Papa’s Stroke Recovery

On December 17, 2020, our grandfather suffered yet another life-changing stroke in his life. This was the second major stroke in less than a decade. He lost his speech, the ability to swallow, and cannot move his left side properly. As of now, he is only able to move his left foot and we are thankful for this small victory.

Since his admission to Trident Hospital, he hasn't had an easy road. Because of his inability to swallow, he had to have a nasogastric tube for nourishment. (This is a tube that runs from his nostril down his throat to his stomach.) Unfortunately, he acquired aspiration pneumonia as a result of the liquid food building up in his lungs and had to be put on antibiotics for this.

To fix aspiration problems, he had to have major surgery to put a PEG tube in his stomach. This was a huge help, but he suffered from some minor internal bleeding. All of these issues were setbacks from being transferred to a stroke rehabilitation facility. To make matters even worse, on December 31, 2020, he tested positive for Covid-19 and he simultaneously had multifocal pneumonia and sepsis. 

His doctor said he experienced high fevers and was in and out of awareness. He was very sick, and we were told by the doctor that because of all of the things he was suffering from, we had to consider changing his code level from a full code (this involves resuscitation if his heart stopped or his breathing stopped) to "do not resuscitate", a heartbreaking thing to hear. 

The end of 2020 was terrifying for our family and we never envisioned this happening at the start of 2021. We never thought our Christmas and New Year season in 2020 would be so sad and painful. The first couple of days of the new year for us were covered in fear and worry and our prayers for Papa's complete healing tripled.

So many of you reached out and asked how he was doing and we know many prayers and full masses were given on his behalf, not including the prayers our family fervently made. We are so grateful to all of you for your kindness and well-wishes, and MIRACULOUSLY, within four days, on January 4, 2021, his attending physician informed us that Papa was doing much better. She was astonished at how well he was doing with Covid AND pneumonia on top of the stroke, sepsis, and recovering from major surgery, and said that his high fevers had stopped. 

After a long, difficult wait, Papa was finally discharged to a rehab facility on January 13, 2021, 13 days after his positive Covid test. 

The road is still very long ahead, and we are planning to transfer him to a more intensive stroke rehabilitation center. We believe in his fight and his strength and we believe that he can walk again and talk again and regain his ability to have a normal life. We are going to do everything and anything we can to support him and encourage him.

We want to keep him safe at home, so we will be needing funds to fix up his bathroom and get him a new toilet and a safer bathtub. We also want to pay off any medical bills that his insurance may not cover, along with continuing any form of therapy that will assist in his full recovery that his insurance may not also cover.

We understand that it's been a hard year for everyone and we appreciate any amount you are able to give. Just reading this entire text makes us extremely grateful already to you. If you are unable to give anything, please share this throughout social media! Thank you and blessings to all of you!