Yes, It is Good to See You Dad

Yesterday, I arrived in Omaha around 1:00 and Jacki picked me up and we went right to Sioux City. Dad was finishing up PT and it was so wonderful to see him. I gave him a hug and he asked me, "Do you feel better now that you have seen me?" And the answer of course, was "Yes I do Dad". He quickly introduced me to his therapist and then we walked part way back to his room.

Just as Jacki was amazed after 11 days, I was obviously even more amazed at his progress having been away for 25 days. He is making tremendous progress and we could not be more proud of all his hard work. From many of the comments yesterday, it is obvious that he is much more aware of what is going on, where he is, etc.

Dad chatted about how many of the questions they ask him in therapy are very difficult and many people would not know them. Dad asked the therapists about this fact and they told him that he was right - many people would not know these facts. However, they know his "level" and these are things that he should know. For example, they listed "dollar, peso, lira" and Dad had trouble with this one - he started listing Australian dollar, Canadian dollar. When the therapist started to give clues - i.e., Japanese - Dad was able to come up with Yen. The key is to get him to recall these facts in his head. And he was later able to tell the story to us and remember Japanese Yen which is exactly what we want.

Dad also made a comment to me about how is getting better, but isn't all better yet. Another indication of his awareness. And of course, Dad is still joking around which is great to see as well, I told him I got Tanner's (my 2 year old) hair cut, he quickly commented "it's about time!" He was more than aware that Tanner was in need of a haircut (which he had told me in January when he visited).

Jaima came over after work and the 4 Karlen women hung out with Dad for a few hours. The Munderloh's and Maul's stopped by for a bit and then Dad was ready for bed after a very busy day. We enjoyed a very nice dinner at Raspberry's (and ran into the Munderloh's and Maul's there :) . Definitely a lot to celebrate.