A Blessing In Disguise

As most of you know, my father suffered from a stroke on Wednesday, March 9th. I like to call his stroke "A Blessing In Disguise". You see, my daddy's stroke wasn't caused by plaque build up like most. His stroke was caused by a blood clot that was most likely formed in his carotid artery. I guess you're wondering why this is "A Blessing In Disguise"?? While dad was in the hospital, they ran multiple diagnostic tests on him, including different CT Scans and MRI's. If it wasn't for one of the doctors ordering these tests, we would have never known there was another blood clot lurking in his carotid artery. Had my father not had this stroke, the other blood clot, that was HUGE by the way, would have most like killed him. Dad had a very risky surgery on the Saturday following his stroke to remove the blood clot. This surgery put him at risk of another stroke. We were more than scared, but knew God would take care of him. I thank God for watching over my father and helping him heal so quickly. After being at Parkwest Medical Center for a 8 days, my dad was transferred to Patricia Neal Rehabilitation at Fort Sander's Regional for intense physical, occupational, and speech therapy. He was only there for a week and was able to go home yesterday. He still have lots to work on and a long road ahead of him, but by the grace of God, he will overcome this. My dad is a very strong willed person, he will not let this get him down. I'm so very proud of you, daddy and love you more than words can express! Below is a series of pictures over the last couple of weeks.

Scout always makes Grumpy feel better. She decided to go "Night Night" with him. This was around day 2 post stroke.

Dad had lots of visitors. He is so blessed to have an amazing supportive family and a great group of friends and co-workers. Notice the orb in the corner of this picture. I'm a strong believer that he had angels in his room watching over him.



I know these pictures aren't the best quality since they were taken with a cell phone. Dad is at Patricia Neal Rehab in this picture. Scout was "helping" push him around in his wheelchair. So precious!



Grumpy and his lil' helper. Scout almost took the attention away from Grumpy. The nurses fell in love with her, but what's not to love? :)



Look at him go! Can you believe just a week prior, he wasn't able to walk on his own? Scout is finally hand in hand with her Grumpy (or as she says, "Gummy") again, walking by his side.




I believe grandchildren are probably the best medicine!



After a hard day at all of his therapy sessions, Dad is wore out! Scout decides to "rest" with him, but instead, she plays with his cell phone. That's my girl!



This picture was taken yesterday. He FINALLY gets discharged to go home. It isn't over yet, as he will continue all of his therapy, but in an out-patient setting. Dad is sporting the shirt my Aunt B (his sister) got him. It reads: Clem Shady and "Tougher Than Nails" is written on the nail. Dad's nickname was "Clem" when he was a child and it stuck. His real name is Kenny, by the way. A while back, he called himself Clem Shady, a knock-off from Slim Shady. He's so silly! He also has many famous quotes he uses and "Tougher Than Nails" is one of them. He is just that!! He has proven himself! I created him a Facebook Fan page a while back, "The Real Clem Shady". If you aren't already a fan, become one! I try to keep it updated with his progress and all of his tid bits of useless knowledge. ;)



My brother took my dad fishing today. I'd say this has been the best therapy thus far. Not too shabby for someone that's 16 days post stroke. Thanks for sharing this picture with me, Jeremy. It made my heart so happy!

As you can see, I've been pretty busy over the last couple of weeks. I had promised a blog about our Valentine's Day and never got around to it. I'll try to keep this short and sweet.

Adam's and my Valentine's Day isn't just about our love for one another, but our love for our family. With that said, we focus on our little Valentine, Scout. Last year, we took Scout to Build-A-Bear.

We decided then that we'd make that our tradition each Valentine's Day. Scout really enjoyed herself this year. I know it will be more and more exciting as each year passes. I wonder if we will be cool enough to take her when she's 16? Hmm? Okay, I don't want to rush things. After our visit to Build-A-Bear, we had a Valentine's dinner at Qdoba! Yum! Qdoba had a Valentine's Day special going, if you kissed someone in line, you could get your meal buy one get one free. So, I kissed my Valentine and we got a good deal! We had an awesome evening and look forward to many more special days with our girl. Enjoy pictures below:

Scout is ready to go to daycare for some Valentine's Day fun!



After Adam and I worked all day, we finally made it to Build-A-Bear to continue our tradition with our lil' Valentine, Scout. Papa is helping Scout pick out the perfect animal.



I'm helping Scout pick out a heart for her bear. We also got a "real" heart that you can feel beat inside her bear. Pretty cool!



Now it's time to stuff the bear, with my assistance, of course.



Scout picked out the "Peace Sign" bear. Now it's time to give her a bath and give her a name. Last year, we named her bear, Valentina (It's Valentine's and my name, Tina, put together). This year, we named her bear, Kisses. :)



Picking out the outfit is always the hardest part, but she finally settled on one and happened to be the one she first picked out. Kisses got some Hello Kitty panties just like Valentina did last year. Hehe!



Now it's time to get dressed so we can adopt Miss Kisses!



Of course, no outfit is official until you accessorize it! We added the flower bows to her ears. ;)



Finally, we are printing Kisses birth certificate! Scout was enjoying playing with some Build-A-Bear sunglasses. Silly girl!