Harv moved in with Scott on Wednesday night. Scott has been helping dad get acclimated to living on his own again. Harv has been doing some of his own cooking and normal stuff to get through the day. He does look forward to getting back to living life close to normal again, including moving back home to live on his own.

He'll be getting in home therapy two to three days a week for a few weeks. They will mostly be focusing on getting his shoulder strength better. He thinks it was somehwat injured before the attack, but it does seem worse now. It must somehow be a side effect of the attack and resulting issues after the attack. They will also be working on getting his endurance back in general, as he does get tired after activity through the day.

Allison, Sue, Norm and Emily are all visiting today in San Diego. It will be interesting to hear their thoughts on how much he has progressed from the last time they saw him, just 4 weeks ago.

Here's some video that I took when I was visiting last week:
Harv's Progress After One Month - May 26-28, 2007

- Jason

What a great weekend I had out in San Diego! It is really amazing how much Harv has improved in only a short while. In addition to spending time with him at the rehab center, we took him out of the facility all three days I was there (Saturday, Sunday and Monday) for about 4 hours each day. He was walking and talking just great. He did get a bit fatigued, but that is expected as these were the first days he had been out and about in the "real world" in over a month.

Dad is being discharged from the rehab center on Wednesday afternoon. He will be living with Scott for a few weeks as he gets reacclimated with living on his own again. We're going to set him up with a cell phone this week, so we'll post that number once we get it (EDIT: Harv's Cell Phone Number is 858-472-9623). He will be getting therapy a few days a week as well, either in-home or outpatient, or both.

We are also planning to have dad come stay with us for a few weeks in Minnesota soon, probably sometime in early July, depending on his therapy schedule. Regardless, things are going great and Harv is really looking forward to getting back to a bit of normalcy.

Thanks again to everyone for all of their support during this trying period.

- Jason

Scott and I are both giving input to this post as I talk to him about his visit with dad tonight at the rehab center.

We added some more photos that Scott took tonight when he visited my dad. I rearranged the photos so that they are in order of when he first went into the hospital up to the most recent shots of him. After those, you will see some photos of dad from before he got sick.

Dad really wants to get out of the rehab center. He thinks he is ready to get back out into the real world, at least to some degree. The therapists think he is doing very well. They have him doing rehab on high level things, including walking and excercising outside of the facility on the streets and surrounding area. he has been progressing with speech therapy and occupational therapy as well. Again, they are focusing on high-level tasks at this time. They think he could possibly be ready to leave as early as this weekend, but we want to make sure he takes full advantage of the rehab opportunity.

Again, I (Jason) will be in San Diego this coming Saturday through Tuesday morning. My dad really thinks he'll be out of the rehab center and he will stay with my brother and me. We'll see how it goes at the end of the week, but regardless, we will be with him and we're planning on getting out somewhere with him for some time.

- Scott & Jason

Harv is happy to be in the Rehabilitation Center, although he does feel like most of the people around him are old and in worse shape than him. =)

Today was his first full day of rehab and he says they worked him hard. He thinks he can get out of there in a short time, although we keep telling him that he needs to take advantage of the rehab and work to get better.

I will be in San Diego this coming Saturday through Tuesday morning. Depending on how he is doing, we might even take him to a Padres game.

- Jason

My dad is moving to a Nursing/Rehab facility:
Evergreen Carmel Mountain Health & Rehabilitation Center
11895 Avenue of Industry
San Diego, CA 92128
858.673.0101 - Main Desk
858.673.5134 - His Room

We may have him evaulated in a week or so to determine whether or not to have him go into Sharp's Sub-Acute Rehab facility, as that will have a more intense rehab process. Based on the progress he has made in the last seven days, the Social Worker at Sharp said that might be a good option. She said we do need to commit to saying that we will be able to take care of him 24 hours a day after discharge from Sharp Sub-Acute Rehab. This is because they want to have a good discharge plan before they will take him on. Thanks to Didi and Kim for helping me understand this process!

- Jason

Thursday, May 17, 2007 3:17 PM

Things are still progressing great this week. Dad has been eating real food for the last couple of days and he is getting his appetite back it seems. Just this morning he told me on the phone that he had Pancakes, Eggs and Coffee and ate just about all of it.

He has been conversing well the last few days too, although his memory still needs jogging at times. He has been telling jokes, like telling me about how the nurse has been giving him a shower the last couple of days and saying that "he should have been doing that a long time ago". He told me he wants to try driving and I said we're shooting for that after some rehab.

For the last three days he has walked on his own without direct assistance (the Physical Therapist does walk next to him just in case). He has been progressing with both Speech Therapy and Occupational therapy with great strides as well.

