my mother spent the night with my dad in his new room . . . Etty and Rose and i met up with them around 10 this morning. my dad now has minimal therapy throughout the day, workers who come in and work on both physical and speech therapy. after breakfast a neurologist came in to check on the right side, the inactive side, of his body. he noticed some swelling and thought it best to do an ultrasound . . . when the results from the ultrasound came back, we found out that my dad had clotting in his blood. there was a minor clot in his right arm, and a larger one (obviously of greater concern) in the lower-half of his right leg. the problem with this is that the clot could travel up to his heart, creating even more damage to his body. so this afternoon they did a small procedure to prevent this clot from traveling up to his heart -- a filter was inserted through a catheter in his neck into a major artery to prevent the clot from making its way to his heart. it was a very quick, painless procedure, and soon enough my dad was back in his room resting again. the other more minor clot in his arm was not an issue, the nurses decided to just keep an eye on it and give him some blood thinner.
we have a beautiful display of flowers in the room from so many lovely people, and they just make the room look that much happier -- even the nurses have told us how wonderful it is to walk into a room full of such colorful flowers!

also, my family wanted to me to share something on this blog . . . just that this is going to be a long haul for my dad. he will need your support in prayer and in thought, but at this point he needs as much rest as possible before rehab can begin. we have found that it is both exhausting and a bit frustrating for him to receive visitors right now when he is so weak and cannot communicate. so, we sadly would ask that you save your visits for when he is more able to handle them . . . we appreciate ALL of you, his dear friends, SO much, and want you to continue to walk alongside us during this time. we only ask that until he feels more ready to take visitors, that we hold off on hospital visits for a while.