Day 14

The 'holiday' is over and Burt began his first real day of rehab today.  The physical therapists did two and a half hours of training with him in several shifts.  In the morning they sat him up, and then actually stood him up, well... kind of.  The physical therapists took all of the weight and essentially held him, but he said it felt good to finally stand tall.  This will be the first and only time the word 'tall' is applied to Burt.

The entire Stern Family — Connie, Gregory, and David came in with a dozen and a half donuts for each of the three nurse shifts.  Burt's cheering squad was extended today as his brother Harry arrived to complete Team Stern. It was the first anniversary of their mother's passing, but they were not allowed to light a yahrzeit because of possible bedpan ignition.

Sadly, the video swallow test was not successful.  Burt was rolled down to the radiology center where the speech therapist fed him different substances of the consistency of pudding and tomato juice.  Burt swallowed twelve times, but it was not powerful enough to actually clear the fluid.  The X-Ray showed the area that it was wedged in his throat. Burt looked at the image, let the disappointment pass and then told the speech therapist that he would cancel his order for a beer that afternoon. Burt will continue to swallow hard in practice and dream of a sip of apple juice someday soon.

To lighten the blow David and Gregory gave Burt his first post stroke shave as he was complaining that he was starting to feel like "Wolfman."  They were not allowed to use a razor because of Burt's blood thinners. Burt said to ask his drill sergeant Randy, "Who shaves with a bayonet."  Here is the first photograph of Burt on the blog, mid-shave.

The line of the day occurred doing a homespun afternoon physical therapy session as David ran Burt through his stretches and Connie asked him for the lotion to massage into his legs.  Lying from the bed, Burt said, "Don't call it lotion, it's marinade. My leg feels like a pot roast."