It's hard to blog without internet access - but a good day for Dad

Sorry for the lack of updates today - I couldn't get my laptop connected to the hospital network for some reason. Let's hope that doesn't happen again tomorrow.

So - to get you up to speed, Dad had a pretty good day. He's improving by the hour, it seems. A rundown of the day:

• Still irritable, but we're blaming the steroids and the last week his poor body had to endure. Apparently high doses of steroids can cause instant irritability. We can confirm this side effect. He seems to have ever so slightly lightened up a little bit in his ability to joke around.
• He was up in the chair for breakfast, back to bed, up for physical therapy (PT) and endured some occupational therapy (OT) as well. He then got up in the chair for lunch at noon, and stayed up and mostly awake/alert until just after 4PM. Eyes were open more, he was more conversational, and definitely had high marks for his improved eating skills. Much more sure of himself as he takes that spoon full of ice cream in for the final approach. This high dose of steroids is really working. The neurologist called me this evening to check in, and he said that Dad would likely be on the high dose for several weeks. It's pretty obvious that he needs them right now, and they need to be very careful weaning him off them, so it will be a slow process.
• Mom and I took him outside to the hospital garden area (just off the main elevators - a quick trip back to the floor if needed) for about 45 minutes, where he took in his first fresh air and sunshine since a week ago. The fact that he was on the phone while he was out there completed the trifecta: fresh air, sunshine, and cell phone. Upon going upstairs, he was beyond happy to talk to his favorite Radiation Oncology nurse (Judy), who continues to pump up his spirits from 350 miles away. He then nestled in for a good nap for about 90 minutes before supper.
• Once he got up from his nap, he was even a little better. He had a very good dinner, but he was expecting breakfast. His sense of time is all messed up. He can't quite figure out that Nebraska and Minnesota are on the same time zone. At one point (we'd been talking about this for some time that it was 7PM, not 7AM) he asked, "So is Omaha 17hrs time difference from here?" I said, "No, Dad. That would be China." I think we did figure out one small reason why he thought things were a bit off - his watch said 6:15PM when it was actually 7:15PM. Not sure if we missed a time change back in April or if he was messing with his watch. Regardless, we got it fixed.
• Tomorrow is the day he's been waiting for: The Barber. Saint Marys Hospital has their own barber service in the building, and they actually made an appointment to come up to Dad's room and they will do a close shave and a haircut. He is looking a bit rough around the edges with this new 5-day growth, but he wouldn't let me even TRY to shave him today, so I'll leave it up to the barber in the morning.
• The biggest news of the day was that he has been cleared to go to rehab tomorrow. That was a big issue of "what if he doesn't qualify?" The next few weeks are finally a bit clearer, and they will move him down to the third floor rehab center to work with specialists in this particular area for at least three hours a day (if not more - whatever the patient will tolerate). This really is great news, as the sooner you get patients started on rehab, the greater the chance is they will recover what has been lost. Dad's still very unstable on his feet (but getting stronger and able to stand for longer durations with not as much help). Walking still requires an escort on either side, but he's getting better

Tomorrow is an early day for us all. We need to be at the hospital just after 7AM to meet up with his neurologist, the neurosurgeons, and get him prepped and ready for the move downstairs. We'll take the positive progress any day. Getting to rehab is a major milestone for him to reach, and we're thankful that he was able to continue on his care here at the Mayo Clinic. Have I mentioned lately how much we can't believe the level and pace of care here? I still can't get over that he had been evaluated by two different teams (Neurosurgery and Neurology), had a CT scan and an EEG, labs drawn and results back, and we had talked to ALL of his doctors with all of the final results by 2:30PM that afternoon.

Bed alarms are still active (Dad agrees he's pretty good at getting those to go off), and we're already looking ahead when we get back to Omaha to get some kind of audible alarm or alert when the doors are opened.

With that - calling it a night here in our new (and quite comfortable) hotel room. Hopefully the technical difficulties are resolved tomorrow and I'm able to post from the hospital. Overall, a few more smiles today from Dad, which was really great to see.

Good night!