(Originally posted May 11, 2009)

Last night as we were lying in bed getting ready to go to sleep, we realized that J.J.'s last speech therapy session was scheduled for today. This is not because he's so much better he doesn't need more therapy, it's just because our insurance will only pay for a certain number of sessions. The way to get around this, from what I've heard, is to join a clinical study of some nature; many will provide extra therapy. Anyway, I've been looking into one in Cincinnati that will require J.J. to go over once a week or so for an MRI but which will set him up with extra speech therapy sessions here locally. J.J. said that he's really willing to do as much as he can to see if anyone can learn anything from his stroke and his recovery.

And then he said, "I know this happened for a reason, and I think it was so other people know that aphasia doesn't mean your life is over. If you try as hard as you can, you will improve. I'm supposed to tell as many people as I can about that."

That's my J.J. No self-pity, no depression, just making the best out of the situation that he can.

Oh, and we got the lab test results back today. No problems with his thyroid, glucose perfect, everything else within normal ranges except low calcium (a common side effect of one of the medications he's taking, furosemide) and low creatinin (nothing to worry about, from what I can gather). So apparently he needs to see a dermatologist to figure out what's up with this hair thing. My sink is clogged and my vacuum needs to be cleaned out nightly, due to his hair falling out in huge clumps. Something's got to give.

No word on the clearances from cardiology/neurology for the knee surgery. It's on my list for tomorrow to try to figure out what's going on with that.