An Update as of 2/3/13

We are at an ambiguous moment in Bob’s healing process, with both good and bad news. On the one hand, there are times when Bob’s memory is as bad as it has been at its worst.

Yesterday, Bob was getting ready to make our morning tea, which he does most every morning, and opening a cupboard he said “it looks like we’re out of tea.”  I had to remind him that we keep the tea in canisters on the counter (the same place they’ve been for a decade).

Then his dad asked him for a measuring cup and he started opening drawers looking for one. When I reminded him that they were in the cupboard, he opened three cupboards before finding the right one, even though he uses those same measuring cups almost every morning when he makes his fruit smoothie.

And this evening when we stepped away from the table in the middle of our dinner to watch the Super Bowl halftime show, when he returned he’d forgotten where he had been sitting (in his regular seat) and sat down at his Dad’s place instead.

My heart breaks a little at each of these moments.

On the other hand, sometimes he has a flash of insight and remembers something completely unexpected. On Friday, Bob and his Dad got into the middle of a plumbing project trying to install a fix to one of our toilets, when an essential screw fell into a tight and unreachable spot. They thought they were sunk, when suddenly Bob remembered a tool he had that was just exactly what was needed to retrieve the screw. He went out to his tool bench and knew exactly where to find it. He was back in a moment and he saved the day!  

Unfortunately, today the plumbing project took a turn for the worse, and with two of our three toilets out of service, we will be calling in a real plumber in the morning!

Bob’s spirits are good and he is feeling very upbeat and optimistic. That may be the steroids interacting with his naturally positive personality, but his internal experience is of feeling more normal than he has been and that his thinking feels clearer.  He is trying to get back to some of his work and his normal activities, but things takes him a long time because he still loses his way.

I’m feeling a little off balance because I don’t have any clear markers to know if things are heading in the right direction again in the wake of this recent setback or whether things are plateauing or getting worse. I guess this is just a time of watchful waiting, as we see how things play out with the tapering of the steroids and whether or not his immune system is sufficiently calmed down. The good news is that we are not seeing any outward signs of seizure activity, so the memory problems may just be from his brain having gotten more inflamed a couple of weeks ago and it will take some time to recover.  

I remain grateful for your continued prayers and love. 

-Megan