January 9, 2011

Hello everyone,

Trying to type with one hand and play with Gracie and Greta with the other.  Poor things . . . they've been home alone most of today with no one to play with.  After such a nice long stay with Judy and Jim where they had two buds to hang out with, coming back home here must be kinda boring for them.  But it sure is nice to have their company on a cold night like this.  So forgive me for a typo or two - they're playing with Mr. Fox and I have to join in.

Today started out with a very difficult cognitive assessment for Dwaine.  This was a scary test, and one that I was anxious about (so I can only imagine what he was going through).  The physical results of a stroke are obvious - loss of limb strength, maybe some vision, speech, some muscle tone, etc.  But the cognitive impact can be as complicated as the brain itself.  The other day, a therapist had Dwaine draw a person figure inside a box.  He drew it perfectly, and she explained, "Sometimes, when people have a stroke, they lose the ability to perceive the impacted side of their body.  So they draw figures that have only one arm and one leg."  Wow.  There's a lot we don't know about how we're made, huh?

Anyway, the test was long and complicated.  The therapist sat Dwaine in a comfy chair and started out by saying, "OK, I'm going to tell you that I have three things to do today with I leave.  I want you to repeat those three things back to me.  Then later in the session, I'm going to ask you again what they were."  So she rattled off three common errands, which Dwaine rattle right back with no problem.  Then she proceeded to look at some number sense problems.  She's read of a string of numbers and ask Dwaine to give them back to her in reverse order.  She started with four, then five and then six numbers.  Now, you try it with a friend and see how well you do.  I was sitting there and had to really work at it to remember the six numbers and recite them backwards (without seeing them or being able to write them down, mind you).  He did fine on that one.  Then she moved to word problems, to which Dwaine let out a groan.  "I've never been good at word problems."  But, nonplussed, she moved ahead anyway.  "If you buy 4 lbs of tomatoes at 3.19 a pound, how much do you have to pay?"  Dwaine thinks for a minute, draws the numbers out on his leg (no pen and pencil allowed), and comes up with the correct answer.  Then it was recite the sentence backwards, word for word - then recite the sentence by putting all the words in alphabetical order (try THATone, it's really hard.)  And on and on it went, for 40 minutes.  At the end, she asked if he could tell her what errands she had to run that day.  He got all three things with no problem. 

I felt a lot better afterward.

Unfortunately, Dwaine didn't feel better.  In fact, just after she left, he vomited up his breakfast.  The poor guy was so worked up about it, it made him throw up.  I felt so bad for him.  But we got him all cleaned up and back in bed for a rest.  The therapist told us that fatigue is the number one problem after any stroke - and Dwaine is one tired puppy. 

All was well for a while.  Dwaine had his lunch and then picked up another bout of spasmodic hiccups.  These are not just your regular hiccups.  This is one hiccup, followed by another in short succession, then about 8 spasms of the diaphram.  This repeats over and over for hours.  It's been so bad, he's actually gotten short of breath because of the involuntary closing of the larnyx.  All I know is it scares the crap out of me.  I've tried working on deep breathing and relaxation exercises to see if that has any impact, but not so far.  The only thing that seems to help is a dose of Thorazine, the tranquilizer.  So we've decided to keep taking that for now.  With Thorazine and without the hiccups, he may be a little more "out of it", but at least he eats better and can communicate well.  We'll just have to deal with that other problem when we can.

So tomorrow is the start of our Rehab Intensive.  We expect it to last two weeks - then hopefully, he can come home and keep working from there.  He's ready to start.  It's three full hours a day, with rest breaks in between.  I'm sure he's going to be really wiped out tomorrow.  But he's been learning so much with every session that we really get to see progress.  And at some point, he'll get to be able to go through the cafeteria line and pick out his own food.  That will be a lot better, too. 

So, I'd better get to bed myself.  After that last session with the Olympic Games, I'm going to have to get my rest, too. 

One last thing.  Tomorrow morning, I'll be getting a schedule of our activities for the day.  Because it's so intense, we really need to limit visits from friends.  I'm sure you all understand.  If you want to stop by and see him for a bit (which he LOVES, don't get me wrong), please call first at 303 588 0889, and I can let you know when a good time might be.  That way you don't catch him while he's sleeping or in a class.  Tomorrow is a big orientation day, too, so probably not the best day for visiting. 

With that, I'll say Good Night and Sweet Dreams.  I'm dreaming of having that lug back home with me very soon.  I need someone to play with these mutts!