dorchadas: (FFVII Sephiroth Calamity from the Skies)
dorchadas ([personal profile] dorchadas) wrote2023-06-23 10:02 am

My father had a stroke

"There is probably no more terrible instant of enlightenment than the one in which you discover your father is a man, with human flesh."
-From "Collected sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
ב״ה‎ it was only a minor one but still.

On Monday, the day both sets of grandparents were supposed to have a dinner together with Laila and [instagram.com profile] sashagee's parents would hand Laila off to my parents, my mother texted me to say that my father had woken up with numbness in his right arm and they were going to the hospital. Obviously, numbness in a 70-year-old can be a sign of all kinds of terrible things, so they did an initial evaluation where he scored only 1 out of 45 on stroke likelihood (higher being worse), but they admitted him to do more tests.

Long story short, the MRI did show a stroke, though the above-mentioned 1 out of 45 means that it only did extremely minor damage. The far two fingers on his right hand are still tingly, and he had to readjust the way he uses his right hand for delicate operations like shaving and playing the euphonium. According to him--he was just here with my mother and sister to pick up Laila and take her to the zoo--he's already adjusted to a new shaving pattern and played the euphonium just fine after a short bit of work. When he was here in the brief interactions we had, he seemed like exactly the same person I've known all my life.

It could have been so much worse, and if it had to happen I'm glad that it happened the way it did since now the doctors can keep an eye on him and do tests to prevent it from happening again. They were going to give him medicine to dissolve any clots while he was in the hospital, but they ended up deciding against it since literally every time the nurses checked on him he was up and walking around his hospital room (being sedentary is one of the biggest risk factors). He's on a blood thinner now and, as he put it, while they had him in their clutches they wanted to talk to him about his cholesterol, so when they came over they brought approximately two pounds of butter over for us. Dietary cholesterol isn't as important for blood cholesterol as people used to believe but I can understand why he's being extra cautious--he has a granddaughter he wants to see grow up.

Am I worried? Emoji Oh dear Yes, obviously--but not a lot. I'd be much more worried if he seemed like a different person in any of our interactions but as far as I can tell he's exactly the same. But this is really the first direct indication we've gotten of his mortality, and he'll only be 71 this year. Both sets of my grandparents lived into their mid-80s so he should ("should") still have quite a ways to go. I hope he and the doctors are on top of this so he can see Laila graduate high school, the way my grandparents did for me.

If he's already feeling well enough to take Laila to the zoo today and work on our new table a couple days ago (though as he said, he's staying away from the bandsaw for another couple weeks) that's a good sign.
angelofthenorth: Two puffins in love (Default)

[personal profile] angelofthenorth 2023-06-23 05:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Sorry to hear this, but it sounds like a it's as best it can possibly be
earthspirits: (Default)

[personal profile] earthspirits 2023-06-23 05:23 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm glad your father is okay and with his doctors' advice, etc., taking precautions.

gwendraith: (heart boxman)

[personal profile] gwendraith 2023-06-24 08:01 am (UTC)(link)
A bit of a warning sign but I'm glad your dad is okay and will hopefully be taking extra good care of himself from now on.