The possible cause .....

Dougie has again had a couple of mixed days, partly because of the intensifying physio involving longer periods of sitting up in a chair to strengthen the muscles of the torso and neck and also fighting off what we hope are the remnants of his chest infection.
He still has several days of the antibiotic course to go and does end up with quite a lot of gunge in his chest.
He is still on moisturised oxygen/air mix over night and he is getting really pissed off and frustrated with the whole thing so by early evening he's both tired, frustrated and angry at what he sees as a lack of progress. A very difficult combination for him.
Sheena and I find it all very distressing 'cause there is so little we can do other than try to offer re-assurance.
Mind you, when he is feeling OK he's really positive and very communicative.

As I mentioned in the previous post Doug had an series of tests on his heart earlier this week (part of the investigation planned quite some time ago) to determine whether or not there was some defect that could have caused the stroke. The Docs have found that he does in fact have a 'hole in the heart' (a Patent Foramen Ovale or PFO) that could have been the cause. This has been present since birth and so I guess there was always the possibility of a stroke.
According to the medical blurb around 20% of the population have this defect and a relatively small proportion ever have it treated because it gives no problem.
Given the combination of the defect and having had a stroke the feeling is that, in due course, a repair should be done to prevent any recurrence.
So now we all wait for proposals/information etc. on how this can be done.
In the meantime Doug will continue to have anti-clotting injections and wear rather fetching pressure stockings :-(.
All this has now been explained to Doug and he seems to have taken it well although I am sure it has added to the things Doug worries about.

Please keep up the support .......... its now that it really counts but equally don't be disheartened if you find he's far too tired to do much except sleep.

Iain