(Originally posted May 1, 2009)

1. Monday, J.J. had a visit with an orthopedist to check out his right knee, which is still bothering him. The doctor felt it was a good idea to at least MRI it to see what's going on. So J.J. had an MRI Wednesday morning, and he has a follow up visit with the orthopedist on Monday. I'll keep you posted on the results.

2. Also on Monday, J.J. stopped by our family doctor's office to have his blood pressure checked. It had creeped back up to 150/80. Our doctor was on lunch, so the office staff said they'd check with her when she got back and would call to tell J.J. what she suggested. Late in the afternoon, she still hadn't called. So I did. Long story short, within minutes J.J. had a new prescription waiting for him at the pharmacy. He started it on Tuesday and seems to be doing well with it. He'll continue to stop in twice a week at the doctor's office to have his blood pressure monitored.

3. Tuesday we met with the counselor at Voc. Rehab. What a trip. Just walking into the (dingy, too-small, cheaply furnished) office and interacting with the (rude, bored, attitude-laden) receptionist made me realize that we are now dealing with "the system". And it was amazing how quickly the counselor's attitude changed when she looked at J.J.'s salary on the paperwork. Which really ticked me off. Why should it matter how much someone makes? If J.J. were making minimum wage and his goal were to return to this job, that should be the counselor's aim. Boy, am I on a soapbox today! Anyway, the counselor wants J.J. to have a neuropsychological evaluation, which should more specifically pinpoint his deficits and help drive a plan to accomodate these while J.J. gets back to work. But he's not scheduled for the neuropsych eval until 5/28. and we're really hoping he may be back to work by then anyway. So we'll see what happens.

4. Tonight is J.J.'s follow up sleep study. He has to be at RHI at 8:30 p.m. He's not looking forward to this at all. He's still not sleeping well with the CPAP on. Hopefully they'll show that he no longer needs it, or at least that he can be downgraded to oxygen.

5. Last night we had a wonderful date night. We went bowling first (I haven't been for a couple of years and was really surprised by what a good workout it is!) and then did our grocery shopping for the week. The bowling is excellent therapy for J.J. His speech was loads better afterwards, and during the games, he sounded just like he did pre-stroke. No lags in finding words or anything. It was amazing. So he's going back to bowl a couple more games this afternoon.

6. Since the shopping is done and the house is clean(ish), I might get to relax a little this weekend! Kids will be at my parents' house, so I'll even be alone tonight. I'm planning to get caught up on some work stuff--if I'm up all night, it's okay because J.J. probably will be too. We can sleep tomorrow.

7. Today is nine years since my grandfather passed away. May 1 is always kind of a sad day for me, and this year it's even worse, because...

8. May is National Stroke Awareness Month. I can't believe that this has such a personal implication this year--I don't even know that I heard anything about it last year. But anyway, please take this opportunity to educate yourself on the signs of stroke and on any risk factors you can control. I'll post more on this later.

Okay, enough for now. Got lots of work to do