Oh so slow and sometimes not all that sure .......

Doug continues to make progress in the walking and Occupational Therapy stuff (making soup, chopping veg etc.) but unfortunately, having come off the anti-depressant, his mood swings have returned a bit. Fortunately neither as deep nor as prolonged as before, but more than enough to upset and slow down all the rehab tasks.

He still does not really seem to have made the connection between how hard he works and the rate of improvement which is VERY frustrating for us (and I'm sure also for the staff).

However the good news is that having had the last remaining stitch removed from his left eyelid last month (20th) , his eye seems to be staying in good condition with the application of lacrilube ointment. He has a checkup appointment at the Eye Pavilion to-morrow (Friday 17th) which hopefully will confirm this.
He also had an appointment with the cardiology folk on the 9th April to review his progress towards having a fix done on the PFO (hole in the heart) which is believed to have been the initiation of the stroke by allowing a small clot to pass through. He will be going for an ultrasound examination on the Thursday 30th to resolve the size of the defect and hopefully confirm that there is only one hole. This will provide the necessary information for the fix - in around 6 weeks we think.
The introduction of the probe down the throat is a knock-out job so will occupy most of the day and he'll probably still be woozy by evening time.

So all in all it has been a busy month so far, thankfully all of it positive.

He still finds it difficult to read normal size text so entertainment centres around music (from his iPod), DVDs on the Sony DVD player that so many of you presented to him (back in the Western days!) - oh and it gets very well used for Talking Books also. You have no idea just how much pleasure it has given him. Thank you.

I'll call a halt now, but will update after the eye stuff to-morrow.

Iain