Good News, Bad News

August 15th. The neurologist came in and tested dad with 'following instructions'. The doctor told dad to raise his right arm. Dad looked at the doctor raising his own arm, and dad followed suit, except that dad raised his left arm, which of course was on the doctor's right. Now the other arm, now the legs. Good news the doctor said usually people recover in a couple of weeks. But some will have lingering problems, and there are some people who never recover. I assumed the doctor meant dad would recover in a couple of weeks. And of course the bad news was that yes, the C.T. scan showed damage on the left side of dad's brain. Because dad followed the doctor's instruction, he said dad had a 'Broca' stroke. Then he left. I came home and jumped on the internet to look up Broca stroke. Broca strokes effect the left side of the brain. At the time of the stroke the damage in this area causes the patient speech to be not understood by others. There is usually improvement as time progresses, depending on the severity, age of patient, the amount of improvement differs.This link will take you to YouTube. The video shows a teenage girl who suffered a Broca stroke. It's a little long, but you'll get an understanding of what it is. There are also other videos there .  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aplTvEQ6ew&feature=fvw