It's been a little while

I haven't blogged in a while, but I have good reason.

Where to begin?

So let's go back 15 years, to 1998, May 30th to be exact.   My father had a bad fall at work due to a hose being left out on the floor.  He hasn't worked since.   He had to go through three spinal cord surgeries and therapies and has been walker bound ever since.  Good days he can use a cane.  Then two years ago he had a stroke.   That set him back a bit and he suffered some minor vision loss from that, but now can't drive due to it.  Then there was May 30th of this year, 15 years to the day of the fall that changed his life forever.  He ended up in the ER with what is now being called a "small stroke" or an Intraventricual Hemorrhage.  Go ahead, Google it.  It's found almost exclusively in children, and when it is in adults the prognosis is not good. 

Dad, just like with the first stroke, got lucky.  He is weak, his memory is messed up, but he is alive, he is coherent and making fantastic progress.   A week at the hospital in the neurology critical care unit, and then two weeks in the inpatient rehab center and staring outpatient therapies today, Dad has had quite the journey. It constantly seems like the guy can't catch a break, but everything that has happened to him could have been worse, and that is what we have to remember.   Sure it sucks that this has severely altered his life, and that my mother just didn’t' feel comfortable leaving him home alone after the first stroke and retire a little earlier than she had planned on, but all in all, everyone is alive and functional, even if limited.  And I have never seen better representation of true love, or the till death do us part wedding vows than when my parents are together.  They truly are there for one another, and it brings tears to my eyes in times like these.   Precious moments of a life shared together.   Just beautiful.

So yeah, even in all this was a planned vacation to the beach with Ken's family, which we went on.  I will cover all my food related stuff soon.  I just need to catch up on everything.   It's been a while….