Damn It!

[v-drive]

I have talked of my father in law several times in here. He is 84 and has always kept himself very fit. Lately he has been unable to sit still and has probably close to 10 projects going. Wednesday he had a stroke and lost use of his left side and alot of his speech. He still has his mental faculties and a tremendous amount of will power and the therapist said that is the the needed ingredient to pull him through. They said if he would have taken it just a little easier it wouldn't have happened. I'm telling you all this because if you have elderly parents that think they are still 30 talk them into slowing down just a little..... v-drive

[spectratoad]

Sorry to hear that. I hope he recovers as best as he can. That is my worst fear for my dad. He is only 63 but still goes and goes. I worry about that for myself too. I would be crushed if I lost part of my mobility.
Good luck with your father though. Sounds like he is not a quitter.

[uvindex]

Sorry to hear about that, and I hope he recovers fully! My dad is 83 and still works full-time ('cause he wants to).
I'm not a medical professional. However, the therapist saying that "slowing down" would have prevented the stroke doesn't seem to match info from the American Heart Association and the National Institute of Health. In other words, when you look at stroke risk factors, you won't see "working on too many projects" or anything like that. In fact, one stroke risk factor is "inactivity" (that one can be changed, of course). One risk factor that can't be changed, unfortunately, is increasing age. If I were you I'd ask the therapist to reconcile his/her advice with the accepted list of risk factors.
See http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4716 and
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/stroke/stroke_bookmark.htm
Good luck! :)

[Mrs.Racer277]

Very sorry to hear about your father in law. Hope his road to recovery is quick.

[phebus]

If he had taken it easier, who knows, he may have died years ago. Be thankfull he has been able to be as active as he has for so long. I have dealt with a lot of stroke patients, and you may be amazed at how well he recovers. The brain has an amazing way to compensate for injuries it has sustained. Be as active as you can with his rehab, and give him all the help you can. It is very frustrating for someone with their full mental capacities to not be able to do the things they are used to doing.