mordy is thrilled to be coming home, he still needs a lot of rest.  If you're local, please let us know that you want to visit--don't just drop by.

I'm very happy to have Mordy home this Shabbat with our family. May this weekend bring health, joy, and recovery to us all.

The wonder of prisms

Today Mordy had a pretty good morning with physical therapy and more "activities for daily living." He practiced doing several tasks that he'll do at home once he gets back from rehab. He did a great job with it all. The whole time he was wearing the eye patch to reduce the double vision and ensuing dizziness.

In the middle of his second therapy session (after lunch), the neuro-ophthomologist came in with prisms.  He held the prisms over Mordy's right eye until he found the right one to help prevent Mordy from seeing double.  We were a bit surprised to see the doctor, since we thought that prisms would be something Mordy would get further down the road.  But the doctor removed Mordy's patch and put the prism (clear plastic) over one lens of Mordy's glasses.  Mordy put on the glasses and exclaimed "I can see!"  The double vision was gone.  It was amazing!!

Mordy continued to have the prism on his glasses for the rest of the day.  For the most part, the double vision was gone.  At a certain point, his eyes became fatigued and the double vision returned.  So I encouraged Mordy to close his eyes for a bit, to give them a rest.  After 30 seconds, he opened his eyes and the vision was normal again.

The prisms are incredible.  He no longer sees double.  This has significantly reduced the dizziness.  The doctor suspects that as the brain will continue to heal he will outgrow the prisms.  When that happens, we'll just remove the plastic from his glasses, and his vision should return to normal.  Amazing, right?!?

The neuro-ophthomologist is bringing Mordy to his class tomorrow morning, to tell the residents about Mordy's case and display how the prisms are working.  Lucky Mordy, he gets to return to a classroom for purposes of instruction within 2 weeks of his stroke! (And we're looking forward to his return to being in the role of teacher this Fall...)

Mordy continued to walk without the walker today.  He occasionally used a cane, but often just held my hand or walked with someone nearby. With the prisms, his gait has improved.  It is truly a blessing to see the healing that is happening.  While incremental, it is consistent.  We're hopeful for a speedy recovery.  Thank you all for your cards and prayers.  I'm sharing every message with Mordy (even if I don't reply to you directly, we're getting them!) and he's happy to receive so much support from all of you.

We're still hoping he'll come home Friday...I'll keep you posted on that.

Better and better every day

Today Mordy finally got to see the neuro-ophthomologist. The resident examined him yesterday, but the attending physician saw him today and discussed his situation with us in detail. Good news: he is expected to recover his vision. It will just take time. For now, he has an eye patch, which helps reduce the double vision. That (plus medication) helps reduce the dizzyness and nausea. If his eyes recover to a certain point and plateau but don't improve completely, the doctor can give Mordy prisms. If for some reason that doesn't work either, surgery is a last resort, but an unlikely scenario. Overall, the neuro-ophthomologist was extremely reassuring. Basically, he said that Mordy should most likely recover his vision on his own, as his eyes and his brain readjust after the trauma of the stroke. We are already seeing that each day the eyes get better and better. We're hoping that will continue.

Mordy had several sessions of therapy today. The big news is that he was walking for periods of time without a walker. He still had a therapist holding on to him or putting hands out around him, in case he should lose balance. Mordy said that he doesn't feel like he's going to fall. But he does feel uncoordinated. He said that he felt like his gait was that of the "minister of silly walks" (for those of you who are Monty Python fans, hope you enjoy that reference!) With the therapy, his walking and coordination of his gait is improving.

When he wasn't in therapy, he mostly rested. He has been listening to "The Hunger Games" on audio, and he's enjoying that. His appetite is back, so that's good, too. He's really improving, and we're all hoping he'll be home on Friday.

As for visitors, we have been inundated with people asking to see Mordy. He had one visitor today and after that he didn't want any more because he needed to rest. All the doctors are saying he needs to sleep for his brain to heal. I suspect that will be the case for a while...

I know he'll want visitors once he's feeling better, and we might need help in terms of transporting him from home to and from JFK for outpatient physical therapy. So if you're reading this blog and able to help bring Mordy to and from therapy during daytime hours next week or the week of June 18-22, send an email to getwellmordy@gmail.com

And if he does come home on Friday, and if you live local, please don't drop by over the weekend to visit. After the trip home, he'll definitely need a few days to rest a lot at home before we have people coming by.

Thanks for your understanding...

Activities for Daily Living

Today was quite a day!  For the first time, Mordy wasn't nauseous or dizzy.  It seems that his anti-vertigo and anti-nausea medications are working.  Yay!

Mordy had physical therapy focusing on "activities for daily living". The therapist made sure Mordy could shower, get dressed, and do other things he'll need to do once he goes home. He went to a fake apartment down the hall from his room and practiced sitting in a chair, standing up; sitting on a couch, standing up; getting in and out of bed; getting in and out of a car, and more. He did arm and back exercises, sit ups, and then eye exercises. The eye exercises were the most challenging. He could manage the situps and other excercises without a problem, but his eyes became easily tired from the exercises.

