HAPPY NEW YEAR!

a HAPPY NEW YEAR to all, we're here to ring in 2013 with news of my dad's continued progress.

the music therapy study through Harvard University has recently ended; my mom and Etty accompanied my dad to Boston in mid-December for one last session of testing, study evaluation, and a final MRI scan.  it was an amazing study that truly facilitated my dad's speech and communication progress, he benefited from a GREAT team of doctors and therapists, and although his time with the program is over, he hopes to continue to periodically get in touch with the Harvard team to check continued progress.  although the official study period has ended, my dad continues to use music therapy in daily conversation (with all of us!) in order to work on continued improvement in speech skills and to keep the strategies learned in the program (sentence structure, word pronunciation, etc.) a constant part of his communication.  he will also begin some one-on-one music therapy practice with an instructor in town to continue working on speech skills.

we also have a new arm exerciser in the house!  my dad has decided to put more work into his arm, hand, and finer finger movements.  the machine works on bilateral movement in which both arms move for a certain number of repetitions, eventually increasing the limited movement of his right arm.  he's also able to lift 10-pound weights with his right arm, and he also does various boxing exercises to continue upper-arm strength.

the cold weather has limited my dad's desire to go out for long walks, so he's renewed his gym membership and will continue to work on cardio exercises and leg movement and strengthening with gym equipment.

my dad just finished with an audio listening program that he would listen to approximately 15 minutes a day in order to help strengthen the listening pathways in the brain through various music and nature sound recordings.

in his down time, he enjoys keeping up on global news, both online and by reading TIME Magazine.

X-Mas Photo 2012!

Fall Update

Hello friends, it's been awhile since we last shared my dad's progress with you, and this blog is due for another update.

My dad's days revolve around his continued participation in the music therapy program through Harvard; he spends his morning skyping with his speech therapist in Boston, working on communicating through musical speech intonation, and continues to engage in conversation with us focusing on the speech strategies he has learned.  In a sense, he is re-teaching his brain to form and verbally express ideas, and music therapy is part of the training process, teaching the brain to first come up with ideas, sing them internally, and then repeat full words and sentences externally with specific musical intonation.  It's been a challenging study, but there have been great improvements in his ability to structure full sentences and more accurately express lengthy ideas and thoughts, even delving into more complex words and verb tenses.  Oftentimes, if he is unable to pronounce a given word, quietly humming out the syllables or intonation will allow him to then state the word without a problem.  He is over half-way done with the study.

More and more, he is allowing himself time for hobbies and personal interests.  He enjoys word games such as Words With Friends and Scrabble (and is quite a formidable opponent).  It's interesting to track his brain's healing process; in the months following his stroke, he could only manage two-letter Scrabble words, whereas now he can compete with any one of us.  At nighttime, he reads Huckleberry Finn.  He usually takes up to a month to complete any one book, and he'll usually read the book through twice.

Walking continues to be a great way he can get out and challenge himself, as well as relax; he tries to walk about a mile daily, but can easily walk more, sometimes spending a couple of hours outdoors on walks.  He recently designed a new brace for himself similar to his most recent one, but with extra support under his foot to keep his toes from curling up.  The new brace allows for more ankle movement and flexibility, encouraging him to strengthen and work his leg and foot muscles.  Victor (Maggie's husband) has also begun to work on leg therapy with my dad, strengthening his quadriceps and hip flexors.  He has just recently starting showing huge improvements in leg movement while lying down; our goal is to get the strength training to carry over to when he is standing up.

My dad's thinking and thought processing continues to improve as he works his way through aphasia, and he tells us that he experiences more mental clarity as his healing improves.

We also have a lovely new addition to the family, an Australian Shepherd named Mowgli!  He's an absolute sweetheart, and so far has managed to stay on my dad's good side.

Also, a little peek at my dad's newfound creativity; I'm attaching a photo of Ned, a character he drew with his left-hand the other night at the dinner table.

This summer has been pretty busy for my dad. We have just recently
returned from 2 1/2 weeks in Boston where my Dad was part of a MIT (music
intonation therapy) study with Harvard.

The first half of his time there was spent testing and taking MRI images.  From
looking at the MRI images, they said it looks like my dad's word storage area
had been destroyed, although somehow he still comes up with new words on his own
every day now. 

After the testing, he jumped into learning the MIT technique.  He started learning to
sing his words.  He is supposed to be singing his words as much as possible now
(while tapping his left hand), and apparently it is helpful if we do, too. 

