Been meaning to blog for a while now, just finding the time, as we all understand.

But as Bruce enters his eighth year of stroke, an interesting change in his recovery. His cognitive status is so much improved. I waited months before I mentioned it to our Doctors because I thought I was misreading or seeing improvement where there was none. Then my sister mentioned it, so I knew Bruce was continuing to improve.

My Psychologist did another Psych-Neuro and sure enough!

He is reading novels. You all know how difficult it was for him in the early years. He couldn't remember what he read the day/hours before. But he had two newspapers a day, all kinds of magazines and so many of our dear caregivers here sending anything they thought he might enjoy. This is one advantage to all of us being scattered all over the globe.

His short term memory is greatly improved. There are still times when he had trouble of course, but mostly I can read a short article, hours after Bruce does and then we can chat about it. That has been true for about a year now.

Spring has been slow in coming to the Northeast. We had a frost warning just Tuesday night but here in CT we aren't supposed to plant much before Memorial Day anyway. Still enjoying this week where we finally did not need sweatshirts to go outside.

Bruce will be starting his 2016 PT by end of Summer. I am hoping they toss him in the pool from the first day. It is on my list, certainly. It is hard getting him to move and after a long winter, he is certainly tight. I just continue to make him move himself in the WC which is better than nothing.

Back in January, I was going through his office, trying to find something he hadn't read in a while - picture books mostly and I brought up The Road by Cormack McCarthy (one of Bruce's favorites). Next thing I know, he is reading it. So I continued to bring up his favorite authors and he continued to read them. But he had read all of these before and a lot of the classics he also taught - still he kept with it.

So I brought up one he purchased right before he stroked: Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All by Allan Gurganus. Bruce may have started it, but I know he did not finish it. 718 pages. It took him three weeks to get through it.

I also figured out that there were a lot of books on his shelves that he has not read - LOL. Book sales of course. So I bring up a couple every few days and he picks something he would like to try.

He is more chatty. Starts conversations, asks questions, engages in discussion. Mostly it was listening before this past year. He understood everything but because it was so difficult finding his thoughts and then the words, he would hang back or just give a simple response - one or two words. His lady friends came for dinner a couple of weeks ago. They hadn't been over the winter and they were both amazed.

I did want to share because even this long into stroke, it is so promising, hopeful, that recovery continues.