2006-02-07
Lois had her appointment with Dr Garbarino yesterday. This was a long awaited and feared apt. as we assumed he would have news that we did not want to hear. We were very apprehensive about this meeting as last time he told Lois that he thought she might have reached her potential. We did not want to hear this again as we do not believe it. Our apt. was at 2:20 PM and as always we were a little early. When we checked in they told us that there were only two ahead of us. That sounded good, and we hoped to get in and out quickly. The nurse came in to take down all the vital info and take blood pressure and the like. She then said the Dr’s student intern would be in shortly. We then waited for over an hour with no one coming to see us. Waiting has never been something that Lois or I like but we made the best of it with stories and remembering funny things that happened to us in the past. Finally the Student came to ask a number of questions. Lois was starting to get tired. Then the Dr. came in. We had seen his picture on the cover of a local magazine and mentioned it to him. He was named one of the best doctors in the whole Northeast. He wanted to know if we had the article and he would autograph it. Darn we had forgotten the magazine. But, Anyway…! So he then proceeded to ask lots of questions. Lois then showed him how well she can walk. She got up on her own and walked around the room with her walker. She also showed him how she can now raise her right arm and can squeeze your hand a little. Well, all of this impressed the doctor. He told us that only 1% of major stroke victims make progress 2 years after the stroke. We knew that Lois was special but now we know that she is in a special 1%. He said he was very impressed with her progress and predicted that the progress would continue. He was also going to help us get into a Stroke Support Group. We laughed and almost cried all the way home. Lois was exhausted from the waiting and the whole ordeal of transferring to and from the car, but she was happy. “It was a very great day.”