It all changes in the blink of an eye...

My prayers go out to you. I'm sorry to hear this.

Two years ago my father had a stroke walking up the stairs. He fell down the stairs and hit his head at the bottom. When he regained consciousness, he had no idea who my mother or I were, didn't know the date. An ambulance arrived and as they were enroute to the hospital he had a massive seizure and went into a coma.

He was in the coma for a week. The doctors weren't optimistic. He had bleeding on the brain (because of his blood thinners).

After a week he came out of the coma and had no idea who anyone was or what the date was. The doctor assured us that this was permanent, especially since right before the seizure he had no idea who we were so he assumed the damage had been done.

For a week straight we visited him and he had no idea who we were. He's watched British TV all his life though so he kept talking to Judi Dench. He had no idea who we were but kept talking to an empty chair and saying things like, "Judi! How nice of you to come all the way from England to visit me!"

After a few days of this my mother had started making plans to have him put in a care facility. She had finished the paperwork and was working on the payment details. I'm not around because I tour a lot as a sideman and my mother works full time so we couldn't bring him home in that condition.

After a week, my sister Lynn was visiting him (which she had done already) and all of a sudden he just said, "Lynn...what are you doing here?" And like that his full memory was back. He had no recollection from the fall to that point. But just like someone threw a switch after a week his memory was completely back. He didn't know he'd been in the hospital for over 2 weeks, or been in a coma, or that he was talking to Judi Dench. It was like his brain just jump started or something after two weeks.

My mother cancelled the plans to have him put in a home and that was that. Two years ago. Thankfully he had no paralysis from the stroke and no real problems from the bleeding on the brain. The only thing is his balance is bad now so he has to use a cane.

Sorry if I rambled too much - the point is that the human body is an amazing machine and sometimes when it looks like all is lost on the surface, it's because the body is working overtime behind the scenes to get the engine running again and doesn't let you know until it's ready.

My prayers go out to you in this trying time.

Regards,
Frank