(From William Pratney, Winkie’s son) Not a lot to share on the update front at the moment. We’ve had a fairly steady stream of visitors – some friends came over this evening and made dinner for us. While they were here another friend from His Way came and visited for a while. She prayed for Mom and Dad before she left. Winkie isn’t doing very well. Don’t get me wrong. He’s not doing poorly, comparative to how he was earlier on in hospital. But he doesn’t seem to have improved that much in the last 3 or 4 days. He doesn’t seem to be making much progress, compared to the leaps and bounds he made earlier. We took him over to see our friend Noel Maxwell, naturopath/nutritionist/herbalist the other day. He gave us a wonderful (herbal) copper/iron supplement, which, we are told supports arterial health by strengthening the artery walls. The idea is to strengthen the arteries so that they won’t leak or hemorrhage further. We also met with a local doctor. Winkie is under his care. He lessened some of the medication that Winkie’s been prescribed, and we were thankful for that. Soon (this week, apparently) Middlemore hospital should be sending out someone to work with Winkie on his speech (a speech therapist). Now, Winkie’s speaking is not slurred, he articulates quite well. But the main way this stroke seems to have affected him is by hindering his ability to connect the word(s) he is searching for to the thought he’s trying to communicate. His default word is still, “Computer.” He’ll be speaking a normal sentence and then suddenly he’ll say, “computer” in the middle of it for the word that he can’t think of.

It can be discouraging for me, sometimes. I want him to make progress, and quick, but he’s definitely not acting like all the man I know him to be. Part of him has been lost. Part of him has died. And that part (that part of his brain or that part of his functioning) is what we need to see revived. The doctor said he would “never fully recover.” And, from a medical standpoint, apart from some kind of miracle, he is right. But we believe in miracles… they’re part of a realm that’s outside of so-called medical expertise. “So-called” I say, because God alone is the Great Physician. He designed our bodies, knows them better than any, and can save and destroy, hurt and heal, put down and raise up, kill and make alive. We serve an awesome God, and I believe that He gets the last word, the final say…

One of the things Dad said today made us laugh, because he perfectly described what was going on concerning his own condition, but attributed it to Mom. They were completely true of him, but he said that those things were true of Mom. I don’t know if this was a word association thing or what, but it was pretty funny, in an odd, sort of way.

It seems that part of his short-term memory may have been affected. He doesn’t always remember what pills he has and hasn’t taken. We can’t ask him if he took some particular pills or not, because he always says that he took them, regardless of whether it was earlier that day or the day before. So we (Mom and I) have to ask each other in order to make sure he gets the meds he needs each day.

Some small financial donations have come in. Thanks, everybody for those! (= We appreciate the love and generosity being shown to Winkie and us his family at this time. It’s been good also to hear from friends, both newly made and long-time loved.

Well, I had better sign off for now. It’s late. BBFN.