Our next step is to start to determine the best option for a Nursing/Rehab facility for him to go to after the hospital. We still do not know a date for that move yet, but it could happen as soon as early next week. We're hoping to find a good facility that fits his needs somewhere in the North County so that Scott can visit him more frequently.

Be sure to visit our site for future updates.

If you have photos of Harv, feel free to send them along and we'll get them into the rotation. I figure the photos and video will help get the good vibes going to get dad back to full recovery.

Thanks,

Jason

A quick update here.

EDIT: All the below still holds true, however, just as I was typing this up[ i got a collect call request from my dad in the hospital. I declined and called him right back. Apparently he also called and left a voice mail with Scott. I talked to him for 30 minutes. We called his mom and conference her in for a few minutes as well. As good as i thought he was yesterday, today was even 10 times better. Just the fact that he called me on his own blew me away. He was pretty close to normal conversation, making all sorts of jokes and such. His memory is much better (still not perfect). I spoke with the speech therpist and he was amazied at his progress. His goal is to get him to start eating on his own now. Great sign! ... let's hope he keeps improving.

My dad has been pretty good since Friday (great news!), after pretty much being unresponsive, agitated and "sleepy" all week (Sunday through Thursday). He has been going through all three therapies (Physical, Speech and Occupational) each day and has been responsive to communication. he has been progressing pretty well with PT they tell me, as he "walked" 18 feet both Friday and Saturday. That is huge, considering he just woke up out of his "coma" two weeks ago. I'll be calling the hospital later today with hopes that he is on his fourth straight day of doing better.

I talked to him on the phone both Saturday and Sunday and he was doing a pretty good job of communicating, considering. I even conference Grandma Sylvia (his mom) in and he wished her Happy Mother's Day.

Scott was with him a lot yesterday and they hung out watching the Padres game. Scott has also been bringing in a CD player with headphones so my dad can listen to some music.

The Neuro says that these ups and downs are normal for someone who has gone through what he went through, with the lack of oxygen and blood getting to his brain just after the heart attack. The prognosis is for more ups and downs for a long period of time until he slowly recovers out of this. They may do another MRI, but the Neuro seems to need the condistions to be right for this and I'm not sure he fully thinks it is necessary at this time. I will keep pushing for it regardless, as I can't think it could hurt.

We'll be working on a number of things this week as it relates to seeking the next step for care and the best direction for him at this time.

There are no guarantees, so we'll just continue to do all we can to make his chances at recovery the best as possible.

Thanks to all for your continued support,

Jason

Hi all.

I am back in MN, as of early Sunday morning. It is nice to see my family here again, but it is hard to not be in Cali supporting my dad directly.

Saturday went great with my dad. Allison, Sue and Norm came in to see him and he was the best he has been in a week. He was pretty talkative and apparently made some good progress with Physical Therapy.

Unfortunately, on Sunday he took a step back in recovery. The nurses tell me he has been agitated and restless since Saturday night. They are now discussing moving him out of the hospital and into a skilled nursing center soon. I am pushing for getting him into a rehab center however. With what I saw on Saturday, I truly believe he has a good deal of room for improvement.

With them (nurses, doctors and social services) mentioning nursing center as the next possible option, it essentially means that they think that he has pretty much maxed out on how much he'll recover. Apparently at a nursing center, the therapy is not very aggressive. Again, I believe we need to push for rehab center, as i think he can get better than he is now.

Some things I am going to be pushing them on:
- Why was he so good on Saturday morning and afternoon and then seemingly went backwards again?
- When are you going to do the MRI that had been mentioned last week? This might help us understand what might be affecting his brain.
- Can we get a Rehab Doctor evaluation?
- If not normal rehab, might sub-acute rehab be an option? This is a less progressive form of rehab.

Sue did call the hospital today and I believe she spoke with a nurse. Both her and the nurse think his attitude changed after we all left Saturday afternoon. It's possible that he is just pissed off that all these people that came to see him were gone and he now feels isolated. Of course, under normal circumstances this would not be difficult for him to accept. However, with the current state of his thoughts, he might be having a harder time dealing with this.

FYI ... Harv is now in a Cardiac special section of the hospital. The number to his section is 858-939-3622. He is in room 656.

Thanks to all for your support.

- Jason

Harvey has been moved from the ICU floor to the Cardiac floor. He is a bit more awake today than in previous days. For the last few days, he had been very tried and couldn't communicate as well. His cousin Alison and friends Sue and Norm are coming down for a visit today. He still can't receive phone calls, but you can always call or email the boys. Jason will be flying back to Minnesota late today.

