Tuesday, August 26

Today, Tim reiterated that, although Tommy's tentative discharge date had been set for Sept. 6, it will be moved to Sept. 15 at the earliest, with more possible moves to a later date depending on his continuing progress. Tommy is definitely progressing with walking and transfers, but there are areas that require continuing improvement. He is approaching the point where transfers will be possible with one person assisting, rather than two; and his bathroom issues are also improving. There is also a worrisome sore on one of his legs that must heal before he leaves the nurses' care; because he scratches it during the night, it has continued to be a problem.
Dr. Aurigemma told me several weeks ago that the chance of a stroke victim having another stroke is 30 percent--distressingly high odds. I wondered if that statistic included people who took poor care of themselves following the stroke, such as continuing to smoke or not exercising. Because my old pal Nancy, who writes on health issues for US News and World Report magazine, has been doing research for me along the way on my "stroke questions", I asked her what kind of research there is on this question. Yesterday, she e-mailed me a very encouraging news report about the results of a just-completed study led by Johns Hopkins researchers. It found that stroke victims who use a treadmill show far more significant improvement in their recovery than had been previously thought; the exercising stimulates the brain to lay down new pathways, recruiting parts of the brain that weren't trashed by the stroke. At home, we already have my elliptical exerciser, and with Tim's help I'm buying the same pedaling machine for Tommy that they use at the rehab gym--and now a treadmill sounds like a good addition, too. Maybe we should just turn the living room into a big gym!