TUESDAY'S DOCTOR VISIT

We met with Dr Ronald Benitez, the neurosurgeon who preformed the procedure on Joanne after her stroke. He is one of only three surgeons in New Jersey who do this surgery. He was encouraged by her progress. Whenever they perform these surgeries, they assess the tools, potential implants and the patients needs. He said they really pushed the envelope with Joanne. She had the worst dissection of a carotid artery he has ever seen. She is only one of two or three patients who have received these stints to stabilize the artery. They are truly on the cutting edge of this technology.

He also said he was going to call the neurologist from the ER to commend him on his course of treatment. Normally someone who presented with Joanne's symptoms would not be treated, considering the fact that she had improved so dramatically during her ER visit. Typically they would dismiss it as a TIA, or mini-stroke that just corrected itself. We are so fortunate that they decided to admit her and ultimately, to contact Dr. Benitez. As we look back, we can see how God ordered things to happen this way. It truly is a miracle.

We learned that it will most likely be 3-6 months before she can consider driving again. She is not too happy about that. He told us that the next three months to a year, we will see the most improvement is her condition. He felt that she will be in great shape considering how far se has improved in just six weeks.

Joanne will continue to go three times a week for speech and occupational therapy. She is making great progress! She can pick up items with her right hand and is getting more strength in her arm. Her speech is improving day by day, sometimes hour by hour. We do still have some difficult times. While we were in the waiting room today she asked me something about a popsicle stick. She said, "What's that? A popsicle stick? What am I talking about?" God bless her for being able to laugh about these things. I'm not sure that I would be.