Happy 65th Birthday!

Today my dad is 65 years old, we have much to celebrate and be thankful for.

He's doing so incredibly well.   The neck pain is now minimal, he does still have pain on occasion but it's rare and manageable.  His Neurontin (nerve pain medicine) is now tapered down to 600mg three times a day, we will continue to decrease the dosage weekly until he is no longer taking it.  He continues to take 1000mg Keppra (seizure precaution) twice a day but I'm hoping we can decrease that after his Neurology follow-up visit in two weeks.

He's sleeping better and is now able to sleep the entire night in his bed.  He goes to the gym several times a week.  Enjoys driving his truck, going for walks, sitting on the porch in the rocking chair, and doing the New York Times crossword puzzle.  And of course spending time with the kids.  He takes Zoey to preschool every Tuesday and Thursday, just like he used to do before.

We celebrated his birthday as a family on Saturday.  Zoey had a great time baking his cake.  She made the whole thing mostly by herself, with a little help from Finn and Marty.

That evening we went out to eat at Gilligan's with the family to celebrate:

This morning he came over to take Zoey to school and I made his favorite - homemade biscuits, recipe passed down from my family down South.  This batch came out really awesome too, some of the best I've made.  I think he had a really great day.

3/3

Oh boy it's been awhile since my last update!

Things have been going great the past couple of weeks!  Dad continues to do fantastically well and these days I can barely even tell he was ever sick, much less intubated in the ICU with his future brain function completely up in the air.  His recovery has been nothing short of miraculous.

The neck pain is very minimal and doesn't cause a problem for him.  He's sleeping a bit better at night (until now he's been up every couple of hours, moving between the couch, bed, and recliner to find a good sleeping position).  He's in the process of getting into a routine again and loves that he's gotten back his independence, is driving his truck, and overall doing things for himself again.  He went back to the Historical Society this week, where he used to volunteer once per week before getting ill.  I believe he'll start going back there on Thursdays to help out.  And we're finally at a point where we're decreasing his Neurontin dosage in the interest of tapering it off.   He was taking Neurontin for the excruciating nerve/neck pain and was up to the max dose of 1200mg three times per day.  Now he's down to 900mg in the morning and afternoon, and 1200mg at night.  We'll continue to taper it down slowly each week.  So far he's doing just fine with the decreased dose and I think he's looking forward to when he can stop taking it altogether.  He's still taking Keppra (for seizure prevention), but I think we should be able to decrease that dose when he has his next neurology appointment in April.

Anyway, just wanted to update that all is well!