From Hope to Healing


During Marc's time at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Ontario, following a massive stroke and brain bleed, a friend suggested I start a blog. I'd been making notes each day and updating his progress on Facebook but after some thought, I realized that this could be something that Marc could later read to follow his journey back to health.

I thought it might also serve to help someone else. If it can help even one other person to recognize the signs of a stroke or to help a family member understand what happens during this battle, then it was worth recording.

This is Marc's story. It begins with our hope for his survival and follows his healing journey.

For those of you new to blogs, you can find previous posts in the Blog Archive on the right side of the page. Each post has the date so you can easily follow along day by day. Just click the one you want to read. This story starts on Saturday, December 8, 2012.

(To see the earlier blog posts, click on "2012" in the Blog Archive section and it will open the posts from December)

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Saturday, December 15, 2012 - Taking a Stand

We noticed that Marc’s humour is starting to come back today.  He was trying to joke and tease Ashley and I a little bit.  Even his smile is starting to return.  Marc has one of the biggest smiles and I’ve missed it this week.  This new smile is kinda cute. 

I was there for the physio session and she actually did get him up on his feet today.  Sort of.  It was a hunched over, almost-stand-for-a-second kind of standing, but it was standing none-the-less.  It was definitely applause worthy. 

His left arm is making good progress.  He can bend his fingers a bit more today but his left leg is still not making the connection to his brain while he is lying down.  He’s happy to wave his right leg around when asked to move his left leg, though.   Maybe his left leg will start paying attention and learn by example.    

We had friends from Guelph drop in today.  Kelly is my best friend from childhood and we haven’t seen her and her husband Will since last year.  Marc proved that his long term memory is just fine.  He asked Will if he was still working at Bell and asked them how the girls were doing.  He remembered that Will plays hockey and that Kelly has a horse. 

Marc tried his best to entertain them while they were there.  When Kelly remarked about the bruises on his right arm, he gave her a look like the cat with the big eyes from Shrek and said, “Sandy did that to me.”  He looked very pleased with himself when we all broke out laughing. 

It was a really good way to mark the first week anniversary of his stroke.  So much progress in such a short time.

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