Dr. Appointments, Moab

We had our visit with Dr. Edgely this week, it was the first time Will had seen him since January. Dr. Edgely noted that Will had been unaffected by the 5 mg of Ritlin twice a day and so he increased the dosage to 10 mg twice a day to see if that had an affect. Next Dr. Edgely gave us the go ahead to start the ball rolling with a series of test in the next month to verify that he is ready to resume a residency. He put us in touch with the department that would schedule the career specific occupational test... I think that means Will will stay up 30 hours in the next month to show that he has the stamina he needs. Next we talked about the nuero psych test, which has been scheduled with Dr. Mayer for the end of May. Dr. Edgely seemed particularly interested in this one. He said he would look to it for the direction he needed to assess where Will was at in reference to returning to residency. The reason for this became clear as I asked Dr. Edgely to explain how his return to residency went after his stroke. Dr. Edgely said he was a little different than Will. Dr. Edgely's cognitive functioning was not affected. He needed to focus on speech and writing with his other hand. Will has to regain full cognitive functioning. I interpreted this as meaning there is less of an allowance to allot to Will because at the heart of being a physician is their ability to think (using a left arm or speaking clearly are relatively secondary). At this point Dr. Edgely turned to Will, put his hand on Will's shoulder and said, "Will you've got an uphill battle. But there are many, including me, that have full confidence that you will practice medicine." Lastly, I asked him whether we are doing these tests at the right time. Dr. Edgely confidently replied that it was the right time to test.

Will and I are looking forward to the outcome of the next month and a half. I know we are close and I'm guessing Dr. Mayer will tell us exactly how close we really are. Will is preforming at higher levels of cognitive functioning than I have seen in previous months. As always we solicit your prayers and support. In the face of this difficult time we acknowledge that God has all power in these matters, and nothing is impossible to Him. We've seen many miracles in Will's behalf and know we will continue to see the Lords healing hand. We continue to trust in His time table and feel lucky to have been so blessed in this recovery period.

Now onto the lighter part of the blog... Moab! Will and I took off to Moab Friday morning with our bikes and borrowed tent and coolers. Will had seen Delicate Arch but had not done a lot of actual mountain biking there. When we got there we discovered, after looking for two hours, that all of the campsites were full-- I guess there was some car show going on. By nightfall we were starting to get desperate, I imagined us sleeping in our car on the side of the road somewhere. In a last ditch effort I asked a camper if we could share his campsite. Thankfully he agreed and Will set up camp while I cut up vegetables for our tin foil dinners. We slept beautifully and woke up to towering red rock and a warm breeze. We had omelets for breakfast than took off to the Clondike trail for our climb to the top of the world. Above I've posted pictures of the climb and the top. We had so much fun. I am so glad Will shares my enthusiasm for the outdoors. We are headed to Capital Reef in two weeks to stay in a cabin with our friends there. I imagine we'll take our bikes and smiles then too.

The home stretch

There is nothing instantaneous about Will's stroke recovery. It comes back a bit at a time. The improvements are often so small that if you blink you miss them. But the good news is that they are still happening. I can name things Will can do this week, that he could not have done even last week, ie he made several three point shots in our basketball game this week, he is more alert and awake than he has ever been, he rarely takes naps. His study notes were much more thorough this week than they were the week before. He initiates twice as many activities than he did at this time a month ago. While we've prayed for the effects of the stroke to go away in a miracle moment, I believe the miracle has been what we have learned in the moments of great loss. We continue in faith and feel like we are on the home stretch. Keep Will in your prayers. He is almost there.

As for his daily schedule it remains pretty demanding. Shadowing, volunteering, keeping up in a new church calling as ward membership clerk, exercising every other day, writing in his journal every night, studying once a week with another resident, studying at the library, listening to his MKSAP CD tracks whenever he is in his car, and lastly attending to a very exhausting wife ;)

As for life. We love it. My 13 nieces and nephews all have a new best friend in their new uncle Will. He plays with them often and they cling to him. We play basketball Wednesdays and Saturdays and are still training for our triathlon in June. Will's swimming laps are a lot more consistent and he swallows less of the pool these days. As for Will's attitude, as you can guess it continues to be exemplary for someone in his situation. He never complains and smiles often. I am the luckiest woman in the world to be married to such an amazing man.

Will has his next appointment with Dr. Edgely a week from tomorrow, he has not seen him since January so we are anxious to hear where we are at with preparing for a "return to his medical career" test.

Summer

ps I've posted a picture that Will took of me during a basketball game and a picture I took of Will.