am i supposed to be reassured?

they’re not going to do the special MRI, and instead they’re talking about releasing my dad next week.

initially i was very alarmed and suspicious that this was of some sort of HMO cost-cutting conspiracy. but i talked to the neurologist, who said that he had consulted some of his peers that thought that the special MRI wouldn’t tell much in regards to helping determine whether there was a tumor or not. so at this point, given that my dad is showing signs of recovery, he’s recommending just coming back in a few weeks to do another CT scan to see if the clot is getting smaller. he said that if we still really want to do the special MRI, we could come back to his office and have it done as an outpatient procedure, so i guess that’s fine.

the educated guess at this point (and by that, it really does seem to be a guess by someone who is educated) is that it was a stroke (possibly hemorrhagic?) and recovery from that will take time.

the good thing is that my dad seems to be relatively lucid and make progress in bits and pieces. i can talk to him in taiwanese and although he does talk around certain areas, unless you really know, he appears pretty normal. for part of his rehab this week they gave him $1.70 and had him go downstairs to the hospital cafeteria to buy something, where he bought a bag of chips for 85¢, and he even knew that he was supposed to get 85¢ back.

dates and especially years continue to be a problem, though.