It was June 27, 2008, a Saturday. It was chore day and the house was getting on the way to a good cleaning. I missed my mother's first call. She called again about 9:30am, my time (as she is in Texas) and told me my 67 year old father had a massive stroke at 7:30 this morning, he was going in for surgery, it didn't look good and I had to come home.
I was stunned and angry. My dad had just been out to visit me for mother's day in May. These sudden attacks always catch you by surprise but I was also angry for two reasons: he was retiring in just 4 months and he wasn't going to have the chance to enjoy it right away and Two, the stroke was on the right side of the brain, paralyzing his left side of his body, his best side because his right side is already weak and shaky from having polio as a child.
Well, my husband was out of reach on a boy scout camp out, so I booked three tickets for my boys and I and flew out that afternoon for what ended up as a 2 1/2 month stay in Texas. I did get a hold of my husband while I sat in the ICU with my dad and he was out the next day. Only to fly out to D.C. the next day for his cancer check up. I told him to tell his docs that I couldn't be in two ICU's at the same time so, they were just going to have to give us good news. It was.
I will go into details on my dad's recovery. What the doctors did and are doing. What alternative therapies we did and others that are available.
I can tell you it is a hard thing to work alternative therapies while the patient is under constant supervision of doctors and nurses. Sometimes I wonder if some of my efforts were just negated by the therapies and drugs the doctors were giving my dad.
The hardest thing through all of this, and with my husband's cancer, is allowing them their agency - their choice - or having to work with the doctor's medicine. I so often feel like I can really help them but I can only do what is allowed. We all suffer through this in this way. I know we learn so much through our trials and I hope you too can learn through our experiences.
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Alternative therapies available for stroke