I feel like a million bucks

Dad did pool therapy today and the smile did not leave his face the whole time. Not only was it great to feel the freedom of being safe in the water, but the warm water made all his little aches and pains feel so much better.

When we got out to the car afterwards, Dad was smiling and joking. He said, "I feel energized. I feel like a million bucks!" It was great until we got home and the exhaustion hit him. :) He managed to eat some lunch, but now he's napping in his chair. Still he felt so good it was well worth it.

He's been feeling pretty good the last couple of days, too. Yesterday's meeting with Mom and her psychologist was emotionally tough (trying to work together to find ways to motivate Mom to do what she needs to do), but it went well and in the afternoon he met with his new Speech Pathologist (she said she likes to call herself a "cognitive specialist" so people understand better the breadth of what she does). She asked some questions and did quite a bit of testing. She was very encouraging about being able to help Dad be more clear in his speech and perhaps help him with some of his vision issues. Regarding his speech, her testing showed that Dad's tongue is weak in it's ability to push up, which might be accounting for some of his difficulties speaking.

On the vision front, Dad told me yesterday he could see my eyes in my face. He said it was just me, though (I guess 'cause we're around each other so much). But when we met the PT at the pool today (different from his regular PT) he was very excited because he could see her eyes, too! We do think things get clearer every day.

Overall, Dad's doing pretty well. He's been sleeping very well lately and doesn't seem to be getting groggy anymore from that medication, so that's great. His left arm is still bothering him at his shoulder, of course, and he often wakes up with aches and pains in both arms, but in general he seems in good spirits and good health. Especially after his little dip in the pool today!