-Sally

I wanted to send a quick update ...

I have come home to Minnesota and Jason is going to stay with his dad through the weekend. Some have asked for his room number or address of the hospital. Harvey can't get calls or flowers because he is in ICU, once he moves to a different room we'll let you know those details.

Harvey has seems to progressed over the 3 days he's been awake. Each morning we saw him, he seemed more alert than the day before. His memory is still very scattered and the movements haven't stopped yet. He also doesn't sleep, which leads to him being very tried by the afternoon and evening, so his memory usually gets worse as the day goes on, but that is expected. We're not sure why he isn't sleeping but it probably has to do with his brain not letting him sleep. They are probably going to give him a little something to help him sleep.

The doctors have described what happened to Harvey as a "mild heart attack with a huge consequence". For some reason Harvey's heart just stopped when he had the heart attack which led to a lack of blood and oxygen to the brain.

Jason saw him today and said he seemed really tired. He was having trouble talking and his movements were very strong - the lack of sleep is probably contributing to all of this. They have had to strap him down so that he doesn't fall out of bed. If we are in the room with him, we will untie his arms, but if we leave they need to tied down because of the movements (they are not so tight that he can't move them at all). It is tough to see Harvey like this, but we know it's needed so that he doesn't get injured.

Again, Jason and Scott want to say "thanks" to everyone for their support. This has been a very tough time for both of them and they're happy to know they have so many people thinking of them and Harvey.

-Sally

It's been another good day with Harvey. We did finally get to chat w/ the neurologist (albiet a very, very short meeting). He and a bunch of other doctors are AMAZED that Harvey has made it this far and the amount of progress he has made in only being awake for 30 hours. He said that most patients that come in like Harvey did die. None of them can not believe it. Harvey still wants to get out of bed all the time. He wants to go outside and kept saying that it looks nice outside. He also took it upon himself this morning to remove his feeding tube that was in his nose (he is now eating somewhat solid food that is fed to him).

Harvey has developed some sort of semi-uncontrollable movement in his arms and legs (he can control it to a degree because we asked him to give us a high five and he lifts his hand up and tries to give us a high five or he'll try to give us a hand shake). It's not a thrashing or violent movement, it's more of a constant up and down of the arms and legs. The neurologist said they never see this in a heart attack patient (it has to do w/ the lack of oxygen to his brain). They are going to give him an anti-seizure medication to hopefully slow it down or stop it (he is not having seizures, but it's what they use when people have this problem). If he doesn't have any improvement in any areas in a few days, they will do a MRI of his brain, but the doctor doesn't want to do one because he just woke up and he doesn't want to sedate him again to run the test.

Harvey's memories are still a little scattered. He does remember the boys, but he thinks it's 1980, that Clinton is president and that he's 52 (none of this sounds bad to any of us - haha). He answers questions and does follow along w/ a short converstation. For example ... We asked about Jason as a kid. I asked him if Jason was a good kid or a bad kid. Harvey told me that he was a bad kid (he was!). I said that he should have warned me, and then said, "Well, you married him."

We understand that Harvey will take very small baby steps and that his recovery will probably take a while. He is doing physical, occupational and speech therapy (they got him sitting up today, but he was pretty unsteady). We are just so happy at the progress he has made in these 2 days of being awake.

-Sally, Jason and Scott

Harvey woke up! We walked in to his room this afternoon and his breathing tube was out, he was awake and answering questions. It was amazing. He does have some memory loss, but that is excepted with the trauma he has been through. He doesn't know who the boys are right now. He can answer questions, mostly w/ a yes and no. He knows is name. We figure is memory is somewhere around college right now. We do realize that he's only been awake for a few hours after being sedated and asleep for 5 days, so we are hopeful that his memory will start coming back as he gets better. He kept wanting to get out of bed. He was moving his arms and legs at will and would smile at us. He does talk, but it's a little gravelly because the breathing tube leaves your throat all scratchy.

We are going to be talking to the neurologist tomorrow and he starts his physical therapy tomorrow - they will get him out of bed, move his muslces, do some speech therapy and work on swallowing.

We are just so excited that he is awake and we're so amazed by his progress today.

Again, thank you to everyone for your wishes and prayers -- we really appreciate it.

-Sally and the boys

Not much for updates today. We are still waiting on the EEG results because Neurologists don't seem to work on the weekends. So we should have results some time on Monday and then we'll know where we're going from there.

They have started a feeding tube and he's still on the respirator. He has had a bit of a fever, but they gave him Tylenol and that went down. He has also received some pain medication to stop him from coughing (he coughs because of the irritation from the breathing tube).

