Meet My Dad

This is my dad, Gary.  He's the man of the house, and a hero for his whole family. He has a huge heart and a take charge personality. In August of 2019, he had several major strokes that drastically affected his quality of life. 


What Happened? 

His first stroke was on the 5th of August, 2019. I was talking to him on the phone when it happened, and he got stuck repeating a phrase. 

"Dad, are you having a stroke?"  

After he stammered the same phrase a few more times, mom took the phone from him and told me she'd call back later.  

Thankfully, the ambulance comes to our property from just up the street a ways. The sun was setting, and an ambulance pulled into our driveway and up to my parent's house. I watched from my apartment window. 


He had in fact been having a stroke. It was not a super terrible one, our local hospital had said.



They took lots of tests, imaging, etc, put him on some medication, and sent him on his way the next day. 

A few days later, on August 9th, he was on his way to a party at a friend's home in Seattle, when suddenly, he lost his language again.  He was on the phone with my mom, driving, and just had gotten off the ferry.

"I just kept begging him to pull over, to call 911, stop driving. He kept saying he was fine," Mom told me. 

Of course he would, even in a stable state of mind my dad is no quitter, and try to convince someone who is having a stroke that they are having a stroke. Chances are they won't believe you. 

He made it to his friend's house, then was brought to Swedish hospital in Seattle. I got a call from my mom while I was at work.  

Once hospitalized, he was talking again, but he needed a lot of imaging and blood work. His right side was not doing great, but he was taking a bit...
...until he had another stroke. 


Swedish

He spent a long time at Swedish.  About 20 days.  My mom was a rock star.  She advocated and pushed and hugged and cried. She barely rested that whole time. I went and saw them as much as I could. When her work was getting too far behind, she would have to leave Seattle and go home for a few days to get caught up then she would drive straight back to Seattle after work.  

Of course I had fairly recently gotten Leslie back home from her lengthy stay at the hospital in Spokane, so I could relate a little bit and let me tell you... seeing your love go through such scary things is so hard.  My heart was hurting for my dad and I'm sure mom's was so sore every moment of every day while she put on her cape and held Dad through this. 

Speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, catheters, straws... late night moans in pain while the nurses came and adjusted his position... the hospital was rough. Traumatic. 


Eventually, he was moved to a rehab facility. I think it was the 28th or so of August.  

Rehab Facility 
We worried a lot about him there, and that is a whole different story, but the facility and Dad eventually got the hang of each other. With all of us stopping by as often as possible, he had several visitors a day most of the days he was there. He was on a schedule with all his therapies daily, and I think he only had two rest days a week.  He worked so hard. I'm so proud of him. 


He worked on re-learning how to speak, walk, read, write.  He has something called Aphasia, which is basically a super extreme version of having something on the tip of your tongue all the time, with everything. He knows what he wants, and would understand a lot of what was happening, but could not spit out the words. 




Back to Swedish

After a lengthy stay at the rehab facility, Dad was eligible to go back to Swedish for an intensive therapy program. They spent hours with him every day for a couple of weeks.  


It seemed like the therapy was pretty helpful. Dad was still in the wheel chair, but he was squeezing our hand when he could with his affected hand. He was answering yes/no questions pretty accurately, and occasionally saying one or two (new) words that he meant to say, which was a huge improvement. 

Home

Ever since that extensive treatment, Dad has been home. He has had therapy a couple times per week, but that is a drastic change from 3 - 4 times per day.  He kept improving for a little while, his spirits were up, and he was so glad to be home. 


Mom got a couple of TENS units and they did that at home as often as they could. She frequently tried to get him to practice walking, and would work with him on "homework" type things from the speech therapist. She ordered him flash cards and more. All while working her job, taking care of all the bills, feeding the horses, and watching my back whenever she could. (I'm telling you. My mom. Freaking rocks my socks. She's amazing, right?) 

It's hard, however, to not really be able to say what you need to say, or communicate the things you need. His mind was in a fog, and depression loomed over the house over time. Understandably, after working so hard for months, it was starting to feel like he back pedaled a bit. He wasn't trying to walk as often, and he was watching a lot of TV, on really loud.  He was still "in there," though, and he was still trying, just feeling more foggy than usual. Feeling a little more discouraged.  

Institute of Neurological Recovery 


In steps our family friend, Thor, with some information about a place called the Institute of Neurological Recovery. Based in Florida, they specialize in stroke recovery, and they are the only place that does a special anti-inflammatory treatment using a drug called etanercept. Etanercept is a TNF inhibitor.  Mom began researching. 

We watched video after video of people coming back from this treatment. The whole family checked out the videos my mom sent us and we were all in agreement - this is the next best step, and it can't hurt to try. 

Mom had burnt through a lot of savings to pay for all the treatment so far, and with what she had left, and a little help from some friends, she booked the trip to Florida, and the treatment at INR .

Below is a video I put together of clips before and after his treatment in June 2020. It has helped a bunch! Dad is feeling more alert, his speech is improving, and his body feels better. He is walking more and doing more physical activity than he had in months. He really wants to go back for another treatment. The trouble is, it is expensive, and they have chewed through all their savings. 

Please enjoy this video of before and after treatment, if you are interested! 



Ways you can help!

The first, and easiest way to help, would be to share this campaign! Especially if you know Gary, and know people who know him. We all love my dad, and know that this is driving him bonkers to not be able to communicate well and to not be working on the property and wrestling his grandkids! 

The next way you could help is to contribute financially! The trip back to FL will be spendy, and the treatment is close to $8,000.  The doctor sounded confident that a second treatment could help even more. If you can please even send just a few dollars, that would be amazing!! 

They would love to travel by January, which would mean raising the funds by December so my mom can plan the trip. 

Lastly, if you know Gary and have a few minutes to stop by, do so!  He enjoys the company, and though it takes a little work, he is much easier to have a conversation with these days! 

Over the next couple days I'm going to set up Venmo and Paypal for my parents as well, and my mom has Facebook messenger (Maureen Morgison) if you would like to send some help that way. 

If you have any questions, or need an address to mail a check, or just want to say hi even, you can shoot Maureen a message on Facebook, or email us at [email redacted]  
gdm.
recovers
at
gmail

Thank you SO MUCH!! Don't forget to hit "Share!"