Yesterday I mentioned dad’s “horizontal progress” — two days ago he was opening his eyes, and yesterday he was kicking his feet, but he hadn’t opened his eyes and kicked his feet. I wrote that:

my folk wisdom (and hope) is that the these improvements are cumulative.

Well, they are cumulative. He’s opening his eyes and kicking his feet. And his arm-wrestling strength is getting stronger, too.

Another “vertical” sign is that when I came in they had my dad’s bed upright, lazy-boy style. He’s lying on his back again, but my dad is active enough that they want to find a comfortable position. (Earlier the nurse experimented by putting up the bed’s guard rails around his foot, but he kicked through them, nixing that idea.)

They are also giving my dad 2100 calories a day for nutrition. Lady of tdaxp told him that it was a good thing she wasn’t in the hospital — that was more than she eats!

My family talked to the cardiologist today, who like everyone else these days if optimistic but stresses patience. He reminded us that as dad recovers he will be tired. I’ve seen this: after a few rounds of “arm-wrestling” my dad’s muscles relax.

I had a dream last night that I was with him and he was responding to commands. For now that’s a dream, but it’s not so fantastic as it would have been only a few days ago.