Dave Ryles, Les Eathorne, Ben Manchion
Ryles is in recovery at
Dave has made some progress in the last two weeks. His speech has really improved, almost like it was before the stroke. He seems a little stronger too, not falling asleep all of the time.
He is eating one small meal a day at lunch consisting of pureed food. He will be getting that Monday thru Friday.
His speech therapist hopes to get him in the small “progressive eating” group within the next couple of weeks. This means he will get two pureed meals and thickened liquid twice a day. Dave has to be monitored while he eats to be reminded that he has to swallow twice and clear his throat often.
Physically, the improvement is still going very slow. He can stand and take couple of steps holding on to the bars but with maximum support from his therapist. If you visit him, he may tell you that he’s walking up and down the halls and going places but this is all in his mind.
He is slowly getting stronger but left side is definitely weaker, especially his left arm. It is actually starting to constrict, which means the muscles tighten up. He wasn’t able to straighten his arm out today.
After therapy we went back to his room. He asked me if I was taking him home today and I said no. He asked why he couldn’t come home, which he does every day and it’s just heart breaking to tell him no. He doesn’t really understand how sick he is and in his mind, he’s walking, driving, coaching, going to games, etc. and doesn’t understand why he can’t come home.
I explained to him that he has to be able to physically function on his own. He needs to be able to walk, go upstairs, etc. because I’m not able to lift him or support him. We have this conversation every day and I just pray one of these days I’m going to be able to tell him, “I’m taking you home today!”
I will be out of town with my sister from Nov. 6-14. He is stable enough where I feel I can leave for a little while. I’m just concerned with him not seeing me for eight days.
The amount of visitors has definitely slowed down in the last month, but I’m asking you, if at all possible, to try to visit him while I’m gone. I’m worried that he will get depressed if there isn’t someone coming in every day. So if you haven’t visited in a while, that week would be a really good time to see him.
Thank you again for your continued thoughts and prayers for Dave. Lindsey, Logan and I want to thank Julie Townsend again for walking Molly. She’s been running with Dave since she was three months old and is really missing her exercise. Molly would be driving us crazy if it wasn’t for her walks with Julie.