We should have more on Monday.

-Sally

Hello.

I do not have much more of an update on the below status, other than the fact that we are still waiting for the results on the EEG. These need to be read by a neurologist, at which time they will go over the readings with Scott and me. We hope this iwll happen today sometime, but we do not know for sure.

We are really still in a "wait and see" mode, as it can take different periods of time for people to "awaken" based on their situation. Honestly, I have had enough of this "wait and see" stuff. I'm thinking it's about time my dad woke up and got going.

We did have a few good signs yesterday:
- His blood circulation and pulse improved greatly from the previous day and he is now at a normal body temp.
- They shined a flashlight into his eyes yesterday afternoon and got some reaction out of the pupils, which they did not get when doing it in the morning.
- My dad did move his left leg a little bit last night, something which he had not really done to this point.

I want to thank everyone for their thoughts. We can feel them out here and it's helping us get through this difficult time. Sally is flying into town today, so it will be nice to have her support here with Scott and me.

We will be going back to Sharp Memorial this morning after picking Sally up at the airport. We will give an update later today.

- Jason

Harvey is still not awake. They still are not sure when he will wake up. Now that they have removed most of the drugs he was on, he is moving parts of his body some, but is still on the respirator. They are going to run some more tests. They are going to do an EEG, which will show how much brain function he has and they are doing some blood work-ups. They are also going to try turning off the respirator for a minute or two to see how he reacts - if he can breath on his own or not, but his heart beat is a little fast so they need to get that slowed down before they can do that test.

The boys watched the Padres game and a bball game with Harvey in his room last night. They are still very hopeful that he will wake up soon.

Thanks for all the emails and phone calls of hope -- it all helps.

-Sally

Unfortunately there is no change as of yet in Harvey's condition. He's still on the respirator and they won't be removing that until he wakes up. The doctors have said they just don't know when he will wake-up .. it could be tonight, tomorrow, a week from now and so on. They're kind of in a waiting game. They are going to give him another day or so to wake-up before running some more tests.

If you're wondering about the "cooling" technique, I found a couple articles about it:
http://mednews.stanford.edu/releases/2002/february/cooling_heart.html
http://altmedangel.com/hartcool.htm

Harvey is still not awake, and the doctors are saying that's fine -- it's probably just is taking him longer to wake-up. He was on a lot of drugs and they're monitoring his blood pressure. The boys called the hospital so that's all they know. They are going there now.

I'll send another update later ...

-Sally

Quick update ... they are starting to raise Harvey's body temp. Around 4am, they will bring him out of sedation and remove the breathing tube and they figure a couple hours after that he should wake-up. The procedure they did is a fairly new one. They think it helps the brain more to do this cold and sedated procedure. Jason said he's glad they're doing it, but it's all the waiting that's hard to deal with.

So, the guys are going back at 8am PT tomorrow to see if he's awake. The doctors are still very optimistic that he will wake up and be ok.

More tomorrow ...

-Sally

So, Jason finally made it down there and saw his dad. They still have him under sedation. The respirator is only helping him breathe, not breathing for him. Around 7pm our time, they are going to start waking him. They say it could take 12 hours before he's fully awake. They are encouraged that he will wake-up ... they don't see any signs that he won't wake up. Jason felt encouraged, but isn't going to be happy until he's awake and talking. They aren't going to do any brain function tests unless he doesn't wake up.

The nurse there said a strange/funny thing to J and Scott ... they said he "just had a heart attack, minor one" -- nothing major basically. I was like "what!" -- do people that have little heart attacks end up in the hospital on a respirator for 2 days ... seems weird.

I'll send an update in the morning.

-Sally

If you haven't heard, Jason's dad had a heart attack yesterday afternoon (he's 65). He and Scott were in Best Buy when Harvey just collapsed w/o warning. He was unresponsive and barely breathing. The ambulance was there w/ in 6 minutes and took him to the hospital (we think it was fate that Scott had taken the day off work and hung out w/ Harvey because Harv could have been at home alone and no one would have looked for him for days).

They found his right artery blocked and they unblocked it (angioplasty). He is in a reperator and is unresponsive (as far as we know). We're not sure if he's on the resperator because he can't breathe on his own or needs help. He's had all the tests, but Scott didn't know the outcome of them other than the doctors telling him that they knew it was his heart and not his head. At first the doctors told Scott that it's a miracle he's made it this far. The doctors are lowering his body temp which will lower is blood temp to help his body heal so that it doesn't have to work as hard.

Scott only saw Harv for a minute or two and Jason flew to San Diego this morning. I should know more later this afternoon.

Sally