Dad finally started waking up a couple days ago. I actually got to talk to his new doctor at the acute care facility & she said he was awake for almost 2 hours! My brother is telling me that Dad's not really looking at anything, but when something is close to his face, my brother can see his eyes try to focus. Makes me wonder about muscle paralysis in his face...
I can't begin to describe how it feels to hear this news. Dad is a fighter, always has been, so I know that the potential for him to rehab is there. But I also know how much my father has been through in his life, especially the past few years with the recovery from the acoustic neuroma. And I know how far he has to go on this journey. Unfortunately, he's not out of the woods yet, and, of course, the doctors refuse to speculate. Until his trach and feeding tube are gone for good, his Living Will still weighs pretty heavy on all of us.
I thought the hardest part of this was not being able to get concrete answers about his condition or what's going to happen. I was so wrong. The hardest part is the constant ups and downs. Whether Dad's condition, my emotions, or dealing with friends, family, insurance, bill collectors, etc., there are so many highs and lows I'm starting to feel a bit mental! :-)
Last night was a pretty bad low. I've been trying to deal with Dad's personal affairs/finances and getting kinda overwhelmed in the process. I stopped after finding a report he had to write mixed in with his stuff. It was a self-evaluation kind of thing for work; after reading what he wrote about his career journey and the decision to take that job on the other side of the country, I was a wreck. It didn't help that I've been trying to find a picture of us together to use for my profile and finally got thru all of them only to realize that I didn't have one of just us...