A year ago today Rand was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. It was seven long weeks later before he was able to return to his room on Antigua Drive. That was such a difficult time.
Tonight Rand and I drove home from a visit with the ophthalmologist who specializes in neuro-ophthalmologic issues. It was a lovely drive in the glow of a full moon and the best part was that Rand could see it! After all the tests, everything is said and done, the neurologist at Good Sam was right on the nose the day after Rand's stroke. Rand has no vision in the right half of each eye. When looking straight ahead with glasses on, he has 20/20 vision but he does not see anything to the right out of either eye. It isn't like there is a black area for him, there is just nothing there. His eyes are perfect, the retinas are healthy, the optic nerves are great, but the piece of his brain that processes his vision to the right side is damaged and can not be repaired. The ophthalmologist said that the best that Rand can do is to compensate for that vision loss by doing two things - one, make it a habit to always scan to the right to see what he missed and two, concentrate on keeping his eyes focused on an object. His eyes tend to jiggle and wander a tiny bit so things look blurry to him. He can compensate for that by concentrating on holding his gaze still until he sees the details he wants/needs to see. The doctor said it was like trying to see what is behind you. You know something is there but you can't see it unless you turn around and look. That's what Rand needs to do all the time - look to the right, scanning what he consistently misses.
Rand was very down when he heard the news and we explained it to him. I was so happy with the news, because I was afraid that there was permanent damage to his eyes and we would be facing diminished vision as time went on. Not the case! I think I was upbeat and convincing enough about the glories of his sight that by the time we got home, he was happy again. We talked about how lucky he is that he can see - friends, TV, puzzles, magazines, newspapers, the world around us and how tragic it would be if he had lost his vision. He will never be able to read again, but that's not news to me, nor I suspect, to Rand. Tomorrow is a new day, with new therapy ahead, a drive over the mountain and he can soak it all in visually!
Rand had a long hard morning of OT and PT to start the day. His walking has improved so much! He is now self correcting the right foot which wants to turn out. He brings it back forward with each step which is HUGE! The PT is so impressed with the progress he has made. I don't know how far he walked today with his quad-cane, but his legs were shaking by the end of the session. In OT, he stood for a long time, balancing himself, trying to put some weight on his right hand/arm while stacking plastic cones with his left hand. Tough to do and painful. After lunch he slept for hours! Tomorrow we start the next session of "Recovering Function" as a demo patient. We'll drive "over the hill" to Santa Cruz with our friend every day through Monday for two hours of OT and PT.
Keep Rand close. I hope he is sleeping well tonight - under a full moon that he can see if he wakes up!
Love,
Connie
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