Howdy, Folks!
The evening follow up(sorry it wasn't earlier; I was abducted by "Visitors"
) :
Spoke with Satanta last night; he called me.
Says he feels better; can sit up for long periods of time now without feeling really thrashed. His family is being very supportive(this is a load off of my mind).
He wanted me to tell y'all that he REALLY appreciates all the love 'n' attention, well wishing, and cool stuff y'all have sent his way.
He's still housebound, and is pretty bored. I was looking forward to reading sompin' from him here on this board(or any board, for that matter) today, as he said he was gonna try to get online.
Unfortunately, it appears he's still having vision troubles. I know it's redundant to tell y'all, but please keep those prayers and positive thoughts coming...
I spoke to his dad extensively over the weekend. It looks like the Whitebear is gonna be in pretty good hands/care for the time being.
The main thing is Sat is real frustrated, and wants to DO stuff. I told him the only thing he needed to worry about right now was getting better, but he wants to get beyond that and be out doing whatever bears do. He's a VERY hard one to convince to sit still and mend. The "git up 'n' at 'em" attitude is a good trait to have, but sometimes it's good to sit and heal up.
Whitebear said to let y'all know what's going on, so I'll get it out now - he's had a very small stroke(I believe Chuck A Night Driver called it a CVA, which I prefer - I never liked the term 'stroke').
Everything works, 'cept the balance is still bad, his vision is messed up, and weirdly he can't put power behind his voice(in person it seems to be okay, but on the phone it doesn't work right - have NO idea why). The voice and the balance should come back with time and therapy(my personal observation - I disagree with his dad and the doctor on this point), but dunno what sort of therapy they can give for vision. Fortunately, I think that since he has SOME vision, it should be correctable with some sort of lens. He was gonna have some kind of surgery recently(cataracts? Dunno) that was gonna greatly improve his vision, and that's still a viable option. Therefore, I think he'll be able to get over the vision challenges, too.
So, pretty bad(no need to sugarcoat it) but better than some of the other alternatives nad sompin' that he can certainly overcome. Let's just call it a "slight" setback. He's young, and I think even with the other stuff he's got many years of good, high quality livin' ahead of him. If we can only convince him to take it easy right now...
- Dennis -
Got the stuff. I asked Sat if he wanted me to forward it to him; he said just bring it down next time I come. I got the feeling he was hoping for a visit soon...
I'll try to go down this weekend for a little while.
+++++++++++++
There it is. Any questions, feel free to contact me(the e-mail link's still good on the old EZBoard).
[ 05-30-2001: Message edited by: Donald Shimoda ]