my dad has just begun his fourth week here at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, and things are going well. the therapists love my dad's cheerful, hard-working personality, and he never fails to make them laugh. Geoff has been doing some preliminary studies to see if he can participate in some studies through the main RIC facility in the downtown area, so we're excited to see how that progresses.

dad continues to walk about 1/2 mile daily, and often takes on the bike or treadmill at therapy; we've been digging around to find new trails and parks in the area that we can stroll through for a more scenic walk! the weather here has been beautiful, so we try and take advantage of the outdoors as much as possible.

Etty and our aunt drove up this past weekend to visit us, which was such a treat! it was wonderful to catch up with them and to get a little update on life back in MN!

this past Wednesday my dad had a scan done revealing that the clot that had been in his lower right leg since the stroke had healed enough that a vascular surgeon could attempt to remove the filter that had been inserted during his time at North Memorial. it will be removed this upcoming Thursday.

RIC has also given us an electrical stimulation kit to take home and hook up to his right arm. studies show that use the stimulation 6 hours a day has aided in activating the nerves which trigger muscle movement again.

dad continues to work on writing/speech as much as possible, writing words, lists, and continuing to try to speak as much as possible, a constant challenge and the biggest hurdle in the healing process.