Today, Sunday, we can look back on the first first week of daily life together since June 23rd when she had her stroke. Living together as a family together again is great, but the road ahead is long and filled with training -- physical therapy, speech, occupational and visual therapy, and training -- walking, helping out at home etc.
A is far from fully recovered. She is still suffering from severe pains in her right eye, her face is still partially paralyzed, her left side numb, reading will cause fatigue and dizziness, and we are unsure if her balance is off because of the double vision or if her sense of balance is directly affected by the stroke. She will go back for another three weeks of rehab starting December 2nd.
But the good news is that A is able to move around the house without help. We had handrails put up while we were still in NJ, so she can walk stairs, dress herself, make food, fetch the newspaper, but she can only read the headlines. Tests last week showed that the clot in her leg is gone as is any trace of the bleeding in the brain.
Her vision gets better if she wears goggles -- the kind you wear when you swim -- and when in water or in horizontal positions, her vision is less of a problem.
In terms of her mood -- she is getting much better. For a while she would be very prone to crying, but that has subsided. She is quite happy to be home, as are we all. But it is still not the kind of life we used to have -- A is still a patient, and having a patient in the family is quite different from being a fully functional family.
Thank you for letters, emails and text messages. We have felt incredible support from all our friends in Norway and elsewhere. I will continue to blog about our recovery -- mostly in Norwegian -- but with tweets in English.
C
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