Mordy wore a patch on one eye, and then the other. After patching for several hours, his eyes improved tremendously.  He no longer saw double vision, and he no longer had trouble reading.  He was able to move his eyes well and read--even small print!  While the neuro-ophthomology resident stopped by today, the neuro-ophthomology attending physician will come by tomorrow. We didn't get any answers today, so we'll find out more about his eyes tomorrow.

The best news of all is that Mordy is due to come home Friday or Sunday.  He really wants to be home on Friday, to be with us for Shabbat.  But we'll find out on Thursday whether that can happen, or if we have to wait until Sunday to have him home.  Once he's home, he'll still have outpatient physical therapy, to continue to improve.

Mordy had several friends visit today, which he really enjoyed, but it also made him tired. Mordy really enjoys seeing people now, and he'll want even more visitors once he comes home. But please let me know before you drop by.  If you're able to visit, during the day or at night, email me at GetWellMordy@gmail.com

Thanks,
Esther

Enjoying sunshine and relaxing on the lawn

Today I brought the boys to visit Mordy at the rehab hospital.  Mordy had just woken up from a nap, so he was energetic and happy to see his sons.  He used the walker to walk from his bed to the wheelchair, where we wheeled him outside (or, more accurately, he wheeled himself!) into glorious weather.

Mordy sat in the chair for a while as the boys ran around on the grass.  Although Mordy's having a lot of trouble with his eyes at the moment, seeing his children running on the grass gave him much pleasure.  He explained that it is easier to control his eyes as they tracked a moving image--like the boys running--than to control the eyes while looking at something stationary. At one point, he got out of the wheelchair and lay down on the grass, enjoying the fresh air and sun as the boys climbed over him with hugs and kisses.

Overall, Mordy is doing pretty well.  He is taking an anti-nausea medication which is helping.  He also had physical therapy today, so he practiced going up and down stairs and doing other tasks.  The therapy has been great...now if he can only get his eyes coordinated again, he'll be in terrific shape.

Tomorrow he has a neuro-opthomologist coming to see him, to assess his eyes and determine what can be done to correct the problem.  I look forward to reporting on how that visit goes.

As for me, after the visit, I took the boys to visit friends in Princeton, which was a pleasure.  It was good to see close friends and the kids enjoyed playing with other children (and, of course, getting ice cream!).  One of my friends, Dr. David Nathan, asked how I'm doing and I said that I'm ok, but I am a little sad about everything.  David pointed out that I'm probably feeling a sense of loss.  Yes!  I didn't realize it until he named it for me...loss of a feeling that we're young and healthy and have so much ahead of us...loss of a sense of security in having Mordy with me...loss in the short term plans we had for this summer (though we still don't know which of those plans we still might be able to salvage)...loss in just having Mordy with me at home these days.  I do feel that loss. I called Mordy and asked if he feels sad, too, and he said he's a little sad, but mostly impatient.  He wants to recover faster than he's been able. We're both aware that it will take time, and patience, for him to recover.  We're still taking it one day at a time.

On a completely different note, another good friend asked if there's a way to "subscribe" to this blog, so she could get an email when I update the blog.  The answer is yes and no.  I've added a feature to this site, on the upper right, where you can put in your email address to "follow by email."  Once you put in your email address, you'll get an email asking you to confirm.  When you confirm, you'll be a subscriber and you'll get an email once a day with the latest blog post(s). BUT, it won't send you a message the moment I update the blog...just once a day each day, probably at the same time each day.

Until tomorrow...taking it one day at a time.

Visit with the kids

Forgot to mention that I brought the kids to visit this afternoon. Sammy had a huge balloon and lovely card from his teachers. Each boy got a few moments alone with their Abba, which made them very happy. Don, my father-in-law, came up from Baltimore and is staying for the weekend. Ann, my mother-in-law, and I are happy to have him here. I will bring the boys back on Sunday, so hopefully that will be another good visit.

1st Day of Physical Therapy

Today was Mordy's first day of physical therapy and it definitely wore him out! After a bit of therapy in the morning, he slept for a while...he was so exhausted! When he woke up he was nauseous and having trouble coordinating his vision. It appears that the stroke has made it harder for his eye muscles, especially his right eye, to move properly. He had additional therapy, with special emphasis on his eyes, this afternoon, which also wore him out. He has gone back to sleep. The more he has therapy, the more the synapses in his brain will connect, and he'll relearn how to do things he did before the stroke, which in his case have to do with coordination and balance, as well as vision on the right side. The physical therapist he met with this afternoon was hopeful that with therapy he'll regain these abilities. JFK medical center has been lovely. The people who work here are very nice and he is getting excellent care. Although the doctors at Robert Wood Johnson originally said he'd be here for a week, he could come home sooner...or he could be here two weeks or more. It really depends on how he does. Wishing all of you a Shabbat of Heath and Peace: Shabbat Shalom.