The MIT method will trigger the music part of the brain to help take
over some of the language-related jobs.  It is also supposed to help my dad's
speech flow more smoothly, especially as his vocabulary grows.  

In these last few weeks, my dad would sometimes answer a question with a word in
Spanish instead of English.  Also, when he was Skyping with some of our relatives in Mexico,
he said that he could understand the Spanish, as long as it
was spoken slowly.  (My dad used to be fluent in Spanish, proficient in Arabic and
French, and knew a bit of German, too!)

While in Boston, we did find time to sightsee a little.  My dad really enjoyed touring the State House, where the House and Senate were in session.
We also saw the Museum of Fine Arts, the Duck Tour, and the new Batman
movie.  :)

We're back in Montevideo for awhile, and my dad remains busy.  Part of the MIT
study through Harvard involves Skyping everyday for an hour or more with
someone from the research team at Harvard. 

For Father's Day we got my Dad an Xbox Kinect.  It has sport games on it, but
his favorite is boxing.  He tries to work at it every day now, moving his right
arm.

Since the weather has finally cooled off a little, it makes walking more pleasant for my dad.
 These days he usually walks at least a mile a day, often
two.

My dad has just finished doing a three-week intensive speech program through North Memorial
Hospital.  He went every morning from 9:00 to 12:30.  When he got home, he wasn't
as tired as he used to be, so he usually still had energy to take a walk, go to a
movie, and...do more speech exercises!  The program even gave him homework, which took him
about an hour/day.  The homework involved taking a mix of words and
turning them into sentences, or he was given a category such as 'grocery store'
and then he had to think of five other words that are associated with a grocery store.
Or, he read an article with two missing words per sentence, and then he
had to come up with words that make sense.

He is getting a lot better at doing exercises like the ones he is doing now.  One year ago, he
probably wouldn't have been able to do any of this.

His silent reading is also getting a lot better.  He reads more and more literature
and newspapers, and says it's getting easier.  Currently he is reading the book 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' as well as a National Geographic history book that he received on Father's Day.
 He also spends time going to khanacademy.com on his iPad and listening to various lectures.  His
favorites are the ones on astronomy.

Ever since his stroke, he has said he feels so foggy in his head, this makes it difficult for him to concentrate and think clearly.  A few months ago my mother
made a chart so he can rate his fogginess every day.  (His cousin's idea.  :D ) 
Over the last few months (especially this past one) he says that his fogginess has greatly improved.
There isn't really an explanation for this except that he is getting better, as my dad says, "Slowly, but surely!"

Some additional exciting news: My dad has been working on strengthening his leg and ankle, and today he made the change from his big plastic knee-high brace (that he got when he was in the hospital) to a little black ankle brace.  It's worn by volleyball players to prevent  ankle sprains. This is a HUGE difference, because the large brace restricted the use of many muscles, and now since they've been getting stronger, he is able to wear the smaller one which only restricts his ankle. He's not quite used to it and is still figuring out how much he is able to do with it but he wears it in the house and on flat surfaces now. Another plus is now my dad can wear some of his old shoes again.  :)

I thought you might like to see how much my Dad's writing has improved.  A week after his stroke, he tried to write something. But all he could write were a bunch of W's and E's which of course, didn't make sense.

This is how he is writing today.  He was describing the fruit bowl.

Hi everyone! This is Rose, now taking over the blog. My dad has been making
such progress, and I thought we should share.

My dad has been working out at Snap Fitness 2-4 times a week. He works on his
right arm and especially on his leg. He goes on the elliptical, pulls weights with both
arms and now he is able to go on the bike machine without the use of his brace, which is GREAT! Recently he proved to my mom that his ankle was getting stronger by taking of
his brace and turning in circles. Today he even started to tap his foot! He also has been working on mirror therapy with his hand, specifically trying to move a single finger at a time. This week, for the first time, he managed to twitch one finger a tiny bit! He also works his arm by punching a punching bag that now stands in the middle of our living room. The movement in his shoulder keeps getting stronger (as
does his punches!).

My dad continues working on reading out loud; now he is reading Cowboy Sam and the Rodeo. Speaking full sentences is still very tough, but more often now he is able to speak short sentences. At speech therapy he is beginning to work on question words like who, what, where, etc. It’s hard for him to keep them straight, but he is slowly getting better at it.