(I do not use my husband’s name in my posts at his request.)

On September 30 I wrote a post about my husband having a stroke. We brought him home Thursday, October 13. He made tremendous progress while at the hospital rehabilitation unit. He can now walk on his own, dress himself, and even check things out on the computer.

He has a bit of trouble with his short-term memory and his whole body feels numb and tingly, which is very uncomfortable. He is taking pain medication for that and it really helps. He is also extremely tired and lays down for most of the day. They said his cognitive abilities are at 85%.

I am supposed to help him by playing word games with him and giving him tasks to do, such as tying knots, picking up buttons, putting screws into nuts etc. Fine motor skills are what he needs to learn to do again. I noticed the longer we played the word game the harder it became for him to think up answers. His head starts to hurt too, so we will be more careful next time.

I want to thank all the doctors and nurses who cared for my husband. They were super kind and thoughtful and of course they were instrumental in saving his life. Many of them told me how much they adored my hubby.

And I want to thank everyone for their prayers. So many strangers told me they were praying for him; I’m talking about the people on the phone who I had to call about finances etc. The people I used to see and say hi to as I walk out to the parking lot knew Dan had had a stroke and told me they were praying for him. It was just lovely to know that.

We are so grateful to God for letting Dan live. As I’ve said before, I know that isn’t always the result of prayers for the sick. But I also believe it is God who chooses when each person will die and I guess my husband has more work to do for God.

My two daughters came and stayed with me the whole time he was in the hospital. I didn’t realize how much that would help me until they came. My granddaughters were running errands for me and giving me support. My grandson came over to see his Grandpa the day he came home and started quietly crying when he saw how good Grandpa looked. I guess he had googled “stroke” and was afraid for him.

There were two other men in the hospital room with my husband who had had strokes. They were both doing very well, even the man who was 47 and had gotten an infection in his brain after his stroke. He was healing very well; could walk and talk and looked perfectly normal. The other man was 89 and the hardest thing for him was missing his wife who lived in a far-away city and couldn’t come because of Covid-19. But he did talk with her 3 times a day. He was improving too.

So sometimes a stroke isn’t as bad as it may start out to be. My husband is on a low-salt diet and blood pressure pills. We have a cuff to monitor his blood pressure and we do that about 4 times a day. It has been perfect numbers since he came home.

Thanks again for your good wishes and prayers.

(Everyone has permission to copy or use my posts for any reason.)