Wednesday, April 1, 2009

It's drizzling and cold on this, the first day of April, as spring flirts with winter and Tommy continues to progress slowly but surely. He still goes to physical therapy three times a week, where he rides the stationary bike, walks back and forth along the "kitchen counter" and walks with his walker with Jenna at his side. On sunny days we spend a lot of time on the back porch, where Tommy watches the ugly houses go up across the creek with his binoculars or snoozes on the couch. On Monday, he saw Dr. Raj, who said that Tommy's lab work from last week shows continuing improvement except for a spike in his liver enzymes. This appears to be a result of one of the drugs Tommy has been taking (Gemfibrozil), so Dr. Raj discontinued that drug and Tommy will have some more blood drawn next week to see if there is an improvement. If not, Dr. Raj will send him to a specialist. For the first time, Tommy was able to step up onto the scales, with help from the nurse and myself, and he now weighs 156 (his weight was more than 200 when he had the stroke). Dr. Raj says that is a good weight for him. I knew that Tommy had lost weight, but when I'm getting clothes for him I still have to remind myself that he no longer wears size XXL shirts!