Hello everyone,

Dad just had his appointment with Dr. Englebrect. I have a few things to relay!

First of all, the results from the angiogram were not fully available as the radiologist hasn't finished the report. Dr. Englebrect did go down and look at the scans before the meeting and he said that as it looks, there is still a trickle of blood going into the aneurysm, however, it is very small. We were hoping for full clotting and occlusion. Saying that, it still may happen. The scans are being sent to Dr. Fleetwood in Halifax. The two scenarios that may come from this are to wait another month or so and do another angiogram, or to do something else sooner rather than later. This could be putting in additional coils. When it comes to full blown surgery to remove the aneurysm, we have pretty well decided along with Dr. Englebrect that that is not the best idea. The risks are too high and would be very outweighed by any benefits.

Concerns about how he seems to be going downhill were raised. He isn't sure what could cause this, but he did explain again that the aneurysm is mostly in the left hemisphere which controls language skills and the right side of the body. Dad is having a lot of weakness in his right leg and weakness/tremors in his right hand and arm. He was not surprised that this is happening. His language issue lately is the most distressing of everything going on... in my opinion anyway. He has still been doing the thing were he repeats things over and over even if they don't make sense. He knows he is doing it and he can't stop it.

He said that with therapy, this could improve, but that we shouldn't get our hopes up that things will get better than they are now. He also said that because the size of the aneurysm doesn't seem to have changed, things shouldn't get worse. The fact that he has been worse the last few days could be from one of the falls or it could be ANYTHING. He really didn't know.

We also asked him about the possibility of Dad being admitted to the Miller Center. At this point, having Dad at Mary Lynn's isn't really ideal for him... I mean, Mary Lynn and Fred have been doing EVERYTHING they can possibly do and there is someone always with him, but it is just too challenging for everyone to handle. As hard as it is, everyone needs to take care of themselves too and I really think that being at the Miller Center and receiving constant support would help him get his strength back sooner. Dad doesn't seem to care about any of this... But I really think it would be good for him and would take a lot of stress, worry and pressure off everyone. I know that this is something Dad would agree with. I spoke with his social worker about it today after the doctors appointment and she agreed with this, as she assessed Dad last week. Dr. Englebrect also agreed and is going to refer him to be admitted. Depending on who else is on the waiting list etc., this could take weeks or months. In the meantime, we are going to be having a home care worker come in for a couple of hours a day to get him up and on the go a little more. This, along with the rehab program starting next week will be a lot of change, but is a good thing.

Information overload, I know.

Let hope the next week is